[time-nuts] Phase microstepper designs?

[Tom Van Baak]

> Moin,
> 
> I just tried to figure out how phase microsteppers are usually build,
> but, beside the time-nuts discussion from 10 years ago and US patents
> US4358741 and US4417352 my search turned out empty. I am pretty sure
> that I used the wrong search terms and there should be lots of documentation
> out there. Can someone give me a hint what to look for?
> 
> Attila Kinali

Attila,

Try these search terms:
    phase microstepper
    microphase stepper
    time frequency phase "offset generator"
    auxiliary offset generator
    phase frequency AOG
    programmable clean-up oscillator

The two commercial products I'm familiar with get down to 1e-19 resolution:

http://www.microsemi.com/products/timing-synchronization-systems/time-frequency-references/active-hydrogen-maser/aog-110

http://www.spectradynamics.com/products/hrog-5-high-resolution-phase-and-frequency-offset-generator

Somewhere I have the block diagram for these. Very complex. Depending on the resolution and stability specs you need a DDS solution might be simpler today.

The write-up about Bert's DDS board is here:
http://leapsecond.com/pages/ad9913/
http://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/data-sheets/AD9913.pdf

You'll want to use a DDS with a "programmable modulus" feature:
http://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/application-notes/AN-953.pdf

/tvb