Indirect temperature compensation process in an oscillator

Abstract

A temperature compensation technique is disclosed which allows to obtain a compensated clock signal. The temperature compensation technique comprises the use of a thermal model of the oscillator with a temperature sensor in order to accurately compute the oscillator frequency, irrespective of time-variations and rates.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . An estimation generator of the effects of temperature on an oscillator in a GPS receiver system, the estimation generator comprising: a temperature sensor thermally coupled to said oscillator, said temperature sensor outputting a temperature signal; a memory storing data characterizing oscillator frequency as a function of said temperature signal and time according to a thermal model; a calculator receiving said temperature signal over time for estimating oscillator frequency using said thermal model and said data.  
     
     
         2 . The estimation generator as claimed in  claim 1  wherein said data comprises a plurality of look-up table and said calculator derives said estimate from said plurality of look-up table.  
     
     
         3 . The estimation generator as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein said thermal modelis a first order model.  
     
     
         4 . The estimation generator as claimed in  claim 2 , wherein one of said plurality of look-up table relates said temperature signal to the sensor temperature, one of said plurality of look-up table relates said oscillator frequency to oscillator temperature; and the thermal model relates said oscillator temperature to said sensor temperature and to ambient temperature over time.  
     
     
         5 . A method for generating an estimation of the effects of temperature on an oscillator in a GPS receiver system, the method comprising the steps of: 
 (a) varying temperature and measuring oscillator frequency and temperature over time for calibrating the oscillator frequency as a function of the temperature over time according to a thermal model;    (b) in use, estimating the oscillator frequency using said thermal model, said calibration data and said temperature over time.    
     
     
         6 . The method as claimed in  claim 5 , wherein calibrating the oscillator frequency comprises the steps of: 
 (a) varying the temperature and measuring temperature and oscillator frequency over time;    (b) calculating estimates of the oscillator temperature from temperature measurements over time using the thermal model;    (c) calculating estimates of the oscillator frequency from oscillator temperature estimates;    (d) observing errors between the oscillator frequency estimates and the oscillator frequency measurements;    (e) adjusting the parameters of the thermal model such as to reduce the errors, until said errors are acceptable; thereby calibrating the thermal model;    (f) calibrating the oscillator frequency as a function of the estimated oscillator temperature using the oscillator frequency measurements; thereby removing the effect of time variations and rates.    
     
     
         7 . The method as claimed in  claim 6 , wherein the step of observing errors is performed by displaying the error versus a temperature estimate using a Lissajous plot, and estimating the size of the Lissajous pattern on the Lissajous plot.  
     
     
         8 . The method as claimed in  claim 5 , further comprising the step of calibrating said temperature sensor as a function of ambient temperature.  
     
     
         9 . The method as claimed in  claim 8 , wherein calibrating said temperature sensor is performed according to a thermal model of the temperature sensor and the ambient temperature.  
     
     
         10 . The method as claimed in  claim 9 , wherein calibrating the temperature sensor comprises the steps of: 
 (a) varying the ambient temperature and measuring temperature and ambient temperature over time;    (b) calculating estimates of sensor temperature from the ambient temperature measurements over time using the thermal model of the temperature sensor;    (c) calculating estimates of the sensor temperature from the temperature measurements;    (d) observing errors between the estimates of the sensor temperature from the ambient temperature measurements, and the estimates of the sensor temperature from the temperature measurements;    (e) adjusting the parameters of the thermal model of the temperature sensor in order to reduce the errors, until said errors are acceptable; thereby calibrating the thermal model;    (f) calibrating the temperature as a function of the estimated sensor temperature using the temperature measurements; thereby removing the effect of time variations and rates.    
     
     
         11 . The method as claimed in  claim 10 , wherein the step of observing errors is performed by displaying the error versus a temperature estimate using a Lissajous plot, and estimating the size of the Lissajous pattern on the Lissajous plot.  
     
     
         12 . The method as claimed in  claim 9 , wherein calibrating the oscillator frequency as a function of said sensor temperature and time according to a thermal model of the oscillator comprises the steps of: 
 (a) varying the ambient temperature and measuring temperature and oscillator frequency over time;    (b) calculating estimates of the sensor temperature from the temperature measurements using said calibration data of the temperature sensor;    (c) calculating estimates of the oscillator temperature from the sensor temperature estimates over time using the thermal model of the oscillator;    (d) calculating estimates of the oscillator frequency using the oscillator temperature estimates;    (e) observing errors between the oscillator frequency estimates and the oscillator frequency measurements;    (f) adjusting the parameters of the thermal model of the oscillator in order to reduce the errors, until said errors are acceptable; thereby calibrating the thermal model;    (g) calibrating the oscillator frequency as a function of the estimated oscillator temperature using the oscillator frequency measurements; thereby removing the effect of time variations and rates.    
     
     
         13 . The method as claimed in  claim 12 , wherein the step of observing errors is performed by displaying the error versus a temperature estimate using a Lissajous plot, and estimating the size of the Lissajous pattern on the Lissajous plot.