A Universal Digital Lock-in Amplifier Design for Calibrating the Photo-Detector Responses with Standard Black-Bodies

Sensors (Basel). 2023 Nov 1;23(21):8902. doi: 10.3390/s23218902.

Abstract

The lock-in amplifier (LIA) is widely utilized to detect ultra-weak optical periodic signals based on the phase-sensitive and enhanced detecting theory. In this paper, we present an all-digital and universal embedded LIA platform that accurately and conveniently describes the spectrum generated by standard black bodies at various temperatures with different optical detectors. The proposed design significantly reduces the complexity and cost of traditional analog LIAs while maintaining accuracy. The LIA components are implemented using a single field programmable gate array (FPGA), offering flexibility to modify parameters for different situations. The normalized mean-square error (NMSE) of the captured spectra in the experiments is within 0.9% compared the theoretical values.

Keywords: CORDIC algorithm; DDS; IIR filter; lock-in amplification algorithm.