A traceable time interval measurement with a reduced uncertainty

Abstract

Time interval (TI) is one of the basic quantities. Its measurement is not included only in the activities running in the time and frequency metrology but also included in the measurement of many other quantities that depend on time interval measurement (TIM). This means that improving the accuracy and reducing the measurement uncertainty of TI will reflect also on improving the accuracy and reducing the measurement uncertainty of many other quantities. To do that, we need to decrease or eliminate the effect of the dominant factors that degrade the quality of TIM. One of the major contributors to the measurement uncertainty of TI is the internal error of the time interval counter (TIC) used in the measurement. In this paper we introduce a methodology with which we can estimate precisely the internal error of the counter and eliminate its effect.

Keywords

• Time interval measurement
• frequency
• time interval counter
• uncertainty measurement