Low phase noise dielectric resonator oscillator

Author

Jones, Rommel ; Estrick, Vaughn

Author_Institution

Hughes Aircraft Co., Fullerton, CA, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

23-25 May 1990

Firstpage

549

Lastpage

554

Abstract

An extremely low phase noise 9.0 GHz dielectric resonator oscillator (DRO) which has been developed for use as a clean fundamental microwave source is described. In order to achieve minimum phase noise, a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is used as the active device for the oscillator. Given the limited number of unconditionally stable, high frequency BJTs, a conventional feedback oscillator is undesirable. Instead, a negative resistance topology is used. The dielectric resonator material is (ZrSn)TiO₄, which has a dielectric constant of 39 and an unloaded Q of 7000 at 7 GHz. A bipolar voltage tuning design provides +/-500 kHz of linear voltage tuning. The phase noise of this circuit measures -114 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz from the carrier with a wideband floor offsets greater than 1 MHz of -150 dBc/Hz

Keywords

dielectric resonators; microwave oscillators; negative resistance; noise; solid-state microwave circuits; tuning; variable-frequency oscillators; (ZrSn)TiO₄; 9 GHz; BJT; DRO; SHF; VFO; bipolar junction transistor; bipolar voltage tuning design; dielectric resonator oscillator; fundamental microwave source; linear voltage tuning; low phase noise; minimum phase noise; negative resistance topology; Circuit optimization; Dielectrics; Feedback; Frequency; Microwave devices; Microwave oscillators; Microwave transistors; Phase noise; Tuning; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Frequency Control, 1990., Proceedings of the 44th Annual Symposium on

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FREQ.1990.177543

Filename

177543