[time-nuts] Understanding Oliver Collins Paper "Design of Low Jitter Hard Limiters"

David davidwhess at gmail.com
Wed Aug 22 16:58:16 UTC 2012


I was not measuring cycle to cycle jitter but the input to output
jitter of a TTL gate itself when used as part of a delay circuit.  The
input circuit and input waveform to the gate are very similar to what
would be expected in a sine wave zero crossing detector.

Using a 7S11/7T11 in sequential sampling mode, I could see the jitter
fine on any analog 7000 series oscilloscope but to get a nicer photo,
I used a 7834 in variable persistence mode.  The trigger occurs about
80ns before the displayed fast rise pulse.  Most of the jitter is a
product of the low power supply rejection of the TTL gate and input
circuit.

http://www.banishedsouls.org/c2df3757f1/PG506/PDJ%20Test%201b%20-%201.jpg

Using hard limiting before the zero crossing detector will relax the
design of the later significantly.  Differential signal paths would
help considerably as well.

From going through the manuals and specifications, I am just not sure
the TDS220 or TDS3012 has the time base resolution necessary to
compare the jitter from the two different designs.  On my 2440, it was
very difficult to see any difference between no jitter and the jitter
in the example I linked above.

On Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:44:10 +0200, Azelio Boriani
<azelio.boriani at screen.it> wrote:

>According to
>
>http://cp.literature.agilent.com/litweb/pdf/5989-8794EN.pdf
>
>the real time sampling scope (like the TDS220 or TDS3012) can measure cycle
>to cycle jitter directly, whereas the equivalent time sampling has only one
>sample each trigger and a little delay on the sampling point for the next
>trigger. The displayed waveform is a sort of "sum" of more than one cycle
>and now I can't figure out what type of picture this can give. The TDS3012
>has also the advantage of the Digital Phosphor behavior that can be useful
>for the jitter analysis. Maybe a stable timebase and low jitter external
>trigger input are essential. Unfortunately the TDS3012 has a 200ppm
>timebase...
>
>On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 2:54 PM, David <davidwhess at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Do you mean with a 7404 hex inverter?  I actually did something like
>> this recently while adding a 75ns pre-trigger pulse to an existing
>> fast rise pulse generator.
>>
>> The pre-trigger pulse ended up having significant pattern dependant
>> jitter caused by the adjacent TTL divider chain modulating the supply
>> voltage and the poor power supply rejection of the 7404.  I was easily
>> able to see the jitter on my 7T11 sampling oscilloscope but on my 2440
>> (20 GS/sec equivalent time sampling), it was barely perceptible if
>> that despite ideal conditions.  The peak to peak jitter was about
>> 100ps.
>>
>> As far as I could tell from the available online documentation, the
>> TDS220 and TDS3012 have relatively low sample rates and do not support
>> equivalent time sampling so I would expect them to show even less than
>> my 2440.
>>
>> On Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:55:11 +0200, Azelio Boriani
>> <azelio.boriani at screen.it> wrote:
>>
>> >In your opinion, if I build a 7404 ZCD and a hard limiter one, can I see
>> >the jitter difference on a simple 'scope (Tek TDS220 or TDS3012) or do I
>> >need the Wavecrest SIA3000?
>> >
>> >On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 1:37 AM, Bob Camp <lists at rtty.us> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hi
>> >>
>> >> Since the Collins approach "tunes" the system for a single frequency
>> input
>> >> (more or less), the approach is probably not the best for a "many
>> decades"
>> >> sort of frequency range. There are a number of things that he alludes
>> to in
>> >> the paper, but does not directly address. The most obvious is the
>> >> temperature dependance of the "stuff" the system is made of. Another is
>> the
>> >> simple fact that a non-clipping linear amplifier is likely the best
>> choice
>> >> for a first stage, provide the input is not already near clipping.
>> >>
>> >> Bob
>> >>
>> >> On Aug 21, 2012, at 12:50 PM, raj_sodhi at agilent.com wrote:
>> >>
>> >> > Hello everyone,
>> >> >
>> >> > I am new to this forum.
>> >> > It looks like a lively discussion on various topics.
>> >> >
>> >> > A colleague of mine here at Agilent pointed me to this paper entitled
>> >> "The Design of Low Jitter Hard Limiters" by Oliver Collins. In Bruce
>> >> Griffiths' precision time in frequency webpage, this paper is described
>> as
>> >> "seminal."
>> >> > (http://www.ko4bb.com/~bruce/ZeroCrossingDetectors.html)
>> >> >
>> >> > Since I'm trying to create a limiter that will accept frequencies
>> >> ranging from 1 MHz to 100 MHz, I thought it would be good to understand
>> the
>> >> conclusions of this paper (if not the mathematics as well).  The
>> >> mathematics turned out to be quite challenging to decode. Has someone on
>> >> this forum unraveled the equations? It appears Collins has
>> recommendations
>> >> on the bandwidth and gain of a jitter minimizing limiter, and then
>> extends
>> >> this analysis to provide the bandwidth and gain of a cascade of
>> limiters.
>> >>  But the application is still fuzzy.  In figure 5, he shows a graph
>> showing
>> >> the dependence of jitter on crossing time.  Is the crossing time
>> (implied
>> >> by equations 7) considered a design parameter one can vary? Also, on
>> figure
>> >> 4, the "k" parameter has been varied to show the rising waveform as a
>> >> function of "k".  The threshold is always assumed to be 0.5.  So could
>> "k"
>> >> be related to "tau", the time constant of the RC filter?
>> >> >
>> >> > Thanks in advance for all your help.
>> >> >
>> >> > Yours
>> >> >
>> >> > Raj
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >> >
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