An ultralow noise microwave oscillator based on a high-Q liquidnitrogen cooled sapphire resonator

Two liquid nitrogen-cooled sapphire loaded cavities (SLC's) operating at about 80 K have been successfully constructed, Both cavities were designed to operate on the whispering gallery (WG) E_{12, 1, δ} mode at a resonant frequency of 8.95 GHz. The first SLC was used as the frequency-determining element in a loop oscillator, while the second was used as a frequency discriminator to measure oscillator phase noise. The single sideband phase noise of a free running loop oscillator incorporating the first SLC was measured as -133 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 1 kHz, and was limited by the SLC Q-factor and the amplifier flicker phase noise. By using specially designed feedback electronics the oscillator phase noise was reduced to -156 dBc/Hz and -162 dBc/Hz at 1 and 10 kHz offset, respectively. This measurement was shown to be limited by the electronic flicker noise imposed by the phase detector in the feedback electronics, To our knowledge the phase noise and resonator Q-factor of 6×10⁷ represent the best results ever measured at liquid nitrogen temperatures or above     

Extremely low thermal noise floor, high power oscillators usingsurface transverse wave devices

This paper presents state-of-the-art results on 1-GHz surface transverse wave (STW) oscillators running at extremely high loop power levels. The high-Q single-mode STW resonators used in these designs have an insertion loss of 3.6 dB, an unloaded Q of 8000, a residual PM noise of -142 dBc/Hz at a 1-Hz carrier offset, and operate at an incident power of up to +31 dBm in the loop. Other low-Q STW resonators and coupled resonator filters (CRF), with insertion losses in the 5-9 dB range, can conveniently handle power levels in excess of two Watts. These devices were incorporated into voltage controlled oscillators (VCO's) running from a 9.6-V dc source and provide an RF output power of +23 dBm at an RF/dc efficiency of 28%. Their tuning range was 750 kHz and the PM noise floor was -180 dBc/Hz. The oscillators, stabilized with the high-Q devices and using specially designed AB-class power amplifiers, delivered an output power of +29 dBm and exhibited a PM noise floor of -184 dBc/Hz and a 1-Hz phase noise level of -17 dBc/Hz. The 1-Hz phase noise level was improved to -33 dBc/Hz using a commercially available loop amplifier. In this case, the output power was +22 dBm. In all cases studied, the loop amplifier was found to be the factor limiting the close-to-carrier oscillator phase noise performance     

Optimization of an ultra low-phase noise sapphire--SiGe HBT oscillator using nonlinear CAD

In this paper, the electrical and noise performances of a 0.8 /spl mu/m silicon germanium (SiGe) transistor optimized for the design of low phase-noise circuits are described. A nonlinear model developed for the transistor and its use for the design of a low-phase noise C band sapphire resonator oscillator are also reported. The best measured phase noise (at ambient temperature) is -138 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset from a 4.85 GHz carrier frequency, with a loaded Q/sub L/ factor of 75,000.     

Microwave interferometry: application to precision measurements and noise reduction techniques

A concept of interferometric measurements has been applied to the development of ultra-sensitive microwave noise measurement systems. These systems are capable of reaching a noise performance limited only by the thermal fluctuations in their lossy components. The noise floor of a real time microwave measurement system has been measured to be equal to -193 dBc/Hz at Fourier frequencies above 1 kHz. This performance is 40 dB better than that of conventional systems and has allowed the first experimental evidence of the intrinsic phase fluctuations in microwave isolators and circulators. Microwave frequency discriminators with interferometric signal processing have proved to be extremely effective for measuring and cancelling the phase noise in oscillators. This technique has allowed the design of X-band microwave oscillators with a phase noise spectral density of order -150 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz Fourier frequency, without the use of cryogenics. Another possible application of the interferometric noise measurements systems include “flicker noise-free” microwave amplifiers and advanced two oscillator noise measurement systems     

Broad tuning ultra low phase noise dielectric resonator oscillators using SiGe amplifier and ceramic-based resonators

This paper describes the design of very low noise, tunable, X-band dielectric resonator oscillators (DROs) demonstrating phase-noise performance of -135 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset. SiGe transistors are used for the oscillator sustaining amplifiers that offer a circulating power of 12 dBm and a gain of 5.4 dB per stage as well as a low flicker noise corner of 40 kHz. A variety of resonator configurations utilising BaTiO₃ resonators are presented demonstrating unloaded Qs from 10 000 to 22 000. These resonators are optimised and coupled to the amplifiers for minimum phase noise where Q_L/Q₀ = 1/2, and hence S₂₁ = -6 dB. To incorporate tuning with low additional phase noise, a phase shifter is also investigated. The theory for the low noise oscillator design is included; experimental results demonstrate close correlation with the theory.     

