SR830 BASICS

Lock-in amplifiers are used to detect and measure

very small AC signals - all the way down to a few
nanovolts! Accurate measurements may be made
even when the small signal is obscured by noise
sources many thousands of times larger.
Lock-in amplifiers use a technique known as
phase-sensitive detection to single out the compo-
nent of the signal at a specific reference frequency
AND phase. Noise signals at frequencies other
than the reference frequency are rejected and do
not affect the measurement.
Why use a lock-in?
Let's consider an example. Suppose the signal is a
10 nV sine wave at 10 kHz. Clearly some amplifi-
cation is required. A good low noise amplifier will
have about 5 nV/Hz of input noise. If the amplifier
bandwidth is 100 kHz and the gain is 1000, then
we can expect our output to be 10 V of signal
(10 nV x 1000) and 1.6 mV of broadband noise
(5 nV/Hz x 100 kHz x 1000). We won't have
much luck measuring the output signal unless we
single out the frequency of interest.
If we follow the amplifier with a band pass filter
with a Q=100 (a VERY good filter) centered at
10 kHz, any signal in a 100 Hz bandwidth will be
detected (10 kHz/Q). The noise in the filter pass
band will be 50 V (5 nV/Hz x 100 Hz x 1000)
and the signal will still be 10 V. The output noise
is much greater than the signal and an accurate
measurement can not be made. Further gain will
not help the signal to noise problem.
Now try following the amplifier with a phase-
sensitive detector (PSD). The PSD can detect the
signal at 10 kHz with a bandwidth as narrow as
0.01 Hz! In this case, the noise in the detection
bandwidth will be only 0.5 V (5 nV/Hz x .01 Hz
x 1000) while the signal is still 10 V. The signal to
noise ratio is now 20 and an accurate measure-
ment of the signal is possible.
What is phase-sensitive detection?
Lock-in measurements require a frequency refer-
ence. Typically an experiment is excited at a fixed
frequency (from an oscillator or function generator)
and the lock-in detects the response from the
experiment at the reference frequency. In the dia-
gram below, the reference signal is a square wave
at frequency
r
. This might be the sync output
from a function generator. If the sine output from
the function generator is used to excite the experi-
ment, the response might be the signal waveform
shown below. The signal is V
sig
sin(
r
t +
sig
)
where V
sig
is the signal amplitude.
The SR830 generates its own sine wave, shown
as the lock-in reference below. The lock-in refer-
ence is V
L
sin(
L
t +
ref
).
The SR830 amplifies the signal and then multiplies
it by the lock-in reference using a phase-sensitive
detector or multiplier. The output of the PSD is
simply the product of two sine waves.
V
psd
= V
sig
V
L
sin(
r
t +
sig
)sin(
L
t +
ref
)
= 1/2 V
sig
V
L
cos([
r
-
L
]t +
sig
-
ref
) -
1/2 V
sig
V
L
cos([
r
+
L
]t +
sig
+
ref
)
The PSD output is two AC signals, one at the dif-
ference frequency (
r
-
L
) and the other at the
sum frequency (
r
+
L
).
If the PSD output is passed through a low pass
filter, the AC signals are removed. What will be
left? In the general case, nothing. However, if
r
equals
L
, the difference frequency component
will be a DC signal. In this case, the filtered PSD
output will be
V
psd
= 1/2 V
sig
V
L
cos(
sig
-
ref
)
WHAT IS A LOCK-IN AMPLIFIER?
3-1

ref
Reference
Signal
Lock-in Reference
sig

3-2
SR830 Basics
This is a very nice signal - it is a DC signal propor-
tional to the signal amplitude.
Narrow band detection
Now suppose the input is made up of signal plus
noise. The PSD and low pass filter only detect sig-
nals whose frequencies are very close to the lock-
in reference frequency. Noise signals at frequen-
cies far from the reference are attenuated at the
PSD output by the low pass filter (neither
noise
-

