Method and apparatus for measuring jitter in a periodic signal.

摘要

Jitter in a clock signal is measured by using the clock signal to clock a digitizer repetitively digitizing a highly stable sine wave signal so as to produce a first data sequence representing the magnitude of the sine wave signal as a function of time. This first data sequence is normalized to produce a second data sequence having data elements that vary between maximum and minimum magnitudes of +1 and -1. The arcsine of each element of the second data sequence is then determined to provide a monotonically increasing third data sequence, wherein each element of the third data sequence indicates a phase angle associated with a corresponding element of the second data sequence. A fourth data sequence is then generated, each element of the fourth data sequence representing a difference between a phase angle represented by a corresponding element of the third data sequence and a phase angle that the corresponding element of the third data sequence would represent if the clock signal had a constant frequency. The fourth data sequence provides a measure of clock signal jitter as a function of time.