State-of-the-art RF signal generation from optical frequency division

Hati, Archita; Nelson, Craig W.; Barnes, C.; Lirette, D.; Fortier, Tara M.; Quinlan, Franklyn; DeSalvo, J. A.; Ludlow, Andrew D.; Diddams, Scott A.; Howe, David A.

doi:10.1109/tuffc.2013.2765

Cited by 26 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Finally, the Λ divider implemented with the Max 3000 deserves mentioning for its low noise (b −1 = −130.5 dBrad and b 0 = −165 dBrad 2 /Hz). This is lower than regular dividers (general experience), and just 10 dB above the NIST regenerative dividers [26] at the same output frequency.…”

Section: Measuring the Time Type (X-type) Noise With The λ Dividermentioning

confidence: 70%

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Phase noise and jitter in digital electronics

Calosso

Rubiola

2014

2014 European Frequency and Time Forum (EFTF)

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This article explains phase noise, jitter, and some slower phenomena in digital integrated circuits, focusing on high-demanding, noise-critical applications. We introduce the concept of phase type and time type (for short, ϕ-type and x-type) phase noise. The rules for scaling the noise with frequency are chiefly determined by the spectral properties of these two basic types, by the aliasing phenomenon, and by the input and output circuits.Then, we discuss the parameter extraction from experimental data and we report on the measured phase noise in some selected devices of different node size and complexity. We observed flicker noise between −80 and −130 dBrad 2 /Hz at 1 Hz offset, and white noise down to −165 dBrad 2 /Hz in some fortunate cases and using the appropriate tricks. It turns out that flicker noise is proportional to the reciprocal of the volume of the transistor. This unpleasant conclusion is supported by a gedanken experiment.Further experiments provide understanding on: (i) the interplay between noise sources in the internal PLL, often present in FPGAs; (ii) the chattering phenomenon, which consists in multiple bouncing at transitions; and (iii) thermal time constants, and their effect on phase wander and on the Allan variance.

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Section: Measuring the Time Type (X-type) Noise With The λ Dividermentioning

confidence: 70%

“…= 1/2 in n f (t). The mean square slew rate is calculated combining (26) and (27), integrating on frequency, and averaging on θ f . Since sin 2 (θ f ) = 1/2,…”

Section: Input Chattermentioning

confidence: 99%

Phase noise and jitter in digital electronics

Calosso

Rubiola

2014

2014 European Frequency and Time Forum (EFTF)

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“…A synthesizer using a time‐base derived via optical frequency division (OFD) offers several technical advantages over architectures based on electronic crystal oscillators. Optical reference cavities exhibit extremely low‐loss and drift and thereby achieve much higher quality factors (Q∼10 11 ) and consequently lower instabilities (10 −16 at 1 s) than room‐temperature electronic resonators .…”

Section: Experimental Section and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some agility of the microwave comb is possible by tuning the repetition rate of the optical pulse train, but this tends to be slow and limited to 1–2% due to stability constraints of the mode‐locked laser cavity . A combination of OFD and regenerative frequency division can yield RF signals with extremely low‐noise , but this does not enable frequency tuning.…”

Section: Experimental Section and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optically referenced broadband electronic synthesizer with 15 digits of resolution

Fortier¹,

Rolland²,

Quinlan³

et al. 2016

Laser & Photonics Reviews

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Fundamental science, as well as all communications and navigation systems, are heavily reliant on the phase, timing, and synchronization provided by low‐noise and agile frequency sources. Although research into varied photonic and electronic schemes have strived to improve upon the spectral purity of microwave and millimeter‐wave signals, the reliance on conventional electronic synthesis for tuning has resulted in limited progress in broadband sources. Using a digital‐photonic synthesizer architecture that derives its time‐base from a high‐stability optical reference cavity, we generate frequency‐agile and wideband microwave signals with exceptional dynamic range and with a fractional frequency instability of 1 × 10−15 at 1 s. The presented architecture demonstrates digitally controlled, user defined and broadband frequency tuning from RF to 100 GHz with orders‐of‐magnitude improvement in noise performance over room‐temperature electronic wide‐bandwidth synthesis schemes.

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“…Kp,03.67.Lx,74.25.nn,85.25.Oj,85.25.Pb Keywords: superconducting, resonator, frequency comb, broadband, RF, microwave Frequency combs in the optical regime have become extremely useful in a wide range of applications including spectroscopy and frequency metrology [1][2][3]. Recently, it was found that a strongly pumped, high-Q optical microcavity made from a nonlinear medium generates sidebands due to a combination of degenerate and nondegenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) [4][5][6] that cascade into a broadband frequency comb of photon energies in the regime of hundreds of THz.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Frequency Comb Generation in Superconducting Resonators

et al. 2014

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We have generated frequency combs spanning 0.5 to 20 GHz in superconducting λ/2-resonators at T = 3 K. Thin films of niobium-titanium nitride enabled this development due to their low loss, high nonlinearity, low frequency-dispersion, and high critical temperature. The combs nucleate as sidebands around multiples of the pump frequency. Selection rules for the allowed frequency emission are calculated using perturbation theory and the measured spectrum is shown to agree with the theory. Sideband spacing is measured to be accurate to 1 part in 10 8 . The sidebands coalesce into a continuous comb structure observed to cover at least 6 octaves in frequency.PACS numbers: 07.57. Kp,03.67.Lx,74.25.nn,85.25.Oj,85.25.Pb Keywords: superconducting, resonator, frequency comb, broadband, RF, microwave Frequency combs in the optical regime have become extremely useful in a wide range of applications including spectroscopy and frequency metrology [1][2][3]. Recently, it was found that a strongly pumped, high-Q optical microcavity made from a nonlinear medium generates sidebands due to a combination of degenerate and nondegenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) [4][5][6] that cascade into a broadband frequency comb of photon energies in the regime of hundreds of THz. The peaks of these combs are extremely narrow and appear at frequencies dictated by selection rules for photon energy and momentum conservation. These devices are attractive because they have very narrow linewidths, are relatively simple, highly stable and controllable [7][8][9], and can be divided down into the GHz range to achieve very accurate frequency references. However, the microcavities, typically consisting of toroidal silica structures [10], need to be pumped with high laser powers because of their intrinsically weak χ(3) optical Kerr nonlinearity. In addition, output over much more than a single octave in frequency is difficult to obtain from these structures due to frequency dispersion from material and geometric factors, which make the modes non-equidistant.These Kerr combs continue to be the focus of extensive theoretical analysis to understand the nonlinear dynamics that give rise to their threshold of stability, mechanism of cascade, amplitude of responsiveness, and maximum spectral bandwidth [11][12][13][14][15]. Generation of these combs directly in the 1-20 GHz range would further simplify the instrumentation and potentially elucidate the dynamics involved by making them more accessible to direct measurement.In the current work we transfer the nonlinear pumped cavity concept to the microwave regime in superconducting resonators and demonstrate broadband frequency comb generation over multiple octaves. This is achieved using niobium-titanium nitride (NbTiN) thin films and exploiting (i) the high quality factor Q > 10 7 for a strong drive [16,17], (ii) the large nonlinear kinetic inductance, and (iii) the lack of frequency dispersion [18]. The ki-FIG. 1. Artist's rendition (not to scale) of the superconducting frequency comb chip. The 25 cm long, λ/2 r...

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State-of-the-art RF signal generation from optical frequency division

Cited by 26 publications

References 27 publications

Phase noise and jitter in digital electronics

Phase noise and jitter in digital electronics

Optically referenced broadband electronic synthesizer with 15 digits of resolution

Frequency Comb Generation in Superconducting Resonators

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