With this design, the reference signal is supplied to the mixer while
being modulated rapidly (~MHz) using a programmable auto-phase adjuster,
from a dedicated phase shifter. The reference is then broken into the
real and imaginary parts of the signal and passed to the analyzer which
uses fast signal integration to produce 1000 phase-shifted measurements
and a CW dispersion measurement simultaneously. This information is then
sent to the RF controls to make the polarization measurements and adjust
the RF modulation across the frequency domain to continuously tune and
optimize the signal.
UVA has prototyped this type of system and is presently studying the required
design parameters and determining how best to fully integrate this new system
into modered DAQ and monitoring electronics. We are also looking into how to
attract funds to build this system.