Design crystal oscillator to match your app

Quartz crystals are mechanical resonators with piezoelectric properties. The piezoelectric properties (electric potential across the crystal is proportional to mechanical deformation) allow their use as electrical circuit elements. Crystals are widely used as resonant elements in oscillators due to their high quality factor (QF), excellent frequency stability, tight tolerance, and relatively low cost. This tutorial explains the primary design considerations to be addressed in a design of a simple crystal oscillator using AT-cut crystals. The basic qualities of a crystal oscillator and factors that can affect their performance in a variety of applications are described. The topics discussed here are the compilation of issues encountered over a decade of design and applications for ISM-band radios. These topics include load capacitance, negative resistance, startup time, frequency stability versus temperature, drive-level dependency, crystal ageing, frequency error, and spurious modes.

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Originally published by Maxim Integrated Products Inc. at www.maximintegrated.com as "Design a Crystal Oscillator to Match Your Application".