Demystifying Mixed Signal Test Methods

CHAPTER 5

FREQUENCY DOMAIN TESTING AND THE FFT

A problem worthy of attack shows its worth by fighting back.

—Paul Erdos, The Man Who Loved Numbers

5.1. Introduction

5.2. The Fourier Series

5.3. Representing Signal Data

5.4. The Inverse Fourier Transform

5.5. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)

5.6. Interpreting Frequency Domain Data

5.7. Minimizing Frequency Domain Anomalies

5.8. Signal Aliasing

Chapter Review Questions

5.1 Introduction

I’m about as dumb as a person can be, and even I can use the FFT. Breathe deep and relax! It’s true that the innards of the Fourier transform involve some pretty heavy math, but that part has already been done. We only want to use the FFT; we don’t need to design it. For the most part, we are going to treat ...