Spectral and Short Term Stability Measurements

The noise performance of an oscillator can be given either in the spectral or in the time domain. Two types of apparatus are generally necessary to measure these noise characteristics, spectral analyzers and frequency counters. The system described uses spectral density to time domain conversion and measures both the short term frequency stability and the phase spectral density of an oscillator. Bias functions, depending on the spectral density, are calculated. They are used to determine systematic errors introduced by the apparatus.