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Application Notes
Introduction
In many cutting-edge radar and communication systems, frequency stability is the key characteristic that limits system performance. In a radar system, frequency stability affects the processing of Doppler information, and this becomes increasingly important in systems intended to detect slowmoving objects. In a digitally modulated communication system, frequency instability will degrade error vector magnitude (EVM), which is a crucial performance metric.
Random perturbations that show up as instabilities in the frequency or phase of a carrier signal can be caused by a variety of effects. To measure these effects, choosing the most effective and efficient method can be based on the carrier frequency and how close-in its stability must be characterized (e.g., carrier-offset frequency). Short-term frequency stability is most commonly measured in the
frequency domain as phase noise, which is defined as single sideband power within a 1-Hz bandwidth at a specific frequency offset from the carrier signal. Stability can also be characterized in the time domain using statistical measures of fluctuations in phase or frequency as a function of time. The most common time-domain methods are Allan variance and the modified Allan variance.
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