A sub-sampling digital PM/AM noise measurement system

Author

Nelson, C.W. ; Howe, D.A.

Author_Institution

Time & Freq. Div., Nat. Inst. of Stand. & Technol., Boulder, CO, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

21-24 May 2012

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

A digital phase/amplitude modulation (PM/AM) noise-measurement system (DNMS) implementing field-programmable gate array (FPGA)-based digital down-converters (DDCs), and 250 MHz analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) is reported. Performance in the first, baseband Nyquist region shows white phase-noise floors of less than -180 dBc/Hz. With proper pre-filtering of the input signals to prevent undesired aliasing, high-bandwidth track-and-hold amplifiers (THA) extend the operating range of the DNMS to microwave frequencies. Preliminary testing with an 18 GHz THA shows residual white phase-noise floors at 10 GHz of less than -160 dBc/Hz.

Keywords

amplifiers; amplitude modulation; analogue-digital conversion; field programmable gate arrays; filtering theory; measurement systems; noise measurement; phase modulation; phase noise; sample and hold circuits; signal sampling; white noise; DDC; DNMS; FPGA; THA; amplitude modulation; analog-to-digital converter; baseband Nyquist region; digital AM noise measurement; digital PM noise measurement; digital down converter; digital noise measurement system; field programmable gate array; frequency 10 GHz; frequency 18 GHz; frequency 250 MHz; phase modulation; sampling system; signal prefiltering; track-and-hold amplifier; white phase noise; Amplitude modulation; Clocks; Floors; Frequency measurement; Noise; Noise measurement; Phase measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Frequency Control Symposium (FCS), 2012 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD

ISSN

1075-6787

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-1821-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/FCS.2012.6243736

Filename

6243736