Patent ID: 7839964

Claim:
A method to process a signal with repeating information having a time period of repetition, the method comprising the steps of: receiving a synchronizing signal having a frequency substantially equal to or sub-harmonically related to a bit rate of the signal being processed and substantially synchronous with a bit phase of the signal being processed; synchronizing a phase-locked loop to the synchronizing signal; sampling the signal being processed over multiple periods of the repeating information to produce a sampled waveform, the sampling being performed in accordance with the synchronizing signal; post-processing the sampled waveform to form a coherently sampled waveform representing one period of the repeating information; identifying a location within the coherently sampled waveform at which a portion thereof matches a desired binary sequence; synchronizing, though rotation of the coherently sampled waveform, so that the identified location is positioned at a location representative of a predetermined time within the time period of repetition; and measuring pattern dependent jitter in accordance with the synchronized portions of the formed coherently sampled waveform.