Correlation based novel technique for real time oscilloscope triggering for complex waveforms

Frequency modulated signals being dynamic in nature changes their frequency with time. These signals are commonly used in sonar and radar applications, but also have other applications such as stimulus response analysis, vibration sweep testing and spread spectrum communications. Data acquisition and presentation of these periodic signals offer the challenge of live waveform presentation on oscilloscope. This paper presents an efficient technique for advanced oscilloscope triggering for periodic waveforms based on the concept of normalized correlation. The proposed technique is demonstrated using LabVIEW based intensive simulations on several test waveforms. Hardware implementation of the proposed technique is successfully demonstrated with the help of data acquisition (DAQ) card. This intelligence can be embodied into the digital storage oscilloscope (DSO), making it an intelligent measurement system, catering to wide variety of the waveform types. The proposed technique, simulation results, robustness study, comparison with other similar methods and implementation results are presented in this paper.