Abstract: An instrument which utilizes this invention is a pulse generator which has adjustable rise and fall time. The generation of timing of pulses is under control of a digital circuit, and the timing of the beginning and end of each pulse and thus duty cycle is precise. The pulse generator also has an analog-to-digital converter that is used to measure voltages internal to the instrument. Voltage measurements are used to calculate the rise and fall times of the pulses. The rise and fall time of the pulses are adjusted based upon mathematical calculations. Control of rise and fall times is implemented using circuitry internal to the pulse generator. Rise time and fall time circuitry adjusts the rate of change of voltage (dv/dt) on the pulses generated. Rise time and fall time are independently adjustable.

Abstract: A DDS (Direct Digital Synthesis) frequency synthesizer can be adapted to operate as a pseudo random noise generator by including a swept address ingredient that distributes (but does not eliminate) repetitive frequency components that would otherwise appear in the output of the basic DDS technique, (which fetches fixed but randomized values from a waveform memory). These residual distributed long period frequency components in the output of a swept DDS pseudo random noise generator are suppressed by making the sweep itself irregular. The noise generator includes an Address Increment Register (AIR) whose content: (1) alters the address used to fetch fixed randomized values from the waveform memory; and (2) is incremented to produce the swept address (different sequences of addresses). At some point the AIR value has been incremented as high as it will go (i.e., the end of the sweep has been reached), and the process must start over.

Abstract: An engineering unit converter system for converting an analog measurement into an engineering value. An analog measurement of a physical quantity is transformed into a digital value. The digital value is then split into a high order digit and a lower order digit. The high order digit is used as an address to a memory device for fetching a line segment coefficient and a line segment offset coefficient. The lower order digit is multiplied with the line segment coefficient in a multiplier resulting in a product. The product is added to the line segment coefficient offset resulting in a sum whose value is an engineering unit. One embodiment is directed to converting temperature measurements into engineering units via thermocouples. This embodiment includes: thermocouple devices, resistance thermal devices or positive temperature coefficient thermistors, adders, multipliers, and memory devices (readable and writable memory devices).

Abstract: An engineering unit converter system for converting an analog measurement into an engineering value. An analog measurement of a physical quantity is transformed into a digital value. The digital value is then split into a high order digit and a lower order digit. The high order digit is used as an address to a memory device for fetching a line segment coefficient and a line segment offset coefficient. The lower order digit is multiplied with the line segment coefficient in a multiplier resulting in a product. The product is added to the line segment coefficient offset resulting in a sum whose value is an engineering unit.One embodiment is directed to converting temperature measurements into engineering units via thermocouples. This embodiment includes: thermocouple devices, resistance thermal devices or positive temperature coefficient thermistors, adders, multipliers, and memory devices (readable and writable memory devices).

Abstract: An engineering unit converter system for converting an analog measurement into an engineering value. An analog measurement of a physical quantity is transformed into a digital value. The digital value is then split into a high order digit and a lower order digit. The high order digit is used as an address to a memory device for fetching a line segment coefficient and a line segment offset coefficient. The lower order digit is multiplied with the line segment coefficient in a multiplier resulting in a product. The product is added to the line segment coefficient offset resulting in a sum whose value is an engineering unit. One embodiment is directed to converting temperature measurements into engineering units via thermocouples. This embodiment includes: thermocouple devices, resistance thermal devices or positive temperature coefficient thermistors, adders, multipliers, and memory devices (readable and writable memory devices).

Abstract: An engineering unit converter system for converting an analog measurement into an engineering value. An analog measurement of a physical quantity is transformed into a digital value. The digital value is then split into a high order digit and a lower order digit. The high order digit is used as an address to a memory device for fetching a line segment coefficient and a line segment offset coefficient. The lower order digit is multiplied with the line segment coefficient in a multiplier resulting in a product. The product is added to the line segment coefficient offset resulting in a sum whose value is an engineering unit. One embodiment is directed to converting temperature measurements into engineering units via thermocouples. This embodiment includes: thermocouple devices, resistance thermal devices or positive temperature coefficient thermistors, adders, multipliers, and memory devices (readable and writable memory devices).