A digitally compensated TCXO with low phase noise characteristics

The phase noise level of a digitally compensated temperature-compensated cr ystal oscillator (DTCXO) is strongly degraded due to the numerical system o f compensation. The requirements of high stability, low power consumption a nd low phase noise for these oscillators have increased during the last cou ple of years. This article explains which parameters must be taken into acc ount and the methods required to reduce the noise induced by the quartz cry stal design, layout, component choices and electrical configuration. The ai m of this analysis is to provide a new high performance oscillator for sate llite communications (SATCOM) applications and low phase noise instrumentat ion equipment and to demonstrate that digitally compensated technology can be utilized to produce potentially cheaper high performance oscillators com pared to built-in application-specific ICs.