Studying a prototype of a phase-stable synchronization of ADCS in distributed reception channels of radio frequency interferometer using technologies of microwave photonics

Previously we had studied and described a principle of minimizing the phase-difference error at digitizing a pick-up in ADCs in distributed receiving channels of an RF interferometer. We achieved this by using fiber channel links as part of the clock distribution network for ADCs. We also estimated an inserted phase error, noise and gain factors of the same.

We have used this prototype of a phase stable synchronizing system for ADCs and SPUs of distributed reception channels of an RF interferometer with fiber channel links to verify the estimates and implementation of the above-described principle. We carried out measurements at two frequencies as follows: noise and transmission factors of the fiber channels, level of inserted phase noise, with calculating the level of inserted phase error.