Improvement in Spectral Properties of Quantization Noise of Harmonic Signal Using Multiresolution Quantization

Multiresolution quantization (MQ) is used in modern equipment designed for wideband spectrum measurements with high dynamic range. Such time-domain measurement systems significantly reduce measurement time. Only basic theoretical analyses of the possible influences of MQ on the fidelity of the measured spectrum have been performed until today. Therefore, the real contribution of the method to the quality of measurement should be clarified. In this paper, a new model of quantization noise is proposed for MQ. It was derived from a model of power spectral density previously used for uniform quantization. A system with two different quantization steps used for the quantization of harmonic input signal is considered. The model suitability for such conditions is proved by simulation and confronted with experimental results. Multiresolution measurements were acquired using a dual-channel data acquisition card and personal-computer postprocessing.