Residual phase noise measurements of VHF, UHF, and microwave components

The results are presented of residual phase noise measurements on a number of VHF, UHF, and microwave amplifiers, both silicon bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and GaAs field effect transistor (FET) based, electronic phase shifters, frequency dividers and multipliers, etc., which are commonly used in a wide variety of frequency source and synthesizer applications. The measurement technique has also been used to evaluate feedback oscillator components, such as the loop and buffer amplifiers, which can play important roles in determining an oscillator´s phase noise spectrum. Use is made of an extremely low-noise, 500-MHz SAWRO (SAW resonator oscillator) as test source for residual noise measurements both close to and far from the carrier. Several interesting observations related to the residual phase noise properties of moderate- to high-power RF amplifiers, i.e. amplifiers with 1 dB gain compression points in the range of +20 to +33 dBm, are highlighted