Note: Inter-satellite laser range-rate measurement by using digital phase locked loop

This note presents an improved high-resolution frequency measurement system dedicated for the inter-satellite range-rate monitoring that could be used in the future’s gravity recovery mission. We set up a simplified common signal test instead of the three frequencies test. The experimental results show that the dominant noises are the sampling time jitter and the thermal drift of electronic components, which can be reduced by using the pilot-tone correction and passive thermal control. The improved noise level is about 10−8 Hz/Hz1/2@0.01Hz, limited by the signal-to-noise ratio of the sampling circuit.