Significance of Correlation in the Uncertainty Evaluation of Sampling Oscilloscope Measurements

− We show that correlations in the estimate of the impulse response of ultrafast sampling oscilloscopes might play an important role for uncertainty evaluations. This is demonstrated by determining the uncertainty associated with the estimate of the oscilloscope’s input signal which is calculated using the output signal of the oscilloscope and the impulse response. We observe that the resulting uncertainty depends on the size of the correlation in the impulse response and we conclude that such correlations should be accounted for in an uncertainty analysis.