Convergence of oscillator spectral estimators for counted-frequency measurements.

A common intermediary connecting frequency-noise calibration or testing of an oscillator to useful applications is the spectral density of the frequency-deviating process. In attempting to turn test data into predicts of performance characteristics, one is naturally led to estimation of statistical values by sample-mean and sample-variance techniques. However, sample means and sample variances themselves are statistical quantities that do not necessarily converge (in the mean-square sense) to actual ensemble-average means and variances, except perhaps for excessively large sample sizes. This is especially true for the flicker noise component of oscillators. This article shows, for the various types of noises found in oscillators, how sample averages converge (or do not converge) to their statistical counterparts. The convergence rate is shown to be the same for all oscillators of a given spectral type.