Limited live-time measurements of frequency stability

Author

Howe, D.A. ; Hagn, E.E.

Author_Institution

Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technol., Boulder, CO, USA

Volume

2

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

1113

Abstract

For common FM noise in oscillators, discontinuous measurements with dead-time, small sample statistics, and an assumed χ² distribution, the RMS frequency fluctuations vs. time-interval may be the only reportable measure of frequency stability. We show in a group of simulation trials that in a typical experimental scenario, the RMS frequency stability can seriously underestimate true flicker frequency (FLFM) and random-walk frequency (RWFM) noise and can have larger long-term uncertainty with respect to the zero dead-time Allan deviation and should not be reported as Allan deviation

Keywords

circuit noise; flicker noise; frequency measurement; frequency stability; measurement uncertainty; oscillators; statistical analysis; χ² distribution; RMS frequency fluctuations; common FM noise; discontinuous measurements; frequency stability; live-time measurements; long-term uncertainty; oscillators; random-walk frequency; small sample statistics; true flicker frequency; zero dead-time Allan deviation; Frequency estimation; Frequency measurement; Government; Noise level; Noise measurement; Oscillators; Q measurement; Stability; Statistics; Time measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Frequency and Time Forum, 1999 and the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium, 1999., Proceedings of the 1999 Joint Meeting of the European

Conference_Location

Besancon

ISSN

1075-6787

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5400-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FREQ.1999.841518

Filename

841518