about Oscillation circuit with quartz crystal

1. Typical Oscillation Circuit (Fundamental oscillation mode)

2. Load capacitance and oscillation frequency

3. Drive level of crystal oscillator

4. The following points must be considered when designing a PCB pattern.

Oscillation Circuit with quartz crystal

When building an oscillation circuit with a quartz crystal unit, the following items should be considered.

1. Typical Oscillation Circuit (Fundamental oscillation mode)

A typical oscillation circuit diagram is shown in Fig.7.

Fig.7 Typical oscillation circuit in fundamental vibration mode
Fig.7 Typical oscillation circuit in fundamental vibration mode

When the oscillation mode is in a steady state, the relations among the reactance of crystal unit Xe, circuit reactance -X, impedance of crystal Re and circuit impedance -R are as follows:

Typical Oscillation Circuit

And the simplified oscillation circuit in a steady state is shown in Fig.8.

Fig.8 Equivalent oscillation circuit of parallel resonance oscillation circuit
Fig.8 Equivalent oscillation circuit of parallel resonance oscillation circuit

To obtain secure oscillation of the circuit, the negative resistance of the circuit must satisfy the following equation : -R | < Re.
Taking the circuit in Fig.7 as an example, the negative resistance of the circuit is shown as follows:

Typical Oscillation Circuit

Here,
gm = Mutual conductance of a transistor at the oscillation stage
= Oscillation angle frequency

2. Load capacitance and oscillation frequency

Given that
Series resonance frequency = fr
Equivalent Series Capacitance = C1

Parallel Capacitance = C0
Resonance Frequency (With Load