Description

Oscillators and atomic clocks are used in almost all electronic systems. They set the timing of operations and clock elements as required. This talk will initially discuss the theory and design of a wide variety of oscillators offering the very best performance. Typically, this is achieved by splitting the oscillator design into its component parts and developing new amplifiers, resonators and phase shifters which offer high Q, high power handling and low thermal and transposed flicker noise. Key features of oscillators offering the lowest phase noise available will be shown. New compact atomic clocks with ultra-low phase noise microwave synthesiser chains (with micro Hz resolution) will also be briefly described to demonstrate how the long-term stability can be improved. The next generation of oscillators will offer orders of magnitude improvement in performance. Our current attempts to do this will be described