The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jun. 16, 1992
Filed:
Aug. 09, 1990
Stanley K Sasaki, Vancouver, WA (US);
Clark P Foley, Portland, OR (US);
Michael A Gauland, Vancouver, WA (US);
Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus performs time-interval to voltage conversion immediately and continuously allowing timing variations to be viewed and correlated with other voltage signals displayed on an oscilloscope. A calibration output assists in calibrating the vertical gain and offset of the oscilloscope. An automatic setup software routine finds suitable resolution and offset settings. The method includes the steps of selecting the type of time-interval to be measured, scaling the counting of a clock signal appropriately, offsetting the counting means as desired, counting the number of clock signals that occur during every selected time-interval, limiting the counted results to a preselected range, and converting the counted results to an analog voltage for display by an oscilloscope. And, in a preferred version of the method, when counted results are limited the operator is notified, and there is an additional step of detecting when time-intervals are occurring faster than they can be counted and notifying the operator of that too. A corresponding apparatus for performing the method is disclosed.