The overall uncertainty in digital captured data points is often misunderstood in our organization and is typically accepted as only the manufacturer uncertainty specification of the time base clock typically on the order of 10-100 parts per million. The time base clock of digital sampling technologies is critically important to maintain timing control of the internal electronics and to achieve the specified sampling rate of the instrument. The time base clock must remain within the manufacturer specification tolerance throughout the calibration interval to assure accurate performance. However, the time base uncertainty does not adequately account for the additional measurement errors accompanying the capture and evaluation of the time values for any cardinal points of interest when periodically sampling analog waveforms generated by other instruments or Units Under Test (UUTs). The proposed methodology described here details a general approach used to estimate the magnitude of the digital instrument sampling error when capturing analog waveforms based upon the instrument sampling rate, the frequency of a nominally equivalent sinusoidal waveform, as well as, whether the time value of any cardinal points is selected by a ‘Next Point After’ or Interpolation method for our purposes. Finally, the overall estimated timing uncertainty is quantified by arithmetically combining the error contributions for the sampling rate, the cardinal point selection method, and the instrument time base specification. The results of this method aid in selecting the appropriate digital sampling technology based upon waveform rise time requirements and provide general engineering guidance. Since the estimated error is a portion of the sampling timestep interval, the percentage error could be significant based upon the measured rise time. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.
Digital Sampling Rate