Quick and Dirty Device Characterization Using Chirp Excitation

Measurements are a vital verification technique that go hand-in-hand with theory and design. Getting theory to align with measurements is far better than either alone. In this video we show a quick and dirty scheme for measuring the frequency response of an analog notch filter using a chirp excitation and a scope in Simulink. Instead of making a proper transfer function measurement on a network analyzer, we’ll employ a sub-optimal approach where our time-domain scope serves as a poor man’s spectrum analyzer. We will see how far we can get with this simplified approach and what signal processing limitations we’ll encounter. The overarching goal of this video is to reinforce theoretical signal processing concepts using measurements in a virtual testbench environment. You can download this example on GitHub here: https://github.com/kschutz68/qnd_chirp