Influences of sampling time deviations in dynamic measurements with digital sensors: Mitigating signal integrity degradation

With the advent of digital sensors based on MEMS technology, sampling is performed within the sensor rather than the calibration system. When performing dynamic measurements and calibrations with these sensors, the internal time of the sensor base can be the main source of signal distortions. This publication shows in detail the effects of sampling phase noise for a MEMS accelerometer calibration according to ISO 16063–11. Using commercially available sensors, methods for measuring and characterizing the sampling phase noise are presented, as well as methods to mitigate these effects by absolute timestamping of each measured data point.