2.44 GHz Surface Acoustic Wave Resonator Phase Noise Measured by Carrier Suppression Technique.

The phase noise of surface acoustic wave resonators is explored by a passive measurement system based on the carrier suppression technique. The measurements are focused on 2.44 GHz quartz crystal resonators. These resonators are characterized in term of motional parameters. The power dissipated through the resonators is around 500 μW. The second order frequency-temperature coefficient of the resonators has been measured to be around -0.038 ppm/°C2 that corresponds to a classical ST-cut. The resonator conditioning is presented. The measured noise exhibits a 1/f frequency fluctuation behavior. The short term stability (flicker floor) is given in term of Allan standard deviation. The order of magnitude is around 2·10-10. Additional measurements are given for resonators at 433 MHz and 915 MHz in order to compare them. The results are presented according the intrinsic quality factor of the resonators and compared to previous works done in the past by T. Parker. These additional data provide valuable information on the dependence of the flicker noise levels on resonator frequency.