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How to measure very small phase differences of two sinusoidal signals using 2 DAQs?

Hi agnelors,

 

A few options: Stanford Research's SR830 is sort of the standard for a digital lockin. Max frequency of a bit over 100 kHz (102, I think), runs about $5K new. It's been on the market for a couiple of decades now, so picking up a reconditioned one is easy enough and would save some money. 

 

Signal Recovery has several options; I've had good experiences with their 7230 (120 kHz default; upgradeable to 250 kHz). Without the 250 kHz upgrade, it lists for I think about $4K. No front-panel display or controls, so everything is either through a web-browser front end or USB from LabView (there's a driver available). The 7265 adds displays/controls and includes the 250 kHz option; I think it's about $5K, but I'm not sure. The 7280 mentioned above is the wideband option; it goes as high as 2 MHz; I've never had occasion to ask for pricing, but I'm sure it's more.

 

The gold-plated solution is an outfit called Zurich Instruments. Their _low end_ model goes up to 50 MHz. Price is commensurate (I asked at one point out of morbid curiousity; it was multiple tens of thousands of dollars). 

 

There's also a few implementations of lockins in software (including in LabView). If you want to stick with your current DAQ setup, that's what I'd recommend for getting the phase information out of the raw timeseries data. That's sort of a money vs. time question; the commercial boxes will do the job basically with little to no setup time, but they're going to be more expensive than buying (or using an already in-hand) digitzer and spending the time needed to develop the necessary software. 

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Hi dmsilev

 

Hi dmsilev,

 

thank you for the detailed hints.

 

Even if I successfully achieve a customized solution, I still will need external instrumentation to verify the accuracy of my solution. You gave me a good list of budget-feasible lockin amps.

 

Thank you again.

 

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Johnsold,
why do you think you need a SR 36000 times the signal freq for phase resolution?
I get 0.01deg@20kHz with a SR of 10MSPS .... But with a SNR >70dB (using a 5922)
And the question for the TO: Is the information in the phase delay or group delay?
Greetings from Germany
Henrik

LV since v3.1

“ground” is a convenient fantasy

'˙˙˙˙uıɐƃɐ lɐıp puɐ °06 ǝuoɥd ɹnoʎ uɹnʇ ǝsɐǝld 'ʎɹɐuıƃɐɯı sı pǝlɐıp ǝʌɐɥ noʎ ɹǝqɯnu ǝɥʇ'


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Henrik,

 

I was thinking of the straightforward method of counting samples between zero crossings of the two signals.  360 degrees per cycle/0.01 degree resolution = 36000 samples per cycle. 

 

I agree that there are better methods based on mathematics and signal processing which can be applied when certain conditions are met.

 

My comments were in an attempt to get the OP to specify enough about what is being measured so that we can offer ideas which might work.

 

Lynn

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This is my original calculation.  Please  use if it is convenient.

In my experience  1 micro radian was extracted. However satiability of ADC (DAQ) is verr important, about less than 0.1 ppm of sampling frequency is necessary. (If Audio, 44100 Hz)

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How to calculate Frequency, Amplitude and Phase Difference from Discrete Data

          https://youtu.be/ZG7wL3z1rHg

Frequency calculation from 5 samples Desecrate Signal in Excel

          https://youtu.be/MMvmpj9JbpU






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