A Pipelined Noise-Shaping SAR ADC Using Ring Amplifier

In this study, a pipelined noise-shaping successive-approximation register analog-to-digital converter (PLNS-SAR ADC) structure was proposed to achieve high resolution and to be free from comparator design requirements. The inter-stage amplifier and integrator of the PLNS-SAR ADC were implemented through a ring amplifier with high gain and speed. The ring amplifier was designed to improve power efficiency and be tolerant to process–voltage–temperature (PVT) variation, and uses a single loop common-mode feedback (CMFB) circuit. By processing residual signals with a single ring amplifier, power efficiency can be maximized, and a low-power system with 30% lower power consumption than that of a conventional PLNS-SAR ADC is implemented. With a high-gain ring amplifier, noise leakage is greatly suppressed, and a structure can be implemented that is tolerant of mismatches between the analog loop and digital correction filters. The measured signal to noise distortion ratio (SNDR) is 70 dB for a 5.15 MHz bandwidth (BW) at a 72 MS/s sampling rate (Fs) with an oversampling ratio (OSR) of 7, and the power consumption is 2.4 mW. The (= SNDR + BW/Power) is 163.5 dB. The proposed structure in this study can achieve high resolution and wide BW with good power efficiency, without a filter calibration process, through the use of a ring amplifier in the PLNS-SAR ADC.

Multimedia Archives: New Digital Filters to Correct Equalization Errors on Digitized Audio Tapes

Multimedia archives face the problem of obsolescing and degrading analogue media (e.g., speech and music recordings and video art). In response, researchers in the field have recently begun studying ad hoc tools for the preservation and access of historical analogue documents. This paper investigates the active preservation process of audio tape recordings, specifically focusing on possible means for compensating equalization errors introduced in the digitization process. If the accuracy of corrective equalization filters is validated, an archivist or musicologist would be able to experience the audio as a historically authentic document such that their listening experience would not require the recovery of the original analogue audio document or the redigitization of the audio. Thus, we conducted a MUSHRA-inspired perception test (n = 14) containing 6 excerpts of electronic music (3 stimuli recorded NAB and 3 recorded CCIR). Participants listened to 6 different equalization filters for each stimulus and rated them in terms of similarity. Filters included a correctly digitized “Reference,” an intentionally incorrect “Foil” filter, and a subsequent digital correction of the Foil filter that was produced with a MATLAB script. When stimuli were collapsed according to their filter type (NAB or CCIR), no significant differences were observed between the Reference and MATLAB correction filters. As such, the digital correction appears to be a promising method for compensation of equalization errors although future study is recommended, specifically containing an increased sample size and additional correction filters for comparison.

Application of the cepstrum method for processing iridology television signals

The questions of the cepstrum method application for the processing of iridology television signals are considered. A cepstrum method for processing a delayed video signal of an aerospace television system is proposed. The application of the method greatly facilitates the determination of the delay and expands the dynamic range of the corrected signal. An expression for determining the power cepstrum at different apertures of the reading beam is received and a suboptimal model of an ideal corrector is designed. Keywords aperture correction; digital correction; linear and nonlinear correctors; cepstrum method; aperture; Gaussian aperture; exponential aperture; signal power cepstrum

Digital Correction of Readings Produced by Fluid Level Measurement Channels at NPPs Equipped with Sensors Having a Dead Zone

The introduction and development of computerized digital systems in modern power engineering has led in Russia to a full modernization of domestically produced nuclear power plant measurement systems. In particular, digital methods for correcting the readings of hydrostatic level sensors have been widely put in use since 2013. The experience gained from putting them in use was generalized in the reference and organizational and methodological literature in 2017. However, the subsequent results of preoperational adjustments carried out at newly designed nuclear power units and at those under construction have shown that some issues still remain unresolved in this application field. In particular, there is a need is to develop digital methods for correcting the readings produced by channels measuring the level of liquid media in pressurized process tanks if there occurs a sensor dead zone. The complexity of this problem is stemming from the fact that it is not possible to take the sensor dead zone into account by introducing a constant correction to the measurement channel readings in view of the technological process peculiarities. Thus, during the operation of nuclear power units, the water density in pressurized process tanks and vessels decreases from 980 to 590 kg/m3, and the vapor density increases from 0 to 100 kg/m3. Such changes give rise to complex thermal and physical interphase processes that occur under the conditions of large mass transfers of the vapor--water mixture. As a result, the sensor's dead zone boundary undergoes an essential change in the tank longitudinal section depending on the current values of the working fluid thermal and physical characteristics. To solve this problem, digital methods for online correction of measured level readings are proposed that take into account changes in the two-phase working medium (vapor--water) in the course of a continuous technological process. Nowadays, the introduction of digital methods for correcting the hydrostatic level sensor readings is especially relevant in connection with the development of industry programs aimed at increasing the capacity of newly designed and operating nuclear power units, which pose more demanding requirements to the accuracy of thermal and physical measurements and operational safety as a whole.

Selected Aspects of Phonoscopic Examinations of Aircraft Records. Part II

The article presents crucial aspects related to examinations of records from cockpit voice recorders (CVR) and the possible effects of the application of digital correction of these type of records. It also presents the resulting limitations concerning phonoscopic recognition examinations of speakers and determining the content of their utterances. A method for the real reduction of the described limitations was suggested. Part II of the article describes research experiments conducted at Air Force Institute of Technology.