A phase locked mechanism for time scaling frequency control system

Abstract

A new mechanism is developed for a time scaling frequency control system. Our purpose is to use this mechanism to convert a virtual paper clock time scale into a physical output. We simulate the phase locked loop to control two micro-phase steppers and force them to track the phase variation of the virtual paper clock. A proportional control law with a damping factor was used for controlling the micro-phase steppers. In the result, the two micro-phase steppers are synchronized with the paper clock successfully. The phase difference between two micro-phase steppers and paper clock all were kept in /spl plusmn/300 ps during 100 days, and the related Allan deviation was about 8E-14 (tau = 600 seconds). We create more than one identical system and the systems keep both short-term performance of hydrogen maser and long-term accuracy of a cesium clock ensemble time scale without prediction algorithm. Our mechanism is also helpful for setting up a backup time scaling system, the primary and backup system is kept in phase without any extra artificial adjustment.