Originally presented at DesignCon 2013. Jitter is a very important topic in signal integrity for high speed serial data links. The jitter performance of clock signals used in generating the serial data signal is critical to the overall performance of these signals. Phase noise is the most sensitive and accurate measurement of the performance of precision clocks. This presentation covers the theory and practice for making phase noise measurements on clock signals as well as the relationship between phase noise and total jitter, random jitter and deterministic jitter. Measurements on a typical clock signal is also included. For more information, visit http://rohde-schwarz-scopes.com or call (888) 837-8772 to speak to a local Rohde & Schwarz expert.

1. Phase Noise and
Jitter Measurements

2. Phase Noise and Jitter Measurements
Introduction
Rick Daniel
Application Engineer
Rohde & Schwarz
Colorado Springs, CO
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3. Agenda
• Jitter Review
• Time-Domain and Frequency-Domain Jitter Measurements
• Phase Noise Concept and Measurement
• Deriving Random and Deterministic Jitter from Phase Noise
• PLL/Filter Weighting of Jitter Spectrum
• Calculating Peak-to-Peak Jitter from RMS Jitter
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4. What is J ii tt tt e rr ?
J e
• Jitter is the short-term time-domain
variations in clock or data signal timing
• Jitter includes instability in signal period, frequency, phase,
duty cycle or some other timing characteristic
• Jitter is of interest from cycle to cycle, over many
consecutive cycle, or as a longer term variation
• Jitter is equivalent to Phase Noise in the frequency domain
• Variations with frequency components >10Hz are Jitter
• Variations with frequency components <10Hz are Wander
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5. Types of Jitter
• Time Interval Error (TIE)
• Fundamental measurement of jitter
• Time difference between measured
signal edge and ideal edge
• Instantaneous phase of signal
• Period Jitter
• Short-term stability, basic parameter for clocks
• Cycle to Cycle
• Important for parallel data transfer
• N-Cycle
• Important when clock and data routing differ
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6. Jitter Measurement Techniques
• Time Domain (Oscilloscope)
• Direct method for measuring jitter
• Measures TIE, Period Jitter, Cycle-to-Cycle Jitter
• Measures RMS or Peak-to-Peak Jitter
• Measures data or clock signals
• Limited sensitivity (100 – 1000 fs)
• Frequency Domain (Phase Noise Analyzer)
• Calculates jitter from phase noise
• Measures RMS Jitter
• Measures clocks, not random data streams
• Easy to separate random and discrete jitter components
• Highest sensitivity (<5 fs)
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7. What is Phase Noise?
• Ideal Signal (noiseless)
V(t) = A sin(2t) Level
where t
A = nominal amplitude f
 = nominal frequency
Time Domain Frequency Domain
• Real Signal
V(t) = [A + E(t)] sin(2t + (t))
Level
where
E(t) = amplitude fluctuations t
(t) = phase fluctuations f
Phase Noise is unintentional phase modulation that spreads the
signal spectrum in the frequency domain.
Phase Noise is equivalent to jitter in the time domain.
