Novel, All-Digital Phase Measurement System for Time Scales

Published

November 16, 2009

Author(s)

Stefania Romisch, Thomas E. Parker, Steven R. Jefferts

Abstract

A novel, all-digital phase measurement system, to be utilized as part of the NIST Time Scale at NIST in Boulder, CO is presented. The system is used to compare output signals from several commercial atomic frequency standards: the phase differences between these signals, at different measurement times, are then input to the algorithm used to generate the NIST Time Scale. Preliminary results from common-clock measurements show a time deviation {sigma]x(τ) -13s for measurement times up to 2000 seconds and below 1 ps for measurement times up to 10,000 seconds. Within these measurement times, and up to 250,000 seconds, the performance of the system is thus better than or comparable to existing commercially available systems. Time differences measurements performed by the novel system resulted coincident to the ones performed by the commercial unit presently implemented in UTC(NIST) in within a part in 10¹⁷, thereby validating its performance capabilities.

Proceedings Title

Proc. 2009 PTTI Mtg.

Conference Dates

November 16-19, 2009

Conference Location

Santa Ana Pueblo, NM

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

phase measurement, time scale, common-clock measurement, frequency stability

Citation

Romisch, S. , Parker, T. and Jefferts, S. (2009), Novel, All-Digital Phase Measurement System for Time Scales, Proc. 2009 PTTI Mtg., Santa Ana Pueblo, NM, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=904665 (Accessed April 16, 2024)