UNDERSTANDING PHASE NOISE

­FUNDAMENTALS

White paper | Version 01.01 | Paul Denisowski

CONTENTS
1 Overview..........................................................................................................................................................3

2  About oscillators.............................................................................................................................................3
2.1  Oscillators and phase noise.............................................................................................................................3
2.2  Ideal oscillator..................................................................................................................................................3
2.3  Non-ideal (real) oscillator................................................................................................................................3

3  About phase noise..........................................................................................................................................4

4  Common effects of phase noise....................................................................................................................4

4.1  Review of mixing.............................................................................................................................................4
4.2  Phase noise and spectral regrowth.................................................................................................................5
4.3  Phase noise and reciprocal mixing..................................................................................................................6
4.4  Phase noise and communications systems.....................................................................................................7

5  Measuring and analyzing phase noise..........................................................................................................8

5.1  Overview of the spectrum analyzer method....................................................................................................8
5.2  Single sideband phase noise...........................................................................................................................9
5.3  Plotting SSB phase noise...............................................................................................................................10
5.4  Spot noise......................................................................................................................................................11
5.5  Phase noise analyzer/cross correlation method............................................................................................11
5.6  Additional phase noise related measurements.............................................................................................12

6 Summary.......................................................................................................................................................13

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1  OVERVIEW
A stable frequency source is a common requirement for many electronic and most RF
devices. Phase noise is the term used to describe measurements of the short-term fre-
quency stability of these sources. This white paper provides a brief technical introduction
to phase noise concepts as well as an overview of how phase noise is measured and
reported.

2  ABOUT OSCILLATORS
2.1  Oscillators and phase noise
Oscillators are commonly used as frequency references and therefore phase noise is
commonly used to quantify oscillator stability. All real-world oscillators exhibit some
amount of frequency or phase variation, and although there are ways to minimize this
variation, it can never be completely eliminated. As discussed below, excessive frequency
instability can create serious problems in many applications, so accurately quantifying or
measuring this level of instability is very important.

2.2  Ideal oscillator

The output of an ideal oscillator is usually a purely sinusoidal signal, which can be
described mathematically as V(t) = A ∙ cos(ωt + φ). In this equation, the amplitude (A) of
the oscillator output is a constant, the radial frequency (ω) is a constant, and the phase
shift or phase offset (φ) is a constant. Viewed in the frequency domain, a pure sinusoid
therefore appears as a single narrow spectral line, with all of its power at a single fre-
quency, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Ideal oscillator

t ω = 2πƒ f

2.3  Non-ideal (real) oscillator

A non-ideal or real-world oscillator signal can be described mathematically as
V(t) = A(t) ∙ cos(ωt + φ(t)). Note that this equation differs from the ideal oscillator equa-
tion in two ways. The radial frequency (ω) is still a constant, but both the amplitude and
the phase offset are now functions of time. In other words, the amplitude and the phase
of the signal now vary over time, usually in an unpredictable or random fashion. In the
time domain, phase variations cause a shifting of where the sinusoid crosses the x-axis:
a phenomenon often referred to as jitter. In the frequency domain, these variations cre-
ate sidebands extending out from both sides of the carrier. Figure 2 shows the output of a
non-ideal, real-world oscillator in both the time and frequency domains.

Rohde & Schwarz White paper | Understanding phase noise f­ undamentals 3

 Unintended or unpredictable changes in the phase and amplitude of an oscillator output
are both undesirable, but in most cases the effects of phase variation are much larger and
more important than the effects of amplitude variations.

Figure 2: Non-ideal (real) oscillator

t ω = 2πƒ f

3  ABOUT PHASE NOISE

Phase noise is the term used to describe short term variations in phase or frequency stabil-
ity, with "short term" referring to time intervals on the order of seconds or less. Another
way of defining or describing phase noise is as random or unintentional phase modula-
tion. Short term stability or "good phase noise performance" is very important in a wide
variety of RF applications, but this short term stability can be difficult to obtain, with a
substantial cost and complexity often associated with even modest increases in phase
noise performance.

