phase noise

In an oscillator, rapid, short-term, random fluctuations in the phase of a wave, caused by time-domain instabilities. Note: Phase noise, in decibels relative to carrier power (dBc) on a 1-Hz bandwidth, is given by = 10log[0.5(S_Φ(f))] where S_Φ(f) is the spectral density of phase fluctuations.