Rejecting Power

Line Noise

Voltages

Adesirable characteristic of integrating analog-to-digital (A/D) converters is their ability to reject spurious signals. The integrating techniques reject power-line related noise present with a dc signal on the input. This is called normal mode rejection or NMR. Normal mode noise rejection is achieved when the multimeter measures the average of the input by “integrating” it over a fixed period. If you set the integration time to a whole number of power line cycles (PLCs) these errors (and their harmonics) will average out to approximately zero.

The HP E1312A and HP E1412A provide three A/D integration times (1, 10 and 100PLCs) to reject power line frequency noise (and power-line frequency harmonics). Power line frequency defaults to 60Hz unless you specifically set it to 50Hz with the CAL:LFR command. The multimeter determines the proper integration time based on which power line frequency is set. Table 2-2 shows the noise rejection achieved with various configurations. Select a longer integration time for better resolution and increased noise rejection.

Table 2-2. Noise Rejection

 

 

Integration Time

 

 

 

Power Line

60Hz

 

(50Hz)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cycles (PLCs)

 

NMR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0.02

400μs

 

(400μs)

NONE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0.2

3ms

 

(3ms)

NONE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1

16.7ms

 

(20ms)

60dB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10

167ms

 

(200ms)

60dB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

100

1.67sec

 

(2sec)

60dB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common Mode Rejection (CMR)

Ideally, a multimeter is completely isolated from earth-referenced circuits. However, there is finite resistance between the multimeter's input LO terminal and earth ground as shown below. This can cause errors when measuring small voltages which are floating relative to earth ground.

Chapter 2

HP E1312A/E1412A Multimeter Application Information 27