A Cost-Effective Time and Frequency Reference

Vincent Candelier, Gerard Marotel, Didier Thorax, Claude Trialoup

Abstract:	Current market requirements emphasize the need for compactness of and significant cost reduction on time and frequency references, capable of reaching the highest achievable stabilities (within a temperature range over the short term, mid term, and long term, etc.). These requirements are found in applications such as orbitography, timekeeping, frequency reference equipment, and positioning and localization systems. The new C-MAC miniature ultra-stable ground-based oscillator CFPO-US and the new fright model OUS NG, as time and frequency references, achieves the piezo state of the art for overall high stability and provide a competitive alternative to atomic clocks. Industrialization of recent &signs (directly derived from space references) and process control improvements have made possible a cost-effective solution, which reaches very high levels of performance, using standard and industrial structures and readily available components. The main characteristics, obtained at 5 and 10 MHz with the CFPO-US and OUS NG devices, fitted with C-MAC SC-cut qua* crystal resonators, are: - Thermal stability better than 2.10 x IO-” from -20 to +60°C, - Ageing at less than a part in 10 x lo-l1 per day - Short-term stability (AZ&n deviation) at a few parts in 10 x 10-l* for T = 10 s - Package style 67 x 60 x 40 mm3 (about 0.15 liter leaded package), for the CFPO-US - Compatibility with 12 v/IS v/24 v supply voltage - Timekeeping (mean square error of prediction): 5 2 ns over 3 hours; best 20 ns150 ns typical over 24 hours. This paper presents measurement data and analysis of these devices.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 31th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting December 7 - 9, 1999 Marriott's Laguna Cliffs Resort Dana Point, California
Pages:	615 - 626
Cite this article:	Candelier, Vincent, Marotel, Gerard, Thorax, Didier, Trialoup, Claude, "A Cost-Effective Time and Frequency Reference," Proceedings of the 31th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, Dana Point, California, December 1999, pp. 615-626.
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