Design and performance of an extremely low noise surface acoustic wave oscillator

The design, component selection, and performance of an extremely low noise (PM and AM) all quartz package (AQP) surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator hybrid circuit oscillator are described in detail. The prototype 400 MHz hybrid circuit oscillator´s measured white phase noise floor is -185 dBc/Hz for carrier offset frequencies greater than 400 kHz. This is the best result yet reported for a SAW resonator oscillator´s white phase noise floor, particularly for a hybrid circuit oscillator, and is almost 2 dB better than the previous best reported result for a discrete component, printed circuit board design. The oscillator´s flicker FM (S_φ(f)~f^-3) phase noise level at 10 Hz carrier offset is approximately -80 dBc/Hz. A UTO-1023 (Avantek) amplifier in substrate carrier form was used in the oscillator´s feedback loop, and a buffer amplifier was not included in this prototype design