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TheoH and Allan Deviation as Power-Law Noise Estimators

Published

Author(s)

Jennifer A. Taylor, David A. Howe

Abstract

A spectral interpretation using the frequency response of the Allan Variance is used to determine slopes of fα noise, commonly called ''power-law noise.'' This paper shows that TheoH provides significantly better determination of fα noise slopes at long-term. By calculating confidence intervals with a chi-square distribution for TheoH and the Allan Variance (Avar), we find that TheoH has narrower confidence than Avar. TheoH has even narrower confidence than chi-square, but the algorithms used to calculate these confidence intervals are long and computationally intensive. We have constructed an empirical formula that approximates the percent error for TheoH and is much more convenient to use in a measurement situation for an accurate estimate of confidence. Because of the narrow confidence, TheoH determines a particular slope at long-term, and we show the comparison to Avar.
Citation
IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control
Volume
54
Issue
2

Keywords

Allan deviation, confidence, frequency stability, long-term, noise, oscillator, spectrum, TheoH, variance

Citation

Taylor, J. and Howe, D. (2007), TheoH and Allan Deviation as Power-Law Noise Estimators, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=50277 (Accessed December 2, 2024)

Issues

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Created January 31, 2007, Updated October 12, 2021