An Efficient Group Delay Measurement Method for Frequency Converting System

Abstract

The existing group delay measurement methods can only get the group delay at a certain aperture or frequency perturbation in one or two measurements. A new method based on comb signal is proposed. If modulo delay ambiguity can be ignored, then the method permits measurement without frequency perturbation of the test signal in one single measurement. The whole phase character of the test band can be obtained, and the group delay characteristics can be calculated by polynomial fitting of the phase curve at diverse aperture. A group delay ambiguity resolution method based on extended Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) is detailed. If modulo delay ambiguity cannot be ignored, then the extended CRT method can be used to obtain the unambiguity delay, releasing the operator from the constraint of keeping the aperture or frequency perturbation small. Computer simulations and field experiments are presented to verify the proposed methods.