Guidelines

How does a lock-in amplifier?

How does a lock-in amplifier?

A lock-in amplifier performs a multiplication of its input with a reference signal, also sometimes called down-mixing or heterodyne/homodyne detection, and then applies an adjustable low-pass filter to the result.

What is the purpose of lock-in amplifier?

Lock-in amplifiers are used to detect and measure very small AC signalsall the way down to a few nanovolts. Accurate measurements may be made even when the small signal is obscured by noise sources many thousands of times larger.

What is time constant in lock-in amplifier?

Every lock-in has at least one low-pass filter. The time constant display on the front panel is the time constant of this filter, and is a controllable parameter. The dynamic reserve is also a controllable parameter of the lock-in amplifier. It is defined as the largest tolerable ratio of noise to signal.

When do you need a lock in amplifier?

Lock-in amplifiers, which are based on the concept of homodyne transceivers, can be the only solution when measuring very low voltages under the presence of a lot of noise. Lock-in amplifiers always provide a continuous signal proportional to the phase shift between the measured signal and the reference one.

How does a lock in amplifier work on a FPGA?

It is essentially a homodyne detector followed by low-pass filter that is often adjustable in cut-off frequency and filter order. Whereas traditional lock-in amplifiers use analog frequency mixers and RC filters for the demodulation, state-of-the-art instruments have both steps implemented by fast digital signal processing, for example, on an FPGA.

How does a lock in amplifier measure Vo?

In a nut shell, what a lock-in amplifier does is measure the amplitude Vo of a sinusoidal voltage, Vin(t) = Vo cos(ωot) where ωo = 2πfo and fo are the angular- and natural frequencies of the signal respectively. You supply this voltage to the signal input of the lock-in, and its meter tells you the amplitude Vo, typically calibrated in V-rms.

Why does a lock in amplifier always yield a continuous signal?

This is because the output signal depends on the phase difference between the reference signal and the measured one. In a regular situation, the reference signal frequency will be the same as the measured one—i.e., ωs = ωc ω s = ω c —when multiplying both. The result will be: Therefore, a lock-in amplifier will always yield a continuous signal.