4  COMMON EFFECTS OF PHASE NOISE

The importance of minimizing phase noise can best be understood by looking at the
effects of excessive phase noise. The three most common effects of phase noise are
spectral regrowth, decreased sensitivity/selectivity, and increased bit errors.

4.1  Review of mixing

Spectral regrowth and decreased sensitivity/selectivity are both related to mixing. A mixer
is a device that can be used to move signals from one frequency to another. It does this
by combining an input signal (fin) with a local oscillator (fLO) to produce an output that
contains not just the original signals, but also signals at the sum (fin + fLO) and difference
(fin – fLO) of these two frequencies (Figure 3).

Mixing is widely used in RF receivers for two main reasons. First, it is generally easier
to work with lower frequency signals than higher frequency signals. Second, mixing
allows the use of fixed frequency filters, amplifiers, etc. In a receiver, signals can simply
be mixed “down” to a convenient frequency for processing. Conversely, a signal may be
mixed "up" in frequency, for example, in the case of a transmitter that converts a lower
frequency or "baseband" signal into a radio frequency signal.

4
 Figure 3: Mixing produces the sum and difference frequency of the input signal and local oscillator

Mixer

fin
fin – fLO fin fLO fin + fLO

Local oscillator

fLO

4.2  Phase noise and spectral regrowth

Any phase noise in the local oscillator signal is also mixed with the input signal, leading
to an output whose mixing products are distorted and spread in frequency. This is some-
times called “spectral regrowth" and is shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Local oscillator phase noise and distorted/spread mixing products

Mixer

fin
fin – fLO fin fLO fin + fLO

Local oscillator

fLO

The consequences of spectral regrowth are easily seen in wider bandwidth signals, such
as those found in LTE, 5G NR, Wi-Fi, etc. If the local oscillator has low phase noise, the
resulting signal will be mostly contained within its assigned channel (Figure 5) with very
little power leaking into the adjacent channels. But as the level of phase noise increases,
the signal will become wider and will spread further into these adjacent channels. At high
levels of phase noise (the red trace), this regrowth or “adjacent channel leakage” can
become quite severe, causing significant interference.

Figure 5: Spectral regrowth (adjacent channel leakage) in a wideband signal

Rohde & Schwarz White paper | Understanding phase noise f­ undamentals 5

 4.3  Phase noise and reciprocal mixing
Phase noise can also cause problems due to reciprocal mixing. Reciprocal mixing
arises in situations where a small wanted signal (green in Figure 6) is adjacent to a large
unwanted signal (red).

A local oscillator and mixer can be used to move the signals down to an IF (intermediate
frequency) for processing. The IF filter (gray) only selects the desired signal and rejects
the larger unwanted adjacent signal.

Figure 6: Large adjacent interferer rejected by IF filter

Mixer

fin

Local oscillator IF

fLO

However, if the local oscillator has excessive amounts of phase noise, energy will spread
from the adjacent unwanted signal into the IF filter, making it difficult or impossible to
recover the smaller signal (Figure 7). Local oscillator phase noise therefore should be kept
as low as possible, since this phase noise reduces both the sensitivity and selectivity of a
receiver.

Figure 7: LO phase noise reduces sensitivity when interferer power spills into IF

Mixer

Local oscillator
IF

6
 4.4  Phase noise and communications systems
Phase noise can also create problems for communications systems that use some form
of phase modulation. Most modern high-data rate wireless technologies use modula-
tion schemes that are based on phase and amplitude modulation, for example, APSK
(amplitude and phase shift keying) or QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation). These
modulation schemes are often represented using polar constellation diagrams, where each
point in the constellation is a “symbol” composed of a unique amplitude and phase
(Figure 8).

Phase noise causes a rotation of the constellation, with higher levels of phase noise
causing greater rotation of the points (Figure 9). If this rotation becomes high enough,
symbols can be interpreted incorrectly, leading to bit errors or a higher bit error rate.

Figure 8: 16QAM constellation diagram

Figure 9: 16QAM with phase noise

Rohde & Schwarz White paper | Understanding phase noise f­ undamentals 7

5  MEASURING AND ANALYZING PHASE NOISE
There are two types of RF test and measurement instruments that can be used to mea-
sure or analyze phase noise: spectrum analyzers and phase noise analyzers. Outwardly,
these instruments are often very similar in appearance and display results in similar ways,
but there are important differences between them.

