title: The Ω Counter, a Frequency Counter Based on the Linear Regression.
abstract: This paper introduces the Ω counter, a frequency counter-i.e., a frequency-to-digital converter-based on the linear regression (LR) algorithm on time stamps. We discuss the noise of the electronics. We derive the statistical properties of the Ω counter on rigorous mathematical basis, including the weighted measure and the frequency response. We describe an implementation based on a system on chip, under test in our laboratory, and we compare the Ω counter to the traditional Π and Λ counters. The LR exhibits the optimum rejection of white phase noise, superior to that of the Π and Λ counters. White noise is the major practical problem of wideband digital electronics, both in the instrument internal circuits and in the fast processes, which we may want to measure. With a measurement time τ , the variance is proportional to 1/τ(2) for the Π counter, and to 1/τ(3) for both the Λ and Ω counters. However, the Ω counter has the smallest possible variance, 1.25 dB smaller than that of the Λ counter. The Ω counter finds a natural application in the measurement of the parabolic variance, described in the companion article in this Journal [vol. 63 no. 4 pp. 611-623, April 2016 (Special Issue on the 50th Anniversary of the Allan Variance), DOI 10.1109/TUFFC.2015.2499325].
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rubiola
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lenczner
authors.forename: Pierre-Yves
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Bourgeois
authors.forename: Francois
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vernotte