High-Q thermoelectric-stabilized sapphire microwave resonators forlow-noise applications

Two low-noise high-Q sapphire-loaded cavity (SLC) resonators, with unloaded Q values of 2×10⁵ and very low densities of spurious modes, have been constructed. They were designed to operate at 0°C with a center frequency of 10.000000 GHz. The cavity was cooled with a thermoelectric (TE) Peltier element, and in practice achieved the required center frequency near 1°C. The resonator has a measured frequency-temperature coefficient of -0.7 MHz/K, and a Q factor which is measured to be proportional to T^-2.5. An upper limit to the SLC residual phase noise of ℒ (100) Hz=-147 dBc/Hz, ℒ (1 kHz)=-155 dBc/Hz, and ℒ (10) kHz=-160 dBc/Hz has been measured. Also, we have created a free-running loop oscillator based on one of the SLC resonators, and measured a phase noise of ℒ(f)~-10-30log [f] dBc/Hz between f=10 /Hz and 25 kHz, using the other as a discriminator     

Phase noise measurements in dual-mode SC-cut crystal oscillators

This paper describes the phase-noise characteristics and the analysis model of an SC-cut dual-mode oscillator. The C mode phase-noise sideband levels of -124 dBc at 10 Hz and -154 dBc at 10 kHz have been demonstrated using a dual-mode oscillator that simultaneously excited the C and B mode of a 10-MHz, third overtone, SC-cut crystal resonator. Based on Leeson's model, a phase-noise analysis model for dual-mode oscillators has been proposed also. Actual phase-noise levels of the C mode in dual-mode oscillation corresponded well to results calculated from the proposed model.     

Phase noise performance of microwave analog frequency dividers: application to the characterization of oscillators up to the millimeter-wave range

The phase noise performance of two different microwave analog frequency dividers is characterized and compared with the values obtained using simple theories of noise in injection-locked systems. The direct measurement of the divider noise with a low phase noise synthesizer is not accurate enough, and the residual noise technique is used. The noise levels observed using this technique, between -120 and -155 dBc/Hz at a 10 kHz offset frequency, demonstrate that this divider noise is much lower than the phase noise of most microwave free running oscillators, even if this noise is still high with respect to the residual noise of amplifiers realized with the same active devices. The down conversion of microwave sources up to 40 GHz, is proposed as an application example.     

Sensitivity and optimization of a high-Q sapphire dielectric motion-sensing transducer

A high-Q sapphire dielectric motion sensing transducer that operates at microwave frequencies has been developed. The device uses cylindrical whispering gallery modes of quality factor greater than 10 (5) at room temperature and greater than 10(8) at 4 K. The tuning coefficient of the transducer resonance frequency with respect to displacement was measured to be of the order of a few MHz/mum. An electromagnetic model that predicts the resonant frequency and tuning coefficient has been developed and was verified by experiment. We implemented the model to determine what aspect ratio and what dielectric mode is necessary to maximize the sensitivity. We found that the optimum mode type was a TM whispering gallery mode with azimuthal mode number of about 7 for a resonator of 3 cm in diameter. Also, we determined that the tuning coefficients were maximized by choosing an aspect ratio that has a large diameter with respect to the height. By implementing a microwave pump oscillator of SSB phase noise -125 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz; offset, we have measured a sensitivity of order 10 (-16) m/ radicalHz. We show that this can be improved with existing technology to 10(-18) m/ radicalHz, and that in the near future this may be further improved to 10(-19) m/ radicalHz.     

HBAR-Based 3.6 GHz oscillator with low power consumption and low phase noise

We have designed and built 2 oscillators at 1.2 and 3.6 GHz based on high-overtone bulk acoustic resonators (HBARs) for application in chip-scale atomic clocks (CSACs). The measured phase noise of the 3.6 GHz oscillator is -67 dBc/Hz at 300 Hz offset and -100 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset. The Allan deviation of the free-running oscillator is 1.5 × 10^-9 at one second integration time and the power consumption is 3.2 mW. The low phase noise allows the oscillator to be locked to a CSAC physics package without significantly degrading the clock performance.     

