HAND-HELD TEST METER WITH LOW-DISTORTION SIGNAL GENERATION CIRCUIT BLOCK

A hand-held test meter for use with an analytical test strip in the determination of an analyte in a bodily fluid sample includes a housing, a clock module disposed in the housing, a micro-controller disposed in the housing, a low-distortion signal generation circuit block ("LDSGCB") disposed in the housing, and a strip port connector configured to operationally receive the analytical test strip. The LDSGCB includes a signal summation circuit ("SSC") sub-block, a resistance-capacitance (RC) filter, and a single operational amplifier. The clock module and micro-controller are configured to generate phase-shifted square wave signals and output the phase-shifted square wave signals to the SSC. The SSC is configured to sum the phase-shifted square wave signals to generate a resultant summed-wave signal and output the resultant summed-wave signal to the RC filter. The RC filter is configured to filter harmonics from the resultant summed-wave signal thereby creating a reduced harmonic distortion signal.