A revisited three-cornered hat method for estimating frequency standard instability

Author

Premoli, Amedeo ; Tavella, Patrizia

Author_Institution

Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Elettronica ed Inf., Trieste Univ., Italy

Volume

42

Issue

1

fYear

1993

fDate

2/1/1993 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

7

Lastpage

13

Abstract

The three-cornered hat method used for evaluating the individual noise contributions of three frequency standards in a stability measurement is reexamined. The hypothesis of uncorrelation of the standards is not assumed a priori, as it is considered a cause of negative estimated variances. The introduction of covariances of measured data, together with the proposal of a suitable optimization criterion, allows one to estimate the complete covariance matrix of the three standards, ensuring its positive definiteness

Keywords

frequency measurement; measurement standards; measurement theory; minimisation; parameter estimation; stability; clocks; covariance matrix; frequency standard instability; minimisation; negative estimated variances; noise; optimization criterion; positive definiteness; stability measurement; three-cornered hat; uncorrelation; Clocks; Frequency estimation; Frequency measurement; Measurement standards; Noise measurement; Particle measurements; Phase noise; Stability; Synchronization; Time measurement;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/19.206671

Filename

206671