Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition User Guide: Debug Tools

ID 683552
Date 9/24/2018
Public
Document Table of Contents

2.10.4. Running a Signal Quality Test

The available performance metrics in signal quality test mode are the following: signal to noise ratio (SNR), total harmonic distortion (THD), spurious free dynamic range (SFDR), signal to noise and distortion ratio (SINAD), effective number of bits (ENOB), and a frequency response graph.
The frequency response graph shows the signal, noise floor, and any spurs or harmonics.

The signal quality parameters are measurements relative to the carrier signal and not the full scale of the ADC.

Before running a signal quality test, ensure that you have set up the frequency of the reference signal using Scope mode.
Figure 15. Signal Quality Panel

To run a signal quality test:

  1. On ADC Channel, select the ADC channel that you plan to test.
  2. Click Run.
    From the Raw Data tab, you can export your data as a .csv file.
For signal quality tests, the signal must be coherently sampled. Based on the sampling rate and number of samples to test, specific input frequencies are required for coherent sampling.

The sample frequency for each channel is calculated based on the ADC sequencer configuration.