Phase noise
In an
oscillator,
phase noise is rapid, short-term, random fluctuations in the
phase of a
wave, caused by
time domain instabilities.
Phase noise, L(f) in decibels relative to carrier power (dBc) on a 1-Hz bandwidth, is given by:
- L(f) = 10log[0.5(S φ(f ))]
where
S φ(
f ) is the
spectral density of phase fluctuations.
Source: Federal Standard 1037C