Graduation date: 2006
This thesis presents a comparison of time-domain and frequency-domain
algorithms for phase noise calculation in oscillators. Floquet theory provides the
mathematical foundation for these calculations and the numerical methods employ
perturbation projection vectors (PPVs). The PPVs are an estimate of an
oscillator's sensitivity to noise.
The in-house circuit simulator SPICE3 has been extended to phase noise
analysis based on both the time-domain and frequency-domain periodic steadystate
analyses. These analysis methods have been evaluated on a wide suite of
test oscillators. A detailed comparison of these methods is carried out in terms of
accuracy and computation costs. The SPICE3 version with PPV calculation and
phase noise analysis is a powerful tool for design of noise tolerant oscillators.