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8. Phase Noise – Unit of Measure
• Phase Noise is expressed as L(f)
• L(f) is defined as single sideband power due to
phase fluctuations in a rectangular 1Hz bandwidth
at a specified offset, f, from the carrier
• L(f) has units of dBc/Hz
LOG A
AMPLITUDE L (f)
LOG f
1 Hz
fc fc+f FREQUENCY
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9. Phase Noise Measurement Setup
Clock
Under
Test
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10. Example Phase Noise Measurement Plot
Phase Noise (dBc/Hz) 
Discrete Spurs
Offset from Fundamental Frequency 
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11. Phase Noise Measurement
• Shows phase noise over a
range of offset frequencies: L (f)
1
• RMS Jitter = 2  L ( f )df
2f c
• Phase noise including spurs
yields total jitter (random plus
deterministic)
• Phase noise without spurs
yields random jitter
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12. Jitter / Phase Noise Measurement Limitation
Oscilloscope or
Phase Noise
Analyzer
• Jitter measured by an oscilloscope or phase noise analyzer is
always the RMS sum of the clock jitter and the measuring
instrument’s internal jitter
• Internal jitter/phase noise limits measurement sensitivity
• Examples:
• Clock Jitter: 1ps Instrument Jitter: 1ps  Measured Jitter: 1.4ps
• Clock Jitter: 500fs Instrument Jitter: 1ps  Measured Jitter: 1.118ps
• Clock Jitter: 500fs Instrument Jitter: 300fs  Measured Jitter: 583fs
• Clock Jitter: 200fs Instrument Jitter: 5fs  Measured Jitter: 200.06fs
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13. Phase Noise Measurement
Phase Detector Technique
DF=90°
°
Clock
Under Phase
Detector
Test
Low Pass Baseband
Filter LNA
Analyzer
Ref.
Source
PLL
(tracks DUT freq,
maintains 90°
PLL Low Pass Filter offset)
(sets loop BW)
Reference source is tuned to same frequency as clock with 90°
phase offset (quadrature)
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14. Phase Detector with Cross-Correlation
PLL
Noise 2
Low Pass
Ref 2 DF=90°
° Filter LNA
Noise 2
Noise DUT
PD ADC
Clock
Correlation
Under
Test
PD ADC Noise 1
Noise DUT
Ref 1 Low Pass
DF=90°
° LNA
Filter
Noise 1
PLL
Cross-correlating both measurements effectively reduces
reference source noise – improves measurement sensitivity
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15. Jitter Measurement Instruments
High
Real time (Oscilloscope) Flexibility
Single-shot or repetitive events (clock or data)
Bandwidths typically 60 MHz to >30 GHz
Lowest sensitivity (highest jitter noise floor)
Measures adjacent cycles
Repetitive (Sampling Oscilloscope)
Repetitive events only (clock or data)
Bandwidths typically 20 GHz to 100 GHz
Generally can not discriminate based on jitter frequency
Cannot measure adjacent cycles
Phase noise (Phase noise test set)
Clock signals only (50% duty cycle)
Integrate phase noise over frequency to measure jitter
High Highest sensitivity (lowest jitter noise floor)
Cannot measure adjacent cycles
Sensitivity
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16. Phase Noise Measurement (without spurs)
• Total RMS Jitter (RJ)
• 42.8 fs
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17. Phase Noise Measurement (with discrete spurs)
• Total RMS Jitter (RJ & DJ)
• 59.9 fs
• Total Jitter (TJ) is RMS
sum of RJ and DJ:
TJ  RJ 2  DJ 2
• DJ can be calculated as:
DJ  TJ 2  RJ 2
• TJ = 59.9 fs, RJ = 42.8 fs
• Calculated DJ = 41.9 fs
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18. Measurement of DJ from Individual Contributors
• Isolate individual discrete components and evaluate their
contribution to total RMS Jitter
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19. Measurement of DJ from Individual Contributors
• DJ from 1.294kHz spur:
• 1.0 fs
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20. Measurement of DJ from Individual Contributors
• DJ from 1.676kHz spur:
• 3.7 fs
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21. Measurement of DJ from Individual Contributors
• DJ from 20kHz spur:
• 40.9 fs
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22. Measurement of DJ from Individual Contributors
• DJ from 40kHz spur:
• 4.6 fs
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23. Measurement of DJ from Individual Contributors
• DJ from 60kHz spur:
• 6.4 fs
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24. Measurement of DJ from Individual Contributors
• DJ from 80kHz spur:
• 2.8 fs
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25. Summary of Total Jitter
• TJ is RSS of all contributors
2 2 2 2 2 2
TJ  DJ1  DJ 2  DJ 3  DJ 4  DJ 5  DJ 6  RJ 2
 12  3.7 2  40.9 2  4.6 2  6.4 2  2.82  42.82  59.9 fs
40.9fs
6.4fs
4.6fs
3.7fs
2.8fs
1fs
42.8fs
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26. Measurement of a Very Low Jitter Device
• Crystal based 640MHz signal with very low phase noise/jitter
• 4.6fs
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27. Frequency Offset Range is Settable
• Measurements in this presentation have used offset range of
1kHz to 10MHz
• Offset range can be as wide as 0.01Hz to 30GHz!
