0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: crystal oscillators, Clocks & Crystals
5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) will be one of the earliest uses of 5G. 5G FWA will provide lightning fast gigabit internet speeds to homes, apartments, and businesses. Better yet, 5G FWA will be a fraction of the cost compared to traditional cable & fiber systems.
1 Comment Click here to read/write comments
Topics: 5G, GPS & GNSS
5G Wireless is Right Around the Corner thanks to mmWave
Fifth generation wireless systems are not far from becoming a reality, thanks to recent research being done on the millimeter wave (mmWave) radio spectrum.
Experts agree the way forward is to manufacture mass deployable wireless devices across a range of markets and for different applications. Among other things, these applications include mobile computing and data processing over networks. The technology also has applications in the field of medicine and healthcare.
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: engineering, RF Technology
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
April 1, 2020
Bliley Partners with Penn State Behrend and Case Western to Distribute COVID-19 Face Shields
Three Erie companies will manufacture the shields, creating 5,000 every day
Bliley Technologies has partnered with researchers at Penn State Behrend and Case Western Reserve University to fulfill and distribute a face shield for medical professionals who are treating patients who have the COVID-19 virus. They expect to produce nearly 240,000 shields.
0 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Quartz crystal oscillators are the high and mighty option for low phase noise and added frequency stability in circuit design. Yes, simple oscillators like those made with resistor-capacitor (RC) or inductor-capacitor (IC) resonators are fine for some circuits. But if you're dealing with higher performance applications in aerospace, military, and space industries... you're going to want a higher performance crystal oscillator that can maintain low phase noise & strong stability. Otherwise, you'll risk deviating from the very specific (and many times critical) center frequency selected for your design.
2 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: crystal oscillators, RF Technology, Integrated RF
Maintaining strong frequency stability in electronic RF circuits by eliminating phase noise is important in many high-end communication applications. This is especially true for precise targeting in radar systems and spectral purity in other communication systems.
Let's take a deep dive into exactly what phase noise and jitter mean. This will help give you a better idea as to why reducing a system's phase noise is significant.
What Is Phase Noise?
Phase Noise
is represented in the frequency domain of a waveform and consists of rapid, short-term, random fluctuations in the phase (frequency). This is caused by time domain instabilities (jitter).
Be sure not to confuse phase noise with Jitter. Jitter is a method of describing the stability of an oscillator in the Time Domain. It combines all the noise sources together and shows their effect with respect to time.
In the simplest terms, phase noise describes the stability of an oscillator in the Frequency Domain, while jitter describes stability in the Time Domain.
A Simple 5-Step Path to Understanding Phase Noise
To build an in-depth understanding of phase noise, try using this simple 5 step process. Once you understand the 5 steps, you'll understand what makes phase noise...well... phase noise!
"How does Spectral Density connected to Phase Noise in the 5 step process?" you ask? Here's some more details on each step.
Step 1: Spectral Density
Spectral Density is a measure of a signal's power intensity in the frequency domain.
The spectral density provides a useful way to characterize the amplitude versus frequency content of a random signal.
Step 2: When plotting each spectral density point at varied frequency intervals of your choosing (In this case every 1Hz), you're left with a graph that looks like this:
Step 2: Signal Power Density
You are now looking at what is known as the Signal Power Density of the noise.
Now focus only on the upper sideband of the graph from fstart to fstop, this is called the "Single Side Band".
Step 3: Noise Power Density
We can now refer to the plotted part of the single side band as noise (Anything above the nominal oscillator frequency (Fosc) and not harmonically related can be considered phase noise). The technical term for this part of our graph is Noise Power Density (Step 3). We measure noise power density in dBW (LOG(Watts)) at this point because of the large range which we are looking.
Step 4: SSB Noise Density
When we combine the single side band and Noise Power Density, we are actually measuring what's called SSB (Single Side Band) Noise Density.
Step 5: Phase Noise
Finally, we can look at this in the time domain and we see a "jittery" waveform (see graph), we are looking at "jitter". Because the jitter is much smaller than one complete period (see graph), we can say it is caused by "Phase Fluctuations" (instead of frequency fluctuations). Since these fluctuations are noise, it's actually
phase noise.
So...
SSB Noise Density = Phase Noise
...and that's where phase noise comes from! Easy, right?
What Causes Phase Noise?
Phase noise in higher-end applications (such as radar communications, military communications, and space & satcom communications) is typically caused by
- High vibrations
- Micro vibrations
- g forces and acceleration sensitivity
Here are some common sources of phase noise in crystal oscillators.
Random Noise Sources:
Related: Causes and solutions for phase noise in high-end radar and communication systems.
What's Next? Learn How to Achieve Low Phase Noise...
Achieving low phase noise in a crystal oscillator is critical to achieving high-performance. Therefore, it's important to understand an in-depth look at phase noise. Instantly download our free visual guide to the impact of phase noise on various applications.
Now that you know all about phase noise and jitter, you might find it useful to learn about the
best output signal type in your oscillators.
10 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: engineering, crystal oscillators
Go into any electronics lab and you will undoubtably see a bench top multimeter. The humble benchtop digital multimeter is a staple of any lane and is one of the most fundamental and highly used pieces of test equipment for electronic design.
**Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links at no additional cost to you.
As the name implies, the digital multimeter is useful for a wide range of measurements and tests. Bench top digital multimeters, or DMMs, can be used to to make the basic (Ohm’s Law) measurements:
- Measure resistance
- Measure voltage
- Measure current
4 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: engineering, General Topics, Engineering Equiptment
Back in 2016, we wrote one of our most popular posts covering 12 popular Software Defined Radios or SDRs. While the previous post still holds some extremely valuable information, a lot has changed in 3 years... especially the technology related to SDRs. So we thought it was time for an update.
19 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: RF Technology, general
Finding the Best Performing Engineering Laptop
Our engineering team at Bliley is growing, which is great, but it also introduces some new challenges for small business like ours... finding the best performing engineering laptops for our engineers.
We want to give our engineers the best tools available and create an environment where they can be their most innovative and do the best work of their careers. Of course, a key to this whole equation is the technology they use day-to-day to get those next generations products designed. We recently kicked off a search for the best laptops that are perfect for engineering workloads. As you can probably imagine, the ideal laptop for an engineer needs to have great compute and graphics power.
10 Comments Click here to read/write comments
Topics: engineering, General Topics, general, Engineering Equiptment