Spectrum analyzers are general-purpose instruments and are the traditional tool used for
measuring phase noise. In almost all cases phase noise measurements using spectrum
analyzers are performed by means of an automated phase noise measurement applica-
tion. The greatest advantage of using a spectrum analyzer for phase noise measurements
is that a spectrum analyzer is a flexible, general-purpose instrument that can be used for
a wide range of other measurements as well.

A phase noise analyzer, as the name implies, is an instrument containing specialized hard-
ware specifically designed for making phase noise measurements. Phase noise analyzers
usually have higher speed and higher sensitivity than traditional spectrum analyzers, the
increased sensitivity primarily being a result of the cross correlation method implemented
in many phase noise analyzers – this will be covered in chapter 5.5. In addition, many
modern phase noise analyzers also have other functionality used in testing oscillators,
such as the ability to measure amplitude noise and spurious emissions or the ability to
characterize voltage controlled oscillators.

5.1  Overview of the spectrum analyzer method

The spectrum analyzer (or “direct spectrum”) method is the traditional method for
measuring phase noise and is illustrated in Figure 10. The first step in this method is mea-
suring the power of the carrier (Pc), that is, the nominal oscillator output signal, as an
absolute power in dBm. Next, the noise power (Pn) within a 1 Hz bandwidth is measured
at a given frequency offset from the carrier. Subtracting the carrier power from the noise
power yields phase noise (ℒ(f)) in units of dBc/Hz. Note that these values will always be
negative. Phase noise measurements normally involve repeating this process at different
frequency offsets from the carrier. Measured phase noise will usually be different at dif-
ferent offsets, generally decreasing the further away measurements are made from the
carrier.

Figure 10: Spectrum analyzer method

Pc

L(f) = Pn (dBm/Hz) – Pc(dBm)

1 Hz

Pn

Offset

8
 5.2  Single sideband phase noise
In Figure 10, phase noise was measured at a positive frequency offset from the carrier.
Since the “sidebands” created by phase noise are usually symmetrical around the car-
rier, measured phase noise is normally the same for a given positive or negative offset
from the carrier. In Figure 11, phase noise is –70 dBc/Hz at both +10 kHz and –10 kHz
offsets from the carrier. Therefore, phase noise is normally only measured on one side of
the ­carrier (Figure 11) and this measurement is called “single sideband phase noise”. By
convention, positive offsets (the upper sideband) are used when measuring and reporting
phase noise.

Figure 11: Symmetrical phase noise

–70 dBc/Hz –70 dBc/Hz

f
–10 kHz +10 kHz

Figure 12: Upper sideband

–70 dBc/Hz

f
+10 kHz

Rohde & Schwarz White paper | Understanding phase noise f­ undamentals 9

 5.3  Plotting SSB phase noise
Single sideband phase noise is measured and plotted over a defined range of frequency
offsets. In Figure 13, this offset range is 1 kHz to 1 MHz. A logarithmic scale is used
because this allows both a wide frequency range as well as finer resolution close to the
carrier – smaller offsets or “close in“ phase noise are often of greater interest than the
phase noise at larger frequency offsets.

Figure 13: Single sideband phase noise plot

–95

–100

–105

–110

–115

–120

–125

–130
103 104 105 106

Since phase noise is undesirable, lower values in a phase noise plot indicate “better”
phase noise performance. Note that many phase noise plots have distinct “regions” in
which the phase noise graph has different slopes. These are highlighted in Figure 14.
These different regions exist because the causes or sources of phase noise are often dif-
ferent at different offsets from the carrier.

Figure 14: Phase noise "regions"

–95

–100

–105

–110

–115

–120

–125

–130
103 104 105 106

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 5.4  Spot noise
In addition to the single sideband phase noise plot, another common way of represent-
ing phase noise measurement results is spot noise. Spot noise is the numerical phase noise
result (in dBc/Hz) at one or more specific frequency offsets. Spot noise is often measured
at decade offsets, that is, offsets which are powers of ten, e.g. 1 kHz, 10 kHz, 100 kHz,
etc., although it is also possible to measure spot noise at arbitrary, user-defined offsets.
Spot noise is commonly reported in table form and is often used to verify that phase
noise at a given offset is below a specified threshold or specification value.

