Phase noise measurement by zero-crossing analysis with a double recorder setup in the radiofrequency range

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simplified zero-crossing analysis method with a double recorder setup for measuring phase noise in radiofrequency oscillators, demonstrating comparable results to the conventional cross-spectrum method.

Contribution

The study presents an alternative, simpler setup for phase noise measurement in the RF range, validated against the traditional cross-spectrum method.

Findings

ZCA-DRS produces phase noise spectra similar to CSM.

Measurement sensitivity limited by internal clock jitter and ADC noise.

ZCA-DRS is a viable alternative for RF phase noise measurement.

Abstract

The phase noise of low-noise oscillators is conventionally measured by the cross-spectrum method (CSM), which has a complicated setup. We developed an alternative method called zero-crossing analysis with a double recorder setup (ZCA-DRS) that has much simpler configuration, which we previously demonstrated to measure phase noise in the audible frequency range. In this study we conducted experiments using ZCA-DRS to measure phase noise in the radiofrequency range. A temperature-compensated crystal oscillator was used to generate a periodic signal at 27 MHz. The results demonstrated that the obtained single-side band spectrum was almost the same as that obtained by CSM. The measurement sensitivity was limited by the jitter of the internal clock and noise of the analog-to-digital converter. Thus, ZCA-DRS can be used as an alternative to CSM for phase noise measurement in the radiofrequency range.