A spectrum analyzer is a device used to examine the spectral composition of some electrical, acoustic, or optical waveform.
Often, it measures the power spectrum.
There are analog and digital spectrum analyzers:
- An analog spectrum analyzer uses either a variable bandpass filter whose mid-frequency is automatically tuned (shifted, swept) through the range of frequencies of which the spectrum is to be measured or a superheterodyne receiver where the local oscillator is swept through a range of frequencies.
- A digital spectrum analyzer computes the Fast Fourier transform (FFT), a mathematical process that transforms a waveform into the components of its frequency spectrum.
Some spectrum analyzers (such as Tektronix's family of "real-time spectrum analyzers") use a hybrid technique where the incoming signal is first down-converted to a lower frequency using superheterodyne techniques and then analyzed using FFT techniques.
