Gaussian Operator

The Gaussian operator applies a Gaussian bandpass filter to the waveform. The Gaussian filter has relatively fast rise and fall times to an impulse. To enter the Filter Cutoff Frequency, click on the operator. You can also specify the Rise Time for the filter. The faster the rise time, the higher the filter's Q factor.

Noise Processing

None Selection

The option None does not make any special considerations for aliased noise. This is an appropriate choice when the waveform is known to have no aliased components, such as from a real-time or simulated source. This also is the preferred choice when dealing with averaged waveforms where the desired outcome is to remove noise and interference components that are not correlated to the trigger signal.

Process Spectrum Selection

The option Process Spectrum works by applying the transfer function of the filter to the power spectrum of the noise to determine the appropriate magnitude of the noise on the output signal.

By tracking the accumulated effects of the filtering operations, accurate noise processing can be done even when chaining operations as illustrated in the following figure. In addition to the sampled waveform, information about the acquisition channel and noise power spectrum are maintained in each signal and appropriately processed by each filter. The complete set of auxiliary information is also included when storing FlexDCA waveforms in the *.wfmx file format.

The default behavior of the Process Spectrum noise processing option is to use the noise power spectrum of the input signal. If the input signal is a sampling scope channel with SIRC active, this spectrum will be established by the measured hardware response of the channel. For other channels, the response will be assumed Gaussian with a 3 dB frequency corresponding to the nominal channel bandwidth. This behavior can be overridden by clearing the Track Input Response checkbox and manually entering a bandwidth. If this option is utilized the response will be presumed Gaussian with the selected 3 dB bandwidth.

Preserve RMS Selection

The option Preserve RMS is appropriate when the noise bandwidth is very low relative to the channel and filter bandwidth. It is also appropriate when the aliased components are known to have most of the power within a range of in-band frequencies. This could be from laser RIN, for example, or from intentionally modulated interference/crosstalk. When Preserve RMS is selected, the RMS magnitude of the aliased components will be scaled by the DC gain (the sum of the taps) of the filter. For the low-pass filters (Bessel, Butterworth, Gaussian, Sinc), the DC gain is unity. For the equalizers and embedding/de-embedding operators, the DC gain depends upon the settings of the operator.

The operator's Display Setup configures the manner in which the resulting waveform is displayed including both vertical and horizontal scaling. Track selection to allows the output waveform to track changes to the scaling of the input waveform. Track is the default setting. In addition, you can turn the waveform's display off or on and select the color of the trace.

Use the Name button to give the displayed waveform a custom identifying name which is show in the Signals area on the display graticule and in the Signals palette. Custom names are very helpful for screen captures or when multiple waveforms are displayed.

The Graph Window is available when multiple waveform content windows are used.

Use the Signal Type's Track selection to allows the waveform type (NRZ or PAM4) to track the input waveform's type. Track is the default setting. If input waveform's type cannot be automatically determined, select Manual to specify the waveform type.