EEL 3552C

Experiment 1
Data Taken: 08/31/15
Due: 09/14/15

Spectrum Analysis

By: Jesus Marcano

Justin Yuen
Pre-Laboratory Questions:

Calculate the amplitude in dBV of a 1 KHz, 2 volts peak-to-peak, sine wave.

Calculate the peak-to-peak voltage of a 10 dBV, 4 KHz, sine wave.

Objective:
Analyze the spectral content of a simple signal.

Apparatus:
Oscilloscope, Tektronix DPO 4034
Function Generator, Tektronix AFG 3022B
Bring a USB Flash Drive to store your waveforms.

Theory:
A waveform representing amplitude, as a function of time, is called a time domain display. It is
also possible for a waveform to represent amplitude as a function of frequency. This is called a
frequency domain display. A Spectrum Analyzer is an instrument, which can display the
frequency domain of a signal. However, the DPO4034 Oscilloscope has the capability of
producing both time domain and frequency domain displays.
A sine wave is the simplest signal for spectral analysis. The amplitude of the sine wave can be
determined on the vertical scale and the frequency can be determined on the horizontal scale.

The units of amplitude used in this experiment will be dBV, which is dB relative to 1 VRMS (0
dBV =1VRMS ), according to the formula:
where Vsignal is the RMS voltage of the signal and Vref = 1 volt RMS.

Another common unit of amplitude used for spectrum analysis is dBm, which is dB relative to 1
milliwatt ( 0dBm = 1mW ), according to the formula:

where Psignal is the power of the signal in milliwatts.

Procedure:
We first set the Function Generator for a sine wave output with a frequency of 1 KHz and the
amplitude to 2 volts peak-to-peak with zero DC offset. Then, we connected the channel 1 output
of the function generator to channel 1 input of the oscilloscope using a BNC to BNC cable. We
turned on the Channel 1 output of the function generator and we made sure the output
impedance of the function generator was set to 50 Ohms. Also, we made sure the input
impedance of the scope was also set to 50 Ohms. By pressing auto set the time domain

waveform gets adjusted to the correct position and we get a clear signal which is shown below in
Figure 1.
Figure 1
Now, we want to appreciate the frequency domain waveform of the input signal on the
oscilloscope. In order to do this, we used the math function. By magnifying the resulting
frequency spectrum (which is in red) we can see a peak at the 1kHz frequency, which is
expected since the frequency for our input is 1kHz. As we can appreciate from Figure 2 below,
the peak occurs at around 1kHz from the measurement of cursor a and in amplitude it measures

around -3.16 dBV. This in comparison with our pre-laboratory calculations which came up to be
-3.01 dBV, gives us a very accurate result.

Figure 2
After that, we proceeded to change the frequency of the function generator to 2 KHz. The

resulting spectrum analysis is shown below in Figure 3.

Figure 3

We can see that it accurately represents the input signal. It is clearly depicted that the amplitude
has remained unchanged at -3.17 dBV while the frequency at which it occurs has changed to
2KHz as measured with cursor a. Then, we changed the input frequency to 4 KHz and we
noticed the same result, the peak of -3.17 dBV occurred on the frequency spectrum at 4 KHz.

As shown below in Figure 4.

Figure 4

Finally, we decreased the voltage on the function generator output until we saw it reached an
amplitude of -10 dBV as shown in Figure 5 through the spectrum analyzer. We then switched
back to the time domain display and got a measure of the peak to peak voltage which according
to our pre-laboratory calculations should be around 900mV or 0.9 Volts. As shown on Figure 6
below, we got a reading of 960mV which is close enough to our expected calculated value.
Figure 6

Results:
For the first section our calculated result for the amplitude was -3.01dBV while the measurement
we obtained was of -3.16dBV at the 1KHz frequency. For the second part after reaching -10dBV
in amplitude we measured the voltage to be 960mV, whereas our calculated value was about
900mV. The small discrepancy in the resulting values can be due to the fact that we used simple
equations to approximate the result, like any other model or approximation it has a certain error
associated to it and it assumes ideal conditions.

Figure
5

Conclusion:
To summarize; we have learned how to visualize a signal on the oscilloscope in both the time
domain and the frequency domain by using it as a spectrum analyzer. We also now have a
better understanding of how to look for the amplitude of a signal in decibels by looking at it on
the frequency domain using the oscilloscope as a spectrum analyzer. Finally we have a better
grasp on how to calculate a signals peak to peak voltage from its magnitude in dBV and vice
versa, while doing the correct measurements on the spectrum analyzer. The results measured
from the experiment vary a little from those calculated through the pre-lab. This can be due to
rounding off and also due to the fact that the conditions in the lab might not be ideal. We should
also take into consideration that the equations used to calculate the results in the pre-lab are
only approximate calculations modeled in a way that they are simple to understand but they still
posses some error associated with them. However, since the error observed between the pre
calculated, expected values, and the measured values was less than 2% we can neglect it for
the purpose of this experiment and still conclude that our obtained results are a good match and
provide an accurate description of the tested principles.