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Phase Noise and Jitter - Web Classroom

Course 220

RF Mentor Academy Subscription

Summary

Timing-related problems associated with signal sources are one of the major bottlenecks in designing today’s highly complex systems. Over many decades, jitter has been extensively studied and utilized to characterize timing inaccuracies in both digital and analog systems. Conversely, phase noise has been exclusively used in RF systems to represent frequency or phase inaccuracy. For both timing and frequency sensitive systems, phase noise measurement is emerging to be the most accurate method of characterizing all types of signal sources (RF, analog or digital). This short course covers the fundamentals of phase noise and jitter, which ultimately set the limit to PLL performance in applications such as frequency synthesis, serial data communication and clock/data recovery. Simple techniques to model phase noise at the circuit component-level and relate it to the overall phase noise and jitter performance of PLLs are presented. The course will also provide a detailed analysis of the different phase noise measurement techniques along with in-depth noise floor analysis. The focus throughout this course will be on providing practical measures utilizing numerous real life examples. This class is typically offered in three 2-hour sessions (9:00am to 11:00am Pacific time) via web-classroom. Each daily session is a live online event but the recording can be made available on demand and online to support students requiring a more convenient viewing time. For on demand students, simply register online or by contacting the office and you will receive the login details for 30 day access to the recording. Please contact the office for details at info@besserassociates.com.

This course is intended for registered individual students only. Please contact us for group rates at info@besserassociates.com or 650-949-3300. Recording, copying, or re-transmission of classroom material is prohibited.

Students will receive a signed Certificate of Completion on request.

Learning objectives

Upon completing the course you will be able to:

  • Get in-depth understanding of phase noise representation and become familiar with the different terminologies used to characterize phase noise and spurs
  • Understand the relation between phase noise spectrum, power spectral density and frequency spectrum density
  • Learn the difference between AM and PM noise
  • Learn about the different types of phase noise (i.e. additive vs. multiplicative noise) and how each is derived for a given system
  • Analyze the impact of phase noise on communication systems and the relation between RMS phase error and error vector magnitude (EVM)
  • Derive the relation between RMS phase error and bit error rate (BER) for different modulation schemes (e.g. BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM)
  • Understand the impact of phase noise on OFDM systems
  • Learn about various phase noise measurement techniques and equipment
  • Analyze random vs. deterministic jitter and different jitter measurement types (i.e. phase jitter, period jitter and cycle-to-cycle jitter).
  • Learn about jitter measurement techniques and equipment
  • Gain knowledge at extracting jitter information from phase noise measurement.

Target Audience

  • Engineers seeking to understand fundamental PLL designs issues relating to frequency stability and timing jitter.
  • Engineers involved in board, circuit and system-level design of wireless or wireline systems.
  • Test engineers and technicians involved in phase noise and jitter measurement.
  • Engineers designing PLLs systems or subsystems such as voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) or reference oscillators (e.g. crystal oscillators)
  • Application and product engineers supporting customers in areas relating to frequency generation.

Outline

Session 1 (2 hours)

 • Phase noise representation and different terminologies used to characterize phase noise and spurs • AM vs. PM noise • Relation between phase noise spectrum, power spectral density and frequency spectrum density • Types of phase noise (i.e. additive vs. multiplicative noise) • Phase noise upconversion process (AM to PM) • Relation between RMS phase error and error vector magnitude (EVM)

Session 2 (2 hours)

 • Impact of close-in phase noise on communication systems • Relation between RMS phase error and bit error rate (BER) for different modulation schemes (e.g. BPSK, QPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM • Impact of phase noise on OFDM systems • Impact of far-out phase noise on receivers and transmitters

Session 3 (2 hours )

 • Phase noise measurement techniques and equipment • Random vs. deterministic jitter • Jitter measurement types (i.e. phase jitter, period jitter and cycle-to-cycle jitter) • Modeling Jitter • Jitter measurement techniques and equipment • Extracting jitter from phase noise measurement