Characterization technique of optical whispering gallery mode resonators in the microwave frequency domain for optoelectronic oscillators

Optical Q factor measurements are performed on a whispering gallery mode (WGM) disk resonator using a microwave frequency domain approach instead of using an optical domain approach. An absence of hysteretic behavior and a better linearity are obtained when performing linewidth measurements by using a microwave modulation for scanning the resonances instead of the piezoelectric-based frequency tuning capability of the laser. The WGM resonator is then used to stabilize a microwave optoelectronic oscillator. The microwave output of this system generates a 12.48 GHz signal with -94 dBc/Hz phase noise at 10 kHz offset.     

Reduced transposed flicker noise in microwave oscillators using gaas-based feedforward amplifiers

Transposed flicker noise reduction and removal is demonstrated in 7.6 GHz microwave oscillators for offsets greater than 10 kHz. This is achieved by using a GaAs-based feedforward power amplifier as the oscillation-sustaining stage and incorporating a limiter and resonator elsewhere in the loop. 20 dB noise suppression is demonstrated at 12.5 kHz offset when the error correcting amplifier is switched on. Three oscillator pairs have been built. A transmission line feedback oscillator with a Qo of 180 and two sapphire-based, dielectric resonator oscillators (DROs) with a Qo of 44,500. The difference between the two DROs is a change in the limiter threshold power level of 10 dB. The phase noise rolls-off at (1/f)(2) for offsets greater than 10 kHz for the transmission line oscillator and is set by the thermal noise to within 0-1 dB of the theoretical minimum. The noise performance of the DROs is within 6-12 dB of the theory. Possible reasons for this discrepancy are presented.     

Residual phase noise measurements of VHF, UHF, and microwavecomponents

The results of residual phase noise measurements on a number of VHF, UHF, and microwave amplifiers, both silicon (Si) bipolar junction transistor (BJT) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) field effect transistor (FET) based, electronic phase shifters, frequency dividers and multipliers, etc., which are commonly used in a wide variety of frequency source and synthesizer applications are presented. The measurement technique has also been used to evaluate feedback oscillator components, such as the loop and buffer amplifiers, which can play important roles in determining an oscillator's output phase noise spectrum (often in very subtle ways). While some information has previously been published related to component residual phase noise properties, it generally focused on the flicker noise levels of the devices under test, for carrier offset frequencies less than 10 kHz. The work reported herein makes use of an extremely low noise, 500 MHz surface acoustic wave resonator oscillator (SAWRO) test source for residual phase noise measurements, both close-to-and far-from-the-carrier. Using this SAWRO-based test source at 500 MHz, we have been able to achieve a measurement system phase noise floor of -184 dBc/Hz, or better, for carrier offset frequencies greater than 10 kHz, and a system flicker phase noise floor of -150 dBc/Hz, or better, at 1 Hz carrier offset. The paper discusses the results of detailed residual phase noise measurements performed on a number of components using this overall system configuration. Several interesting observations related to the residual phase noise properties of moderate to high power RF amplifiers, i.e., amplifiers with 1 dB gain compression points in the range of +20 to +33 dBm, are highlighted     

Extremely low phase noise UHF oscillators utilizing high-overtone, bulk-acoustic resonators

High-overtone, bulk acoustic resonators (HBAR) have been designed that exhibit 9-dB insertion loss and loaded Q values of 80000 at 640 MHz with out-of-phase resonances occurring every 2.5 MHz. These resonators have been used as ovenized frequency-control elements in very low phase noise oscillators. The oscillator sustaining stage circuitry incorporates low-1/f noise modular RF amplifiers, Schottky-diode ALC, and a miniature 2-pole helical filter for suppression of HBAR adjacent resonant responses. Measurement of oscillator output signal flicker-of-frequency noise confirms that state-of-the-art levels of short-term frequency stability have been obtained. Sustaining stage circuit contribution to resulting oscillator flicker-of-frequency noise is 7-10 dB below that due to the resonators themselves. At 16-dBm resonator drive, an oscillator output signal white phase noise floor level of -175 dBc/Hz is achieved.     

Lithium-niobate-based surface acoustic wave oscillator directly integrated with CMOS sustaining amplifier

In this study, a LiNbO(3)-based SAW resonator was directly integrated with a CMOS sustaining amplifier using new wafer-bonding-based integration technology. The developed integration technology has overcome the large thermal expansion mismatch between LiNbO(3) (14 to 15 ppm/K along the a-axis) and Si (2.6 ppm/K) by temporary wafer supporting and low-temperature Au-Au bonding. Two kinds of bonding, UV polymer bonding for temporary wafer supporting and Au-Au bonding following plasma surface activation, are key process technologies. A 500-MHz one-chip SAW oscillator was prototyped and evaluated. A low phase noise of -122 dBc/ Hz at 10 kHz offset and -160 dBc/Hz at 500 kHz offset was achieved.     