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28. Jitter Calculation over Subset of Offsets
• By default, jitter is calculated over entire measured offset range
• A subset of the offset range may be specified for the jitter
calculation
• Jitter calculated over full
measured range of 1kHz
to 10MHz is 4.6fs
• For reduced range of 10kHz
to 3MHz it is 2.8fs
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29. Jitter Calculation with PLL Weighting
• Basic measurement shows raw performance of clock
• Real systems use PLLs
• FSUP can apply a weighting function to simulate the frequency
response of a PLL
Define PLL Freq Response
PLL1
Select PLL to apply to measurement
Unweighted Jitter: 4.6fs Weighted Jitter: 3.3fs
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30. Phase Noise/Jitter Measurement
Spectrum Analyzer vs Phase Detector vs PD with Cross-Correlation
SA: 68.7fs
PD: 13.1fs
PD w/CC: 4.6fs
Phase Detector with Cross-Correlation is most
sensitive way to measure phase noise and jitter
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31. Calculating Peak-to-Peak Jitter from RMS Jitter
• Time-domain histogram of many jitter measurements shows a Gaussian
distribution when jitter is purely random (RJ)
• Gaussian distribution mathematics says that 68.3% of all measurements are
within one standard deviation of the mean (+s)
• The standard deviation (s) is the RMS jitter (RJ)
-4*RJRMS -3*RJRMS -2*RJRMS -RJRMS 0 RJRMS 2*RJRMS 3*RJRMS 4*RJRMS
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32. Calculating Peak-to-Peak Jitter from RMS Jitter
• Phase noise measurement doesn’t provide a histogram, but does provide RMS
jitter value (and therefore standard deviation)
• Since RJ has a Gaussian distribution we can calculate peak-to-peak jitter for a
given BER
Jitter measurements in dark
Most instantaneous shaded area represent
jitter measurements error-causing jitter values
would be in this region
Never reaches 0%
probability
-4s -3s -2s -s 0 +s +2s +3s +4s
-4*RJRMS -3*RJRMS -2*RJRMS -RJRMS RJRMS 2*RJRMS 3*RJRMS 4*RJRMS
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33. Calculating Peak-to-Peak Jitter from RMS Jitter
• Peak-to-peak random jitter can be calculated from RMS jitter by
multiplying by a
• RJ pp  a * RJ RMS
1  a 
where is a is derived from: erfc   BER
2 2 2
a
Source: Maxim Application Note AN462
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34. a vs. BER
• Factors to calculate RJpp from RJRMS based on BER
• Example: RJpp = 9.507*RJRMS for BER = 10-6
14.069*RJRMS (BER=10-12)
11.996*RJRMS (BER=10-9)
9.507*RJRMS (BER=10-6)
6.180*RJRMS(BER=10-3)
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35. Useful References
• “Analysis of Jitter with the R&S FSUP Signal Source Analyzer”
Rohde & Schwarz Application Note 1EF71
• “Converting Between RMS and Peak-to-Peak Jitter at a Specified BER”
Maxim Integrated Application Note HFAN-4.0.2
• “Clock Jitter and Measurement”
SiTime Application Note SiT-AN10007
• “A Primer on Jitter, Jitter Measurement and Phase-Locked Loops”
Silicon Labs Application Note AN687
• “Determining Peak to Peak Frequency Jitter”
Pletronics White Paper
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