Frequency-temperature sensitivity reduction with optimized microwave Bragg resonators

Abstract

Dielectric resonators are employed to build state-of-the-art low-noise and high-stability oscillators operating at room and cryogenic temperatures. A resonator temperature coefficient of frequency is one criterion of performance. This paper reports on predictions and measurements of this temperature coefficient of frequency for three types of cylindrically symmetric Bragg resonators operated at microwave frequencies. At room temperature, microwave Bragg resonators have the best potential to reach extremely high Q-factors. Research has been conducted over the last decade on modeling, optimizing, and realizing such high Q-factor devices for applications such as filtering, sensing, and frequency metrology. We present an optimized design, which has a temperature sensitivity 2 to 4 times less than current whispering gallery mode resonators without using temperature compensating techniques and about 30% less than other existing Bragg resonators. Also, the performance of a new generation single-layered Bragg resonator, based on a hybrid-Bragg-mode, is reported with a sensitivity of about 12 ppm/K at 295 K. For a single reflector resonator, it achieves a similar level of performance as a double-Bragg-reflector resonator but with a more compact structure and performs six times better than whispering-gallery-mode resonators. The hybrid resonator promises to deliver a new generation of high-sensitivity sensors and high-stability room-temperature oscillators.