Figure 15: Spot noise

–95
Offset Phase noise

–100 1.00 kHz –98.35 dBc/Hz

10.00 kHz –105.16 dBc/Hz
–105 100.00 kHz –127.56 dBc/Hz
1.00 MHz –129.45 dBc/Hz
–110

–115

–120

–125

–130
103 104 105 106

5.5  Phase noise analyzer/cross correlation method

Although it presents results in the same way, a phase noise analyzer measures phase
noise differently than a spectrum analyzer. The first difference is that phase noise analyz-
ers measure phase noise directly, typically using a special digital phase demodulator. The
other important difference is related to the cross correlation method in modern phase noise
analyzers.

All measurement instruments contain local oscillators whose phase noise will be added to
the phase noise of the device under test (DUT). In cross correlation, the incoming signal
from the device under test (DUT) is routed through two “identical” measurement paths in
the instrument. These “identical” paths have independent local oscillators, each of which
has slightly different, that is, uncorrelated phase noise. When these two paths are fed into
a cross-correlation function, the uncorrelated phase noise generated by the instrument
can be minimized or removed, thus allowing a more precise and more sensitive mea-
surement of the phase noise in the signal from the DUT. Increasing the number of cross
correlations further increases the sensitivity, allowing the measurement of extremely low
levels of phase noise.

Rohde & Schwarz White paper | Understanding phase noise f­ undamentals 11

 Figure 16: Cross correlation method

Ref 1

I/Q
Low pass filter
Low noise amplifier
…
Cross
correlation
DUT I/Q
Low pass filter
Low noise amplifier
…

Ref 2

Phase noise analyzers therefore have the advantage of being much faster, especially
when measuring close-in offsets, as well as having much greater measurement accuracy
and sensitivity when using the cross correlation method.

5.6  Additional phase noise related measurements

This white paper covers the fundamentals of phase noise measurements, but there are
many additional types of phase noise related measurements. Integrated phase noise mea-
surements involve integrating over some portion of the single sideband phase noise
curve. Additive (or "residual") phase noise measurements are used to determine how much
phase noise is added as a signal moves through a device. Measuring the phase noise of
pulsed signals such as radar presents special challenges, as does measuring amplitude noise
separately from phase noise. Allan variance is a measure of long-term frequency stability,
and VCO characterization is used to determine additional key properties of voltage controlled
oscillators.

Figure 17: Additional common phase noise related measurements

Integrated phase noise Residual (or additive) Pulsed phase noise

phase noise

∫ L(ƒ)dƒ

Amplitude noise Allan variance VCO characterization

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6  SUMMARY
An ideal oscillator produces a signal whose frequency, amplitude, and phase do not vary
over time. Phase noise describes the short-term variations in the frequency or phase of
signals produced by real-world oscillators or other devices. Phase noise is undesirable
for many reasons and phase noise measurements are used to quantify phase noise per-
formance. Phase noise measurement results are typically given in the form of a single
sideband plot, which shows phase noise as a function of carrier offset, and as spot noise,
which is a measurement of phase noise at specific offsets. Two types of instruments are
used when measuring phase noise. Traditional spectrum analyzers often support auto-
mated phase noise measurement personalities in addition to their many other functions.
Dedicated phase noise analyzers contain special hardware designed to make very fast
and very accurate measurements of phase noise and also frequently incorporate a cross
correlation function in order to reduce the influence of instrument phase noise and maxi-
mize measurement sensitivity.

Rohde & Schwarz White paper | Understanding phase noise f­ undamentals 13

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 Rohde & Schwarz White paper | Understanding phase noise f­ undamentals 15
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PD 3683.4678.52 | Version 01.01 | October 2021 (ch) | White paper
Understanding phase noise f­ undamentals
Data without tolerance limits is not binding | Subject to change
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