The Ohm Depot: Alberto Michelena, Bryan Harant, Calahan Hempe, Miles Shayler, JD Barela
Project Sponsor: Spectra Dynamics Inc.
Dithered Direct Digital Synthesis Engine: It is difficult to produce a clean, tunable (phase, amplitude and frequency programmable) sinewave output signal from a fixed frequency reference, so a method must be found to smooth out, average, correct the effects of amplitude truncation and phase truncation in a direct digital synthesizer. This is essential in high precision timing devices such as atomic clocks that rely on a nearly perfect signal to operate.
The dithered direct digital synthesiser engine maintains a clean and stable signal with a desired output, preventing any noise, while simultaneously being able to tune both its frequency and amplitude.
Many national laboratories and research institutions such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology could use our product for devices demanding high precision timing. For devices where frequency stabilization and phase noise are issues, our device would be a better alternative to existing devices that have trouble with these aspects.
The direct digital synthesis engine has a phase stable and spectrally pure output. This output signal is free of spurious phase and frequency jumps and derives its stability from the reference signal. The output smooths out, averages, corrects, or mitigates the effects of amplitude truncation and phase truncation in the direct digital synthesizer. The output is derived from a set input frequency and a user selected digital signal.
The direct digital synthesiser has frequency shift keying, bi-phase modulation, and amplitude shift keying with a pin dedicated to each modulation type. The devices hardware triggers linear frequency sweeps in the up/down direction with programmable frequency start, stop, step and sweep rate.