[time-nuts] Phase noise & Jitter
Bruce Griffiths
bruce.griffiths at xtra.co.nz
Tue Apr 29 09:57:24 UTC 2008
Hal Murray wrote:
>> For digital circuits, it would seem that the potential for
>> metastability & threshold uncertainty, is reduced when the
>> slope-to-noise ratio is optimized. I wonder if this concept is, or can
>> be quantified?
>>
>
> I don't think noise hurts or helps metastability. For every case where it
> might hurt there is the mirror image where it helps.
>
>
> I would expect a slower rise time to cause more metastability. Here is the
> way I think about it. If you have N ns to settle, there is a window in
> voltage that is Y mV wide. (give or take some statistics) The signal with
> the faster rise time will spend less time inside that window.
>
> There is probably some limit where making it faster doesn't help any more.
>
>
> Speaking of rise time...
>
> I'm somewhat looking for a signal generator - digital rather than sine wave.
>
> I'm pretty sure I used an HP box 10-20 years ago that had knobs on the rise
> and fall times as well as frequency and whatever. Is there some obvious unit
> is should be looking for? Do they show up on eBay? ...
>
>
>
>
Perhaps an HP8082A, but it all depends on what range of risetimes etc
you need.
There's one currently listed on ebay.
Bruce
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