Microwave secondary frequency standards: stability limits due to intrinsic fluctuations in frequency discriminator

Author

Hartnett, J.G. ; Ivanov, E.N. ; Tobar, M.E.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Western Australia Univ., Nedlands, WA, Australia

Volume

10

Issue

8

fYear

2000

fDate

8/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

328

Lastpage

330

Abstract

Limitations imposed on long-term frequency stability of microwave oscillators by intrinsic fluctuations in a frequency discriminator (FD) with RF modulation (Pound scheme) have been studied. It has been found that adding a microwave amplifier before detection, lowers the frequency discriminator noise floor by an amount equal to the amplifier gain. This offers the advantage of achieving high discriminator sensitivity without high levels of incident power or RF modulation index

Keywords

discriminators; fluctuations; frequency stability; frequency standards; microwave measurement; microwave oscillators; Pound frequency discriminator; RF modulation; frequency stability; intrinsic fluctuations; microwave amplifier; microwave oscillator; microwave secondary frequency standard; noise floor; 1f noise; Detectors; Fluctuations; Frequency conversion; Low-noise amplifiers; Microwave amplifiers; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Stability; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave and Guided Wave Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1051-8207

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/75.862230

Filename

862230