{"title":"Time-to-Digit Converter Based on radiation-tolerant FPGA","authors":"M. Peca, M. Vacek, V. Michálek","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502384","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502384","url":null,"abstract":"Architecture of a time-to-digit converter (TDC) is presented. TDC is an electronic device which measures time of arrival of discrete electronic pulses, with respect to reference time base. Our work on TDC is motivated by its applications in field of long-range laser distance measurement and time synchronization. Unlike earlier time interpolation methods, we have chosen all-digital approach based on pulse propagation through tapped delay line. We do not expect it could outperform recent invention of time interpolation using narrow-band filter excitation [1], [2]. However, our approach relies on a standard digital circuitry only. With space applications in mind, we are implementing the TDC into a space qualified, radiation-tolerant field-programmable gate array (FPGA). On top of related works [4] and [5] on all-digital TDCs, delay line, we try to gather more complete information about the sampled pulse. It is done by sampling of whole bit vector, corresponding to all of the delay line taps. A calibration method based on random pulse source is discussed, including preliminary results. Impact of physical FPGA cell placement on resulting time measurement granularity is observed. Actually measured jitter distribution is compared to normal distribution function, giving an insight of absolute accuracy limit of our approach within the given FPGA platform.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"42 1","pages":"286-289"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88479429","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
M. Pellaton, C. Affolderbach, G. Mileti, R. Straessle, D. Briand, N. D. de Rooij
{"title":"Wall-coated cells for Rb atomic clocks: Study of the ripening process by double-resonance spectroscopy","authors":"M. Pellaton, C. Affolderbach, G. Mileti, R. Straessle, D. Briand, N. D. de Rooij","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502340","url":null,"abstract":"We present a study of our in-house made tetracontane wall-coated 87Rb vapour cells for rubidium atomic clock applications. Evolution of the double-resonance (DR) signal during the so-called ripening process of these cells is measured and interpreted. Intrinsic properties of the coated cells post ripening are presented. Intrinsic linewidths below 70 Hz, and moderate temperature coefficients (1.5 × 10−10 /K) are promising cell properties in view of highly compact and miniature atomic clocks.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"53 1","pages":"87-90"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83287115","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Compact Hz-level linewidth laser system","authors":"E. Portuondo-Campa, S. Kundermann, S. Lecomte","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502361","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502361","url":null,"abstract":"Increasing the compactness and robustness of laser stabilization systems is a critical need for the development of industrial applications of ultra-narrow linewidth lasers. In this aim, a compact optical setup based on the Pound-Drever-Hall scheme with a high finesse cavity was built with overall dimensions of L × W × H = 45 × 35 × 13 cm<sup>3</sup>. An external cavity diode laser (PLANEX<sup>™</sup>, RIO Inc.) as well as a distributed-feedback fiber laser (Koheras Adjustik, NKT photonics) were stabilized using this system. The frequency stability was evaluated using a similar setup as reference. The combined relative stability of the systems reached 7·10<sup>−15</sup> at 1s.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"9 1","pages":"174-177"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83661372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
S. Grop, B. Dubois, J. Masson, P. Bourgeois, Y. Kersalé, E. Rubiola, G. Haye, V. Giordano
{"title":"Direct comparison of two Cryocooled Sapphire Oscillators presenting relative frequency instability at 10−15","authors":"S. Grop, B. Dubois, J. Masson, P. Bourgeois, Y. Kersalé, E. Rubiola, G. Haye, V. Giordano","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502380","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper we present the direct comparison of two microwave Cryocooled Sapphire Oscillators demonstrating a relative frequency stability better than 2×10−15 at short term and of the order of 1×10−14 over one day integration. We also report the frequency stability evaluation of a microwave signal generated from a planar waveguide external cavity laser (PW-ECL) referenced to a Fabry-Perot cavity through optical-to-microwave frequency division with a commercial Er:fiber optical frequency comb owned by the “laboratoire temps-fréquence” (LTF) of the university of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and the phase noise measurement of the engineering model of the Pharao clock frequency synthesis owned by the “Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales” (CNES) at Toulouse, France. These lastest results were obtained by moving one of our Cryogenic Sapphire Oscillator (CSO) from the FEMTO-ST Institute to these two metrological sites.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"6 1","pages":"267-270"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88848583","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Towards the detection of high-contrast Cs CPT resonances using a single modulated diode laser","authors":"X. Liu, E. Kroemer, J. Merolla, R. Boudot","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502388","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reports the key development steps of a Bi-Frequency Bi-Polarization (BiFBiP) laser system that generates from a single externally-modulated Distributed Feedback (DFB) laser source two phase-coherent optical lines resonant on the Cs D1 line (894.6 nm), frequency-splitted by 9.192 GHz and exhibiting linear crossed polarizations. Two different architectures, based on electro-optic modulators as key components for optical sidebands generation, are presented. Residual frequency stability performances of the DFB laser source are measured to be less than 10−11 for integration times up to 200 s. Phase noise performances of the optically carried microwave signal as well as polarization analysis at the output of the BiFBiP system are reported. Using this laser system, Coherent Population Trapping (CPT) resonances with contrast up to 5.8 % in a mm-scale vapor cell and 22 % in a cm-scale cell are preliminary reported.