Characterization of measurement system for high-precision oscillator measurements

Abstract

Temperature stability of a high-precision oscillator is characterized by measurements in a temperature chamber. Two time constants are measured for a given temperature of the chamber: (i) time required for the silicon to reach the steady-state temperature obtained by measuring the time-domain voltage response of the on-chip temperature sensor; (ii) time required for the oscillator circuit to reach the steady-state frequency obtained by measuring the oscillator frequency in the time-domain. The temperature probe for measuring the chamber temperature is characterized in terms of its response to a step in temperature. The noise performance of the measurement system is characterized based on Allan deviation.