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H Fundamentals of the Electronic Counters Application Note 200 Electronic Counter Series Frequency Counted Input Conditioning Main Counting Display Gate Register Input Signal Main Gate Flip-Flop Time Base Dividers Time Base Oscillator 1 Table of Contents Fundamentals of the Conventional Counters ... 3 The Reciprocal Counters ... 20 Time Interval Measurement ... 24 Automatic Microwave Frequency Counters ... 35 Introduction Purpose of This Application Note When Hewlett-Packard introduced its first digital electronic counter, the HP 524A in 1952, a milestone was considered to have been laid in the field of electronic instrumentation. Frequency measurement of up to 10 MHz or a 100-ns resolution of time between two electrical events became possible. Since then, electronic counters have become increasingly powerful and versatile in the measurements they perform and have found widespread applications in the laboratories, produc- tion lines and service centers of the telecommunications, electronics, electronic components, aerospace, military, computer, education and other industries. The advent of the integrated circuit, the high speed MOS and LSI devices, and lately the microprocessor, has brought about a prolifera- tion of products to the counter market. This application note is aimed at introducing to the reader the basic concepts, techniques and the underlying principles that constitute the common denominator of this myriad of counter products. Scope The application note begins with a discussion on the fundamentals of the conventional counter, the types of measurements it can perform and the important considerations that can have signifi- cant impact on measurement accuracy and performance. Following the section on th