Frequency switching time measurement using digital demodulation

A method for measuring frequency switching time in fast switching frequency synthesizers is described. The fast frequency switching waveform is digitized by an oscilloscope, and the switching transient is recovered by digital demodulation. The method can be used to measure the switching time for any fairly wide frequency steps within the acquisition bandwidth of the digitizing system, and it is insensitive to signal amplitude variations. Some results of measurements on a frequency agile signal simulator are presented. >