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Virginia Tech

Device Shot Noise and Saturation Effects on Oscillator Phase Noise

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

Oscillator phase noise is an important factor in designing radio frequency (RF) communications hardware. Phase noise directly contributes to adjacent-channel interference and an increase in bit error rate (BER). Understanding the operation of an oscillator can help with the oscillator design process. Also, the understanding of the noise processes within an oscillator can add insight to the design process, allowing an intelligent low-noise design. It will be shown that although simulation software can be helpful, the understanding of the oscillator operation is a valuable tool in the design process. Oscillator design will be discussed, and then the noise processes of the oscillator will be investigated. A new method of decomposing shot noise into in-phase and quadrature components will be discussed. The noise processes discussed for a non-saturating bipolar junction transistor (BJT) Colpitts oscillator will be extended to the case of a saturating BJT Colpitts oscillator. This new method gives insight into the design of low-noise oscillators, and provides guidelines for design of low-noise oscillators. Example oscillators will support the theory and low-noise design guidelines. It will be seen that although designing an oscillator to saturate can provide a stable output level over a wide bandwidth, the added noise production may degrade the performance of the oscillator through both a lower effective Q and restricted signal level compared to the noise.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2006

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Brock, Scott E.
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Davis, William A.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Bostian, Charles W.
  • Ellingson, Steven W.

Subjects

dc:subject × 3

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-09182006-142239
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/35099

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Brock, Scott E.. Device Shot Noise and Saturation Effects on Oscillator Phase Noise. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/35099