A Monolithic, Very Low Power, Programmable Harmonic Discrimination System based on Analog Signal Processing

Posted on: Mon, 12/03/2018 - 16:42 By: icasl

One of the challenges for a remote sensing platform is obtaining a balance between very low power operation (enabling a long dwell time battery operated sensor) and high-fidelity data processing (typically requiring large amounts of power) for optimized signal detection. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) excels at high performance data processing but can require excessive amounts of power, a requirement not suitable for battery-powered remote sensing applications. Thus, the primary objective of this research is to realize an Analog Signal Processing (ASP) front-end that when coupled with a low-power microcontroller backend, could provide sufficient performance to meet our platform goals: very low power operation for extended dwell times, and sufficient sensitivity for limited signal spectral analysis. For vibrational analysis, the ASP-based solution will need to perform harmonic discrimination at multiple target frequencies. The ASP-based programmable filter developed in this work will enable platforms capable of performing very lower power, digitally controlled spectrum scanning and discrimination.

MISA2 Biquad Filter