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"11 1","pages":"304-308"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74752960","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Asymmetric spectra of phase modulated transitions of square waves","authors":"M. Underhill","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502434","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502434","url":null,"abstract":"Square waves have instantaneous transitions between fixed upper and lower levels. The timing of the rising and falling transitions or ‘edges’ may be modulated in time and phase separately and independently. The resulting spectrum sidebands are a combination of the two transition modulations. In general the modulation spectrum is asymmetric with different upper and lower sideband spectra. This paper reports an investigation into why this should be so. New methods of single sideband modulation and demodulation are proposed.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"42 1","pages":"509-513"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73393683","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
T. Feldmann, Arvind Balu, Cedric Molard, W. Schafer, Dirk Piester
{"title":"State-of-the-art time link calibration with a mobile TWSTFT station","authors":"T. Feldmann, Arvind Balu, Cedric Molard, W. Schafer, Dirk Piester","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502426","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502426","url":null,"abstract":"Two-Way Satellite Time and Frequency Transfer (TWSTFT) using geostationary telecommunication satellites has become an important technique for comparing remote timescales. There is a need for periodic calibration of the signal delays along the links which are part of the network for the realization of the International Atomic Time (TAI). In order to minimize the efforts of such TWSTFT calibration campaigns, TimeTech GmbH has assembled a mobile station on a trailer. The trailer contains the usual TWSTFT equipment, including the two-way modem, the up/down converters, filters, and amplifiers, as well as monitoring systems, air conditioner, and weather sensors. The steerable antenna is mounted on top of the trailer. The 1 PPS and 10 MHz signals required as input to the TWSTFT equipment are transferred from inside the timing laboratory by an optical link and two reference generators in a master-slave configuration.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"14 1","pages":"462-468"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87408082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"New electrostatically-excited single crystal silicon resonator vibrating in a Thickness-Extensional mode","authors":"M. Ivan, B. Dulmet, G. Martin, S. Ballandras","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502371","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents a new patent-pending structure of BAW resonator built on standard silicon wafer and driven by electrostatic force. Thickness-Extensional (TE) modes are exploited, yielding a fundamental frequency near 10 MHz with a 400µm-thick Si wafer. The device is based on a one-port design featuring a 1µm gap submitted to a superimposition of a DC voltage bias and a lesser-amplitude AC excitation. In contrast with conventional bar and plate MEMS resonators relying on structural resonances, our resonators are designed to use an energy-trapping of the TE waves to optimize the Q factor. The structure essentially consists of a single (100) Silicon plate, p-doped and bonded onto a Corning glass substrate by standard anodic bonding. The thin gap required for the electrostatic excitation is machined in the glass layer by Reactive Ion Etching. Extensive electrical and mechanical characterisations were performed. They match rather well the behavior predicted by the theoretical analysis. A compensation of the large static capacitance is needed to give a better access to the motional parameters. Q factors near 9000 have been observed on the fundamental TE-mode, with a sufficient coupling for frequency source applications. The stabilization of a RF oscillator using the resonators is still under development.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"33 1","pages":"221-226"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86606823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
P. Guillemot, P. Laurent, J. Achkar, D. Rovera, E. Samain, P. Exertier, S. Leon
{"title":"Improvement of comparisons between T2L2 & RF links","authors":"P. Guillemot, P. Laurent, J. Achkar, D. Rovera, E. Samain, P. Exertier, S. Leon","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502398","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502398","url":null,"abstract":"The Time Transfer by Laser Link (T2L2) experiment, developed by both CNES and OCA, performs ground to ground time transfer over intercontinental distances. The principle is derived from laser telemetry technology with dedicated space equipment designed to record arrival time of laser pulses at the satellite. Using laser pulses instead of radio frequency signals, T2L2 permits to realize some links between distant clocks with time stability of a few picoseconds and accuracy better than 100 ps.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"144 1","pages":"345-348"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77931051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
L. Sliwczynski, P. Krehlik, L. Buczek, M. Lipinski, J. Kołodziej
{"title":"Fiber optic RF frequency transfer on the distance of 480 km with the active stabilization of the propagation delay","authors":"L. Sliwczynski, P. Krehlik, L. Buczek, M. Lipinski, J. Kołodziej","doi":"10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502417","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/EFTF.2012.6502417","url":null,"abstract":"In the paper the results of laboratory experiments are presented concerning the time and frequency transfer in 480 km long electronically stabilized fiber optic link. The fiber optic link comprised nine spooled spans with attenuation between 5–15 dB and eight custom-built bidirectional fiber amplifiers. The Allan deviation measured for frequency transfer at one-day averaging was around 4·10<sup>−17</sup>, whereas time deviation for 1PPS signal was in the range 650–900 fs for averaging times between 10<sup>3</sup>–10<sup>5</sup> s.","PeriodicalId":6409,"journal":{"name":"2012 European Frequency and Time Forum","volume":"45 1","pages":"424-426"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-04-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79520720","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}