An introduction to piezo MEMS oscillators Harmeet Bhugra, IDT
2/26/2013 12:40 PM EST Over the past several decades, quartz
crystal resonators (XTALs) and oscillators (XOs) have been used
for frequency reference applications in almost all electronic
systems due to their stability and superior electrical
performance such as low phase noise and frequency stability. To
overcome performance limitations and to resolve quartz
oscillator reliability issues, several alternative technologies
have been trying to replace quartz in recent years, including
MEMS oscillators and CMOS oscillators. These new disruptive
technologies provide better robustness against shock and
vibration, smaller form-factor, and the potential of monolithic
integration. Compared to the quartz counterparts, however, their
performance needs to be improved especially for high frequency
reference applications. Piezoelectrically transduced pMEMS
resonators have emerged as one of the strong candidates for
replacing quartz technology for high-frequency,