A NIST Disciplined Oscillator: Delivering UTC(NIST) to the Calibration Laboratory

Abstract: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) now offers a service that provides customers with an oscillator locked to UTC(NIST), the United States national standard for frequency and time. A NIST disciplined oscillator (NISTDO) works by utilizing both the Internet and “common-view” observations of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites, and can serve as the primary frequency and time standard for a calibration or metrology laboratory. NISTDOs are directly referenced to the Coordinated Universal Time scale kept at NIST, known as UTC(NIST). This makes it easy for laboratories to establish traceability to the International System directly through NIST. Customers are provided with standard frequency outputs of 5 MHz and/or 10 MHz, as well as timing outputs of 1 pulse per second. These outputs provide frequency with an uncertainty ofss ≈1 × 10−14 (k = 2) when averaged over a 24-hour interval, and time with an uncertainty near 10 ns (k = 2) with respect to UTC(NIST). This paper discusses the theory of operation of the NISTDO, and demonstrates the accuracy and stability of the device over both short and long time intervals.

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