The Zone Plate as a Television Test Pattern

Abstract

The zone plate pattern is a two-dimensional linear sweep of spatial frequency which can be used to give a quick appraisal of a television system's frequency characteristics. Applications discussed include measurement of filter characteristics, source and display properties, sub-Nyquist sampling system impairments, PAL coding and decoding, and standards conversion. The pattern can be generated electronically in both circular and hyperbolic form, although the latter is simpler and the circuit diagram of such a generator is provided.