In order to realize wide-ranged and nanoscale precision displacement measurement which requires low costs

strong anti-interference capabilities and stable performance

a kind of nanometer time-grating displacement sensor based on AC electric field coupling is researched. Functions like the settings of the frequency

amplitude and phase of standard waveform can be achieved by combining the LabVIEW software of virtual instrument development platform with the hardware of PXI—5422 arbitrary waveform generator. The experiment concludes that phase adjustment can improve the precision through adjusting amplitude of excitation signal which can avoid effect of different installation sites on precision of nanometer time-grating. Application of virtual instrument technology in experiment of nanometer time-grating gives technological support to improvement and progress of function of excitation signal

which provide convenience to research on nanometer time-grating characteristics.