[time-nuts] yet another GPSDO design, or so

Attila Kinali attila at kinali.ch
Sat Jun 26 17:15:08 UTC 2010


Moin,

I recently had a look at the data sheet of the LEA6-T GPS module
from ublox, which now features a second time pulse output that
is capable of delivering a 10MHz signal, synchronized to GPS.

After thinking quite some time quite some time about building
my own GPSDO and struggling with the question how to synchronize
a 10MHz signal to a 1Hz signal that has some substantial phase
noise, the new LEA6-T module seems like to make things a lot
easier. Although the LEA6 specs do not say anything about how
the timepulse output is generated or how it is synchronized
to GPS, i assume that it will either have some jumps or phase/frequency
noise due to oszillator and synchronization imperfections.

But, it should be possible to use the LEA6-T together with
some OCXO and a PLL setup to stabilize the OCXO to get a high
quality frequency standard.

Unfortunately, my knowledge in that field is rather limited, thus
before starting to make wrong design decisions i'd like to ask
for some advice here.

My basic idea is to feed the 10MHz output of the LEA6-T and
the 10MHz OCXO into a current output PFD, do some low-order
filtering of the output signal. Feed that into an ADC which
is read by a uC which in turn controls an DAC that sets over
some amplifier stage the EFC input of the OCXO.

As PFD i thought about using a ADF4002 from Analog, which
is actually an PLL, but allows to bypass the input dividers,
so that it can be used as pure current output PFD.

I'm not yet sure what kind of output filter i want to use.
I probably have to add at least one low noise opamp there,
to isolate the PFD output/filter from the ADC. I'm also
not sure what filter frequency i should use here. It will
have to be below 10MHz for sure, probably in the lower 
kHz range, but how low is the question. The lower the easier
gets the ADC stage and the less work has to be done in the uC,
but using a low frequency filter either means using an active
filter (noise) or high value R or L (again noise, especially
the L might couple in 50Hz noise from the enviroment or show
microphone effects).

The ADC will be either a low-noise 16bit type or a 24bit
type. This will largely depend on the sample rate to be
used and the availabilty of the ADCs. Any good advices
on what to use here? Should there be some form of signal
conditioning done? If, what form of conditioning would
you advise me to use?

As a uC i thought about using a AT91SAM7 variant from Atmel.
I know these beasts (and their bugs) pretty well by now
and already have some code ready for those.
I thought about clocking the uC with a 40MHz crystal that
is synchronized to the 10MHz OCXO using a PLL. This would
allow me to generate quite precise+accurate digital signals.
Unfortunately, there doesnt seem to be VCXOs at 40MHz available
so that means that i'd have to build one by hand.

The loopfilter is going to end up in the uC as it is easier
to build such low frequency filters digitally than in analog.
I havent put much thought into how that filter should look
like, as this can be easily changed later.

The DAC will probably be a 16bit type (there does not seem
any higher resolution DAC with sane specs and still reasonable
availability). The amplifier for the DAC output will be a two
stage amplifier. One stage that adds an (adjustable) offset
and one stage that adds the (again adjustable) amplification.
This approach is choosen as the needed EFC range will probably
much lower than the full range. Hence the resolution of the
DAC can be enhanced by producing only values within that range.
The disadvantage here is that it requires calibration.

A rough guestimate is that the whole thing will probably cost
less than 500CHF (including PCB production, but excluding OCXO).
Yes, i know, i could get a Rb frequency standard for that money
on ebay. But where is the fun in that? ;-)

Beside whether this setup makes sense, the two biggest questions
i have are, what OCXO to use. Are the ISOTEMP 134-10 that are
available on ebay "good enough" for such an application?
Or shall i look for something better/different?

And the other is, how do i amplify and distribute the 10MHz
signal i get out of the OCXO to be used by other devices
with minimal phase noise?


Thanks for your help

			Attila Kinali

-- 
If you want to walk fast, walk alone.
If you want to walk far, walk together.
		-- African proverb




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