Frequency signal acquisition of scalar atomic magnetometer based on using TDC and FPGA

Abstract

An improved equal precision frequency measurement method is presented for acquisition of frequency signal output from high sensitivity scalar atomic magnetometers. The frequency range to be measured is from 75 kHz to 350 kHz with a resolution better than 0.01 Hz, and the sampling rate should be at least 10 Hz. To meet the requirements on dynamic range, measurement accuracy and speed, at least eight significant digits must be kept. The TDC and FPGA are used to improve the traditional equal precision method. The FPGA acts as the controlling and computing centre, while the TDC measures the time deviation to eliminate the counting error of ±1 reference signal. A prototype frequency detector is fabricated and tested. The measured data show that the design is viable and further improvement is possible.