This paper treats a new approach to the problem of periodic signal estimation. The idea is to model the periodic signal as a function of the state of a second-order nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE). This is motivated by Poincare theory, which is useful for proving the existence of periodic orbits for second-order ODEs. The functions of the right-hand side of the nonlinear ODE are then parameterized by a multivariate polynomial in the states, where each term is multiplied by an unknown parameter. A maximum likelihood algorithm is developed for estimation of the unknown parameters, from the measured periodic signal. The approach is analyzed by derivation and solution of a system of ODEs that describes the evolution of the Cramer