2010/11/28

Lock-in amplifier - Wikipedia, the free

Lock-in amplifier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A lock-in amplifier (also known as a phase-sensitive detector) is a type of amplifier that can extract a signal with a known carrier wave from an extremely noisy environment (S/N ratio can be -60 dB or even less[citation needed]). It is essentially a homodyne with an extremely low pass filter (making it very narrow band). Lock-in amplifiers use mixing, through a frequency mixer, to convert the signal's phase and amplitude to a DCactually a time-varying lowfrequencyvoltage signal. The device is often used to measure phase shift, even when the signals are large and of high signal-to-noise ratio, and do not need further improvement. Recovering signals at low signal-to-noise ratios requires a strong, clean reference signal the same frequency as the received signal. This is not the case in many experiments, so the instrument can recover signals buried in the noise only in a limited set of circumstances. The lock-in amplifier was invented by Princeton University physicist Robert H. Dicke who founded the company Princeton Applied Research (PAR) to market the product.
and one from SIGNAL RECOVERY. A lock-in amplifier from Stanford Research Systems.

Contents
1 Basic principles 2 Signal measurement in noisy environments 3 References 4 External links

Basic principles
Operation of a lock-in amplifier relies on the orthogonality of sinusoidal functions. Specifically, when a sinusoidal function of frequency is multiplied by another sinusoidal function of frequency not equal to and integrated over a time much longer than the period of the two functions, the result is zero. In the case when is equal to , and the two functions are in phase, the average value is equal to half of the product of the amplitudes. In essence, a lock-in amplifier takes the input signal, multiplies it by the reference signal (either provided from the internal oscillator or an external source), and integrates it over a specified time, usually on the order of milliseconds to a few seconds. The resulting signal is an essentially DC signal, where the contribution from any signal that is not at the same frequency as the reference signal is attenuated essentially to zero, as well as the out-of-phase component of the signal that has the same frequency as the reference signal (because sine functions are orthogonal to the cosine
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Lock-in amplifier - Wikipedia, the free

functions of the same frequency), and this is also why a lock-in is a phase sensitive detector. For a sine reference signal and an input waveform Uin(t), the DC output signal Uout(t) can be calculated for an analog lock-in amplifier by:

where is a phase that can be set on the lock-in (set to zero by default). Practically, many applications of the lock-in only require recovering the signal amplitude rather than relative phase to the reference signal; a lock-in usually measures both in-phase (X) and out-of-phase (Y) components of the signal and can calculate the magnitude (R) from that.

Signal measurement in noisy environments

The essential idea in signal recovery is that noise tends to be spread over a wider spectrum, often much wider than the signal. In the simplest case of white noise, even if the root mean square of noise is 106 times as large as the signal to be recovered, if the bandwidth of the measurement instrument can be reduced by a factor much greater than 106 around the signal frequency, then the equipment can be relatively insensitive to the noise. In a typical 100 MHz bandwidth (e.g. an oscilloscope), a bandpass filter with width much narrower than 100 Hz would accomplish this.

Typical experimental setup

In summary, even when noise and signal are indistinguishable in the time domain, if the signal has a definite frequency band and there is no large noise peak within that band, noise and signal can be separated sufficiently in the frequency domain. If the signal is either slowly varying or otherwise constant (essentially a DC signal), then 1/f noise typically overwhelms the signal. It may then be necessary to use external means to modulate the signal. For example, when detecting a small light signal against a bright background, the signal can be modulated either by a chopper wheel, acousto-optical modulator, photoelastic modulator at a large enough frequency so that 1/f noise drops off significantly, and the lock-in amplifier is referenced to the operating frequency of the modulator. In the case of an atomic force microscope, to achieve nanometer and piconewton resolution, the cantilever position is modulated at a high frequency, to which the lock-in amplifier is again referenced. When the lock-in technique is applied, care must be taken to calibrate the signal, because lock-in amplifiers generally detect only the root-mean-square signal of the operating frequency. For a sinusoidal modulation, this between the lock-in amplifier output and the peak amplitude of the signal, and a would introduce a factor of different factor for non-sinusoidal modulation. In the case of extremely nonlinear systems, it may in fact be advantageous to use a higher harmonic for the reference frequency, because of frequency-doubling that takes place in a nonlinear medium.

References
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Lock-in amplifier - Wikipedia, the free

John H. Scofield, John H. (February 1994). "Frequency-domain description of a lock-in amplifier". American Journal of Physics (AAPT) 62 (2): 129133. doi:10.1119/1.17629 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1119%2F1.17629) . Probst, Pierre-Alain Jaquier, Alain, Pierre-Alain; Jaquier, Alain (March 1994). "Multiple-channel digital lock-in amplifier with PPM resolution". Review of Scientific Instruments (AIP) 65 (3): 747. doi:10.1063/1.1145096 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1063%2F1.1145096) . Wang, Xiaoyi, Xiaoyi (1990). "Sensitive digital lock-in amplifier using a personal computer". Review of Scientific Instruments (AIP) 61 (70): 1999. doi:10.1063/1.1141413 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1063%2F1.1141413) . Richard Wolfson, Richard (June 1991). "The lock-in amplifier: A student experiment". American Journal of Physics (AAPT) 59 (6): 569572. doi:10.1119/1.16824 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1119%2F1.16824) . Dixon, Paul K. Wu, Lei, Paul K.; Wu, Lei (October 1989). "Broadband digital lock-in amplifier techniques". Review of Scientific Instruments (AIP) 60 (10): 3329. doi:10.1063/1.1140523 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1063%2F1.1140523) . Vanexter M, Lagendijk A, Martin; Lagendijk, Ad (March 1986). "Converting an AM radio into a highfrequency lock-in amplifier in a stimulated Raman experiment". Review of Scientific Instruments (AIP) 57 (3): 390. doi:10.1063/1.1138952 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1063%2F1.1138952) . Probst, P. A. Collet, B, P. A.; Collet, B. (March 1985). "Low-frequency digital lock-in amplifier". Review of Scientific Instruments (AIP) 56 (3): 466. doi:10.1063/1.1138324 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1063%2F1.1138324) . Paul A. Temple, Paul A. (1975). "An introduction to phase-sensitive amplifiers: An inexpensive student instrument". American Journal of Physics (AAPT) 43 (9): 801807. doi:10.1119/1.9690 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1119%2F1.9690) . Richard Burdett, Richard (2005). "Amplitude Modulated Signals - The Lock-in Amplifier". Handbook of Measuring System Design (Wiley). ISBN 978-0-470-02143-9.

External links
Explanation of lock in amplifiers (http://www.boselec.com/products/siglimwhat.shtml) from Boston Electronics (USA), which sells lock-in amplifiers. Lock-in amplifier tutorial (http://www.bentham.co.uk/pdf/F225.pdf) from Bentham Instruments. Comprehensive tutorial about the why and how of lock-in amplifiers. Lock-ins, Boxcars, and Photon Counting (http://www.thinksrs.com/downloads/PDFs/ApplicationNotes/SignalRecovery.pdf) from Stanford Research Systems. Application note detailing how lock-in amplifiers fit into the spectrum of signal recovery techniques. Lock-in Technical Notes (http://www.signalrecovery.com/ApplicationsNotes.htm) Range of Technical and Applications notes describing the design of digital and analog lock-ins, and guide to their specifications from SIGNAL RECOVERY. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lock-in_amplifier"
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Categories: Electronic test equipment | Electronic amplifiers | Laboratory equipment This page was last modified on 10 August 2010 at 11:49. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

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