Novel, All-Digital Phase Measurement System for Time Scales

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 different commercial atomic frequency standards; the phase differences between these signals will be fed to the algorithm used to generate the NIST time scale. Preliminary results from common-clock measurements show a time deviation sigma(x)(tau) < 6x10(exp-13) s for measurement times up to 2000 s and below 1 ps for measurement times up to 10,000 s. Within these measurement times, and up to 250,000 s (approximately 3 days), the performance of the system is comparable to the measurement system presently integrated in UTC (NIST). A direct comparison of different clock measurements as performed by the system described in this paper and by the one that is part of UTC (NIST) is also presented as a mean of validation of the newly developed measurement system.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA518082

Entities

People

  • S. Römisch
  • Steven R. Jefferts
  • T. E. Parker

Organizations

  • National Institute of Standards and Technology

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Clocks
  • Counters
  • Curve Fitting
  • Data Processing
  • Data Sets
  • Frequency
  • Frequency Standards
  • High Resolution
  • Intermediate Frequencies
  • Intervals
  • Measurement
  • Phase
  • Phase Measurement
  • Standards
  • Time Interval Counters
  • Time Intervals

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • Computer Science/Computer Engineering/Data Science/Digital Signal Processing.
  • Technical Research and Report Writing.