[time-nuts] Some results of PRS10 and Trimble Resolution T
Robert Lutwak
Lutwak at Alum.mit.edu
Thu Jun 29 10:44:08 UTC 2006
Thanks for the link to your report, Tom. I was wondering what this 2 sec
"bump" in the ADEV was that everyone was talking about.
The "bump" at 2 sec is just the loop tau of the main clock servo. The
physics package is performing at the (fairly typical) level of about
2e-11/sqrt(tau). The OCXO is somewhat better than that. From Tom's plot
it looks like the OCXO is good to about 3-4e-12 on tau=0.1 to 1 second.
Because they've set the loop tau to about 1 seconds, the performance of the
OCXO is degraded as it is steered to the atoms on that timescale.
Never mind fancy RS232 commands, the real thing that sets SRS apart from the
competition is that they use a good OCXO for the local oscillator, rather
than a TCXO. This gives about 30 dB superior phase noise on the output and
also contributes to the apparent "bump" described above. In more typical Rb
standards, a TCXO is chosen with minimally adequate ADEV to support the 1
second stability goal, say 1-2e-11 on 0.1 to 1 second. Then, rather than a
"bump," you just see a flat line from 0.1 to 1 second which then turns
downward onto the 1/sqrt(tau) line outside of the loop tau. Don't sweat the
"bump," you wouldn't see it if it weren't for the superior oscillator.
Note that, given a superior OCXO, SRS could have chosen to set the loop tau
longer. If the OCXO stays flat, they could set the loop tau way out at 10
seconds. Then the STS would look the OCXO, flat at 3-4e-12 from 0.1 to 10
seconds and then turn gracefully downward onto the 1/sqrt(tau) line
somewhere around 10-20 seconds. The problem with this, of course, is that
if something bad happens to the OCXO, such as a frequency hop, it takes
10-20 seconds to steer it out, rather than 1 second. Allowing a frequency
hop, which could be as big as 1e-9, to persist for 10-20 seconds would
destroy your medium and long-term stability records (and probably three or
four other critical specifications). I don't recall whether SRS gives you
access to the loop tau over RS232 but, if they do, you could try turning it
up to 5-10 seconds just to see your 1 sec stability improve. Depending on
the quality of the OCXO and the environment of your laboratory (temperature,
vibration, power supply stability, etc.) you may be able to get away with
running the rubidium at longer loop tau for months before you see an
unpleasant frequency hop.
Of course, the real culprit here is Timing Solutions and their damn fine
TS5110. If it weren't for them, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
-RL
------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Lutwak, Senior Scientist
Symmetricom - Technology Realization Center
34 Tozer Rd.
Beverly, MA 01915
(978) 232-1461 Voice RLutwak at Symmetricom.com (Business)
(978) 927-4099 FAX Lutwak at Alum.MIT.edu (Personal)
(339) 927-7896 Mobile
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Van Baak" <tvb at leapsecond.com>
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
<time-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 11:16 PM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Some results of PRS10 and Trimble Resolution T
>> It's exactly peaked at 2s, it's got to be something digital like
>> the DAC control of the OCXO etc. Any SRS designers among
>> this group? BTW: while I cannot prove it anymore, I am pretty
>> confident the PRS10 did the same thing while free-running
>> (without 1PPS input).
>
> I'm thinking it looks "exactly at 2s" simply because
> your plot only has data points for only 1s, 2s, 3s, etc.
>
> A high ADEV bump near tau 2 s suggests a phase
> modulation around 4 s. If you look closely you can see
> this in the phase plots; it's somewhere between 4 and 5
> seconds. It shows up in the power spectrum near 4.4 s.
>
> Many plots for you in this free-running PRS10 report:
> http://www.leapsecond.com/museum/prs10/
>
> /tvb
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list
> time-nuts at febo.com
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
More information about the Time-nuts_lists.febo.com
mailing list