ref
nor
noise
+
ref
are close to DC). Noise at fre-
quencies very close to the reference frequency will
result in very low frequency AC outputs from the
PSD (|
noise
-
ref
| is small). Their attenuation
depends upon the low pass filter bandwidth and
roll-off. A narrower bandwidth will remove noise
sources very close to the reference frequency, a
wider bandwidth allows these signals to pass. The
low pass filter bandwidth determines the band-
width of detection. Only the signal at the reference
frequency will result in a true DC output and be
unaffected by the low pass filter. This is the signal
we want to measure.
Where does the
lock-in reference come from?
We need to make the lock-in reference the same
as the signal frequency, i.e.
r
=
L
. Not only do
the frequencies have to be the same, the phase
between the signals can not change with time, oth-
erwise cos(
sig
-
ref
) will change and V
psd
will not
be a DC signal. In other words, the lock-in refer-
ence needs to be phase-locked to the signal
reference.
Lock-in amplifiers use a phase-locked-loop (PLL)
to generate the reference signal. An external refer-
ence signal (in this case, the reference square
wave) is provided to the lock-in. The PLL in the
lock-in locks the internal reference oscillator to this
external reference, resulting in a reference sine
wave at
r
with a fixed phase shift of
ref
. Since
the PLL actively tracks the external reference,
changes in the external reference frequency do
not affect the measurement.
All lock-in measurements
require a reference signal.
In this case, the reference is provided by the exci-
tation source (the function generator). This is
called an external reference source. In many situa-
tions, the SR830's internal oscillator may be used
instead. The internal oscillator is just like a func-
tion generator (with variable sine output and a TTL
sync) which is always phase-locked to the refer-
ence oscillator.
Magnitude and phase
Remember that the PSD output is proportional
to V
sig
cos where = (
sig
-
ref
). is the phase
difference between the signal and the lock-in refer-
ence oscillator. By adjusting
ref
we can make
equal to zero, in which case we can measure V
sig
(cos=1). Conversely, if is 90, there will be no
output at all. A lock-in with a single PSD is called a
single-phase lock-in and its output is V
sig
cos.
This phase dependency can be eliminated by
adding a second PSD. If the second PSD multi-
plies the signal with the reference oscillator shifted
by 90, i.e. V
L
sin(
L
t +
ref
+ 90), its low pass fil-
tered output will be
V
psd2
= 1/2 V
sig
V
L
sin(
sig
-
ref
)
V
psd2
~ V
sig
sin
Now we have two outputs, one proportional to
cos and the other proportional to sin. If we call
the first output X and the second Y,
X = V
sig
cos Y = V
sig
sin
these two quantities represent the signal as a
vector relative to the lock-in reference oscillator. X
is called the 'in-phase' component and Y the
'quadrature' component. This is because when
=0, X measures the signal while Y is zero.
By computing the magnitude (R) of the signal
vector, the phase dependency is removed.
R = (X
2
+ Y
2
)
1/2
= V
sig
R measures the signal amplitude and does not
depend upon the phase between the signal and
lock-in reference.
A dual-phase lock-in, such as the SR830, has two
PSD's, with reference oscillators 90 apart, and
can measure X, Y and R directly. In addition, the
phase between the signal and lock-in reference,
can be measured according to
= tan
-1
(Y/X)
3-3
SR830 Basics
So what exactly does the SR830 measure?
Fourier's theorem basically states that any input
signal can be represented as the sum of many,
many sine waves of differing amplitudes, frequen-
cies and phases. This is generally considered as
representing the signal in the "frequency domain".
Normal oscilloscopes display the signal in the
"time domain". Except in the case of clean sine
waves, the time domain representation does not
convey very much information about the various
frequencies which make up the signal.
What does the SR830 measure?
The SR830 multiplies the signal by a pure sine
wave at the reference frequency. All components
of the input signal are multiplied by the reference
simultaneously. Mathematically speaking, sine
waves of differing frequencies are orthogonal, i.e.
the average of the product of two sine waves is
zero unless the frequencies are EXACTLY the
same. In the SR830, the product of this multiplica-
tion yields a DC output signal proportional to the
component of the signal whose frequency is exact-
ly locked to the reference frequency. The low pass
filter which follows the multiplier provides the aver-
aging which removes the products of the reference
with components at all other frequencies.
The SR830, because it multiplies the signal with a
pure sine wave, measures the single Fourier (sine)
component of the signal at the reference frequen-
cy. Let's take a look at an example. Suppose the
input signal is a simple square wave at frequency
f. The square wave is actually composed of many
sine waves at multiples of f with carefully related
amplitudes and phases. A 2V pk-pk square wave
can be expressed as
S(t) = 1.273sin(t) + 0.4244sin(3t) +
0.2546sin(5t) + ...
where = 2f. The SR830, locked to f will single
out the first component. The measured signal will
be 1.273sin(t), not the 2V pk-pk that you'd meas-
ure on a scope.
In the general case, the input consists of signal
plus noise. Noise is represented as varying signals
at all frequencies. The ideal lock-in only responds
to noise at the reference frequency. Noise at other
WHAT DOES A LOCK-IN MEASURE?
frequencies is removed by the low pass filter fol-
lowing the multiplier. This "bandwidth narrowing" is
the primary advantage that a lock-in amplifier pro-
vides. Only inputs at frequencies at the reference
frequency result in an output.
RMS or Peak?
Lock-in amplifiers as a general rule display the
input signal in Volts RMS. When the SR830 dis-
plays a magnitude of 1V (rms), the component of
the input signal at the reference frequency is a
sine wave with an amplitude of 1 Vrms or
2.8 V pk-pk.
Thus, in the previous example with a 2 V pk-pk
square wave input, the SR830 would detect the
first sine component, 1.273sin(t). The measured
and displayed magnitude would be 0.90 V (rms)
(1/2 x 1.273).
Degrees or Radians?
In this discussion, frequencies have been referred
to as f (Hz) and (2f radians/sec). This is
because people measure frequencies in cycles
per second and math works best in radians. For
purposes of measurement, frequencies as meas-
ured in a lock-in amplifier are in Hz. The equations
used to explain the actual calculations are some-
times written using to simplify the expressions.
Phase is always reported in degrees. Once again,
this is more by custom than by choice. Equations
written as sin(t + ) are written as if is in
radians mostly for simplicity. Lock-in amplifiers
always manipulate and measure phase in
degrees.
3-5
SR830 Basics
The functional block diagram of the SR830 DSP
Lock-In Amplifier is shown below. The functions in
the gray area are handled by the digital signal pro-
cessor (DSP). We'll discuss the DSP aspects of
the SR830 as they come up in each functional
block description.
THE FUNCTIONAL SR830
Phase
Sensitive
Detector
PLL
I
A
B
Low Noise
Differential
Amp
Voltage
Current
50/60 Hz
Notch
Filter
Reference In
Sine or TTL
Phase
Shifter
DC Gain
Offset
Expand
Gain
X Out
Y Out
Discriminator
100/120 Hz
Notch
Filter
90
Phase
Shift
Phase
Locked
Loop
Internal
Oscillator
Low
Pass
Filter
DC Gain
Offset
Expand
Low
Pass
Filter
Sine Out
Discriminator
TTL Out
R and
Calc
R

Phase
Sensitive
Detector
SR830 FUNCTIONAL BLOCK DIAGRAM