TIDUA05B June 2015 – March 2025
From a hardware perspective typically two approaches can be realized, which impact mainly the requirements for the A/D converter.
With the "over-sampling method", both sine and cosine signal would be sampled at least four times higher than the maximum sine and cosine frequency. The incremental count as well as the phase calculation would be done by subsequent digital signal processing on a host processor. That method would not need comparators, but rather high-speed dual sampling ADCs.
The typically used "under-sampling" method uses separate hardware blocks to calculate the incremental count and the interpolated incremental phase. The advantage of that method is that the sampling frequency and bandwidth of the ADC can be lower compared to the first method, as it does not impact the incremental count but only the interpolated phase. However, the under-sampling method requires a comparator each, for sine and the cosine, to generate the digital quadrature encoded signals A and B, which drive a directional up and down counter, often referred to as quadrature encoded pulse counter. The analog bandwidth of the dual sampling ADC needs to be at least equal to the maximum sine/cosine frequency. The under-sampling method is outlined in Figure 1-5.
Figure 1-5 Signal Processing Block Diagram for Interpolated Angle CalculationThe total interpolated angular position is composed of coarse and fine angle. The interpolated angle is determined by the actual incremental line count and the phase within this incremental line. The phase within the incremental line is derived from the analog sine and cosine signals A and B at any specific time instant. Both the actual incremental count and the actual analog sine and cosine signals have to be latched at the same time, hence synchronously. The incremental line count provides the coarse angle, while the phase within of the sine and cosine within that incremental line provides the fine angle. The total interpolated angle is a compound of the coarse and fine angle, as shown with a simplified block diagram in Figure 1-5. The corresponding Equation 2 to Equation 4 are explained in the next paragraph.