Sherman, J.
and Jordens, R.
(2016),
Oscillator metrology with software defined radio, Review of Scientific Instruments (Accessed April 30, 2026)
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Oscillator metrology with software defined radio
Published
Author(s)
,
Abstract
Analog electrical elements such as mixers, filters, transfer oscillators, isolating buffers, dividers, and even transmission lines contribute technical noise and unwanted environmental coupling in time and frequency measurements. Software defined radio (SDR) techniques replace many of these analog components with digital signal processing (DSP) on rapidly sampled signals. We demonstrate that a relatively low-cost, commercially available SDR is capable of time and frequency metrology competitive with other methods. We discuss the scalability of a SDR-based system for simultaneous measurement of many clocks. We show that the inherent frequency agility of SDR allows for the measurement of ultra-stable oscillators at widely different frequencies, such as those linked to ultra-stable lasers and optical clocks.Citation
Review of Scientific Instruments
Pub Type
Journals
Keywords
clocks, oscillators, precision measurement, software defined radio, time and frequency metrology
Citation
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Created May 24, 2016, Updated February 19, 2017