Note: Inter-satellite laser range-rate measurement by using digital phase locked loop

Yu-Rong Liang; Hui-Zong Duan; Xin-Long Xiao; Bing-Bing Wei; Hsien-Chi Yeh

doi:10.1063/1.4905579

Note: Inter-satellite laser range-rate measurement by using digital phase locked loop

Rev Sci Instrum. 2015 Jan;86(1):016106. doi: 10.1063/1.4905579.

Authors

Yu-Rong Liang¹, Hui-Zong Duan¹, Xin-Long Xiao¹, Bing-Bing Wei¹, Hsien-Chi Yeh¹

Affiliation

¹ MOE Key Laboratory of Fundamental Physical Quantities Measurement, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luo Yu Road, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China.

PMID: 25638133
DOI: 10.1063/1.4905579

Abstract

This note presents an improved high-resolution frequency measurement system dedicated for the inter-satellite range-rate monitoring that could be used in the future's gravity recovery mission. We set up a simplified common signal test instead of the three frequencies test. The experimental results show that the dominant noises are the sampling time jitter and the thermal drift of electronic components, which can be reduced by using the pilot-tone correction and passive thermal control. The improved noise level is about 10(-8) Hz/Hz(1/2)@0.01Hz, limited by the signal-to-noise ratio of the sampling circuit.