Digital receiver phase meter for LISA

A study of a commercially available digital receiver configured as a phase meter has been performed. The effort was part of the technology development phase of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission. LISA requires that phase measurements on the metrology signals be made at a rate of 10 Hz with root power spectral density of 5 μcycle/√Hz over the gravitational wave detection band from 1 mHz to 1 Hz. The phase meter must also contend with heterodyne interferometric signals having superposed Doppler shifts as high as 15 MHz. It is found that the off-the-shelf prototype can fulfil these requirements.