Characterization of Frequency Stability

Abstract

Consider a signal generator whose instantaneous output voltage V(t) may be written as V(t) = [V <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</inf> + ??(t)] sin [2??v <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</inf> t + s(t)] where V <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</inf> and v <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</inf> are the nominal amplitude and frequency, respectively, of the output. Provided that ??(t) and ??(t) = (d??/(dt) are sufficiently small for all time t, one may define the fractional instantaneous frequency deviation from nominal by the relation y(t) - ??(t)/2??v <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">o</inf> A proposed definition for the measure of frequency stability is the spectral density S <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">y</inf> (f) of the function y(t) where the spectrum is considered to be one sided on a per hertz basis. An alternative definition for the measure of stability is the infinite time average of the sample variance of two adjacent averages of y(t); that is, if y <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k</inf> = 1/t ??? <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">tk+r</sup> = y(t <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k</inf> ) y(t) dt where ?? is the averaging period, t <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k+1</inf> = t <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k</inf> + T, k = 0, 1, 2 ..., t <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0</inf> is arbitrary, and T is the time interval between the beginnings of two successive measurements of average frequency; then the second measure of stability is ?? <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">y</inf> <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> (??) ??? (y <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k+1</inf> - y <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">k</inf> ) <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> /2 where denotes infinite time average and where T = ??. In practice, data records are of finite length and the infinite time averages implied in the definitions are normally not available; thus estimates for the two measures must be used. Estimates of S <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">y</inf> (f) would be obtained from suitable averages either in the time domain or the frequency domain.