1/f frequency noise of 2-GHZ high-Q thin-film sapphire resonators

We present experimental results on intrinsic 1/f frequency modulation (FM) noise in high-overtone thin-film sapphire resonators that operate at 2 GHz. The resonators exhibit several high-Q resonant modes approximately 100 kHz apart, which repeat every 13 MHz. A loaded Q of approximately 20000 was estimated from the phase response. The results show that the FM noise of the resonators varied between S_y (10 Hz)=-202 dB relative (rel) to 1/Hz and -210 dB rel to 1/Hz. The equivalent phase modulation (PM) noise of an oscillator using these resonators (assuming a noiseless amplifier) would range from L(10 Hz)=-39 to -47 dBc/Hz     

HighQsapphire loaded superconducting cavities and application to ultrastable clocks

This paper describes the microwave properties of a sapphire loaded super conducting cavity resonator. We report measurements of energy confinement, evanescent field scale lengths, and radiation losses. We report high quality factors, in excess of 10⁹at cryogenic temperatures, for a resonator based on a sapphire element mounted inside a superconducting cavity. Resonators of this type have potentially valuable applications as ultrahigh stability oscillators, high Q filters and as low phase noise frequency sources.     

High Q printed helical resonators for oscillators and filters

High Q compact printed helical resonators which operate from around 1.8 to 2 GHz are described. These consist of a multilayer printed circuit board (PCB) incorporating a printed helical transmission line. Loss in the via hole is reduced by ensuring that the standing wave current at this point is near zero. This ensures a significant increase in Q. Further increased energy storage per unit volume is achieved due to the 3-D helical nature of the resonator. Unloaded Qs of 235 and 195 have been obtained on low loss PCBs with dielectric constants of 2.2 and 10.5, respectively. Two applications for these resonators are described in this paper. The first is the design of a compact low noise oscillator where the ratio of QL/Q0, and hence insertion loss, is adjusted for low noise. The 2-GHz oscillator demonstrates a phase noise of -120 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz which is predicted exactly by the theory. The second is a three-section filter designed to offer the response required by the front end filter of a modern GSM mobile telephone. In the filter design three helical resonators are coupled together to produce a completely printed triplate bandpass filter.     

Low voltage surface transverse wave oscillators for the next generation CMOS technology

The design and performance of voltage controlled surface transverse wave oscillators (VCSTWO) in the lower gigahertz frequency range, operating on supply and tuning voltages in the 1.2 to 3.3 V range, and suitable for direct interfacing with the next generation CMOS circuits are presented. By applying the "boost" principle, as used in direct current (DC)-DC converters, to the design of the sustaining amplifier, the VCSTWO outputs are switched between 0 V and a positive peak value, exceeding the supply voltage Us, to provide safe CMOS-circuit switching while keeping the radio frequency (RF)/DC efficiency to a maximum for low DC power consumption. The investigated 1.0 and 2.5 GHz VCSTWO are varactor tuned feedback-loop oscillators stabilized with two-port surface transverse wave (STW) resonators. Each VCSTWO has a DC-coupled, high-impedance switched output to drive the CMOS circuit directly, and an additional sinusoidal 50 ohmz high-power reference output available for other low-noise system applications. Phase noise levels in the -103 to -115 dBc/Hz range at 1 kHz carrier offset are achieved with 1.0 GHz VCSTWO at a RF/DC efficiency in the 21 to 29% range. The 2.5 GHz prototypes demonstrate phase noise levels in the -97 to -102 dBc/Hz range at 1 kHz carrier offset, and efficiencies range between 8 and 15%.     

A hybrid superconductor/GaAs-MESFET microwave oscillator at 10.6 GHz

A 10.6 GHz hybrid superconducting film/GaAs-MESFET microwave oscillator has been designed, fabricated and characterized on a 10 mm × 15 mm LaAlO₃ substrate. The oscillator was a reflection mode type using a GaAs MESFET (NE72084) as the active device and a superconducting microstrip resonator as the frequency stabilizing element. By improving the unloaded quality factor of the superconducting microstrip resonator and adjusting coupling coefficient between the resonator and the MESFET, the phase noise of the oscillator was decreased. At 77 K, the phase noise of the oscillator at 10 KHz offset from carrier was −87 dBc/Hz.