Another approach to the study of phase noise in electrical oscillators

Abstract

The mechanism at the base of phase noise generation in electrical oscillators is reexamined from first principles. The well known Lorentzian spectral power distribution is obtained, together with a clearcut expression for the line-width parameter. The mechanism of suppression of the amplitude fluctuations and its effects are discussed and the true role of the figure of merit $Q_0$ of the resonator is restated. The up conversion of low frequency components from a non-white noise source is also considered. A number of simple numerical experiments is presented to illustrate and clarify the mathematical results.