[time-nuts] Measuring phase shift between 1 Hz DMTD signals by I+Q processing
Joseph M Gwinn
gwinn at raytheon.com
Mon Jul 27 14:53:43 UTC 2009
Magnus,
time-nuts-bounces at febo.com wrote on 07/27/2009 12:53:19 AM:
> From:
>
> Magnus Danielson <magnus at rubidium.dyndns.org>
>
> To:
>
> Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
<time-nuts at febo.com>
>
> Date:
>
> 07/27/2009 12:56 AM
>
> Subject:
>
> Re: [time-nuts] Measuring phase shift between 1 Hz DMTD signals
> by I+Q processing
>
> Sent by:
>
> time-nuts-bounces at febo.com
>
> Joe Gwinn wrote:
> > Bruce,
> >
> > At 1:00 AM +0000 7/26/09, time-nuts-request at febo.com wrote:
> >> Message: 3
> >> Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:29:24 +1200
> >> From: Bruce Griffiths <bruce.griffiths at xtra.co.nz>
> >> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Measuring phase shift between 1 Hz DMTD
> >> signals by I+Q processing
> >> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> >> <time-nuts at febo.com>
> >>
> >>
> >> If one uses a mixer output frequency of several kHz then onecan avoid
> >> the flicker noise region if one uses a high pass filter
> between the ADCs
> >> and the mixer preamps.
> >>
> >> Does such a system have a performance advantage over direct RF
sampling?
> >> Perhaps it does if and only if the phase noise floor of the lower
> >> bandwidth ADCs that are used is lower than the noise floor of the
ADCs
> >> that would be required to sample the RF signals directly?
> >> The noise floor of state of the art ADCs suitable for direct RF
sampling
> >> is around -150dBFS/Hz.
> >> The noise floor of "typical" high resolution ADC(AD7762, AD7641)
> >> capable of sampling at around 1MSPS or so appear to be similar.
> >
> > It strikes me that one can do a double conversion here, with one
> > conversion done in analog hardware, the other in a DSP.
> >
> > The analog mixer would go from megahertz to say 100 KHz or 30KHz, and
> > this kilohertz signal would be digitized, yielding a stream of I+Q
samples.
> >
> > The resulting stream of digital I+Q samples would then be numerically
> > mixed down to 1 Hz, and the relative phase between the two 1 Hz
signals
> > would be measured.
> >
> > This two-step approach should neatly sidestep the flicker-noise issue.
>
> I just proposed that method to avoid flicker.
Ahh. Now I see it. Yes you did, in a reply to Bruce on 25 July 2009.
> > As for the ADC yielding I+Q samples, given the great oversampling
> > possible with current ADCs, one can use a single ADC and
mathematically
> > generate the I+Q streams. There are many methods, invented because
> > high=performance ADCs are very expensive, and because it is difficult
to
> > find sufficiently well matched pairs of such ADCs.
>
> Well, it's just like normal radio when first LO just brings the
> frequency into range and second LO does I/Q separation.
Exactly.
Joe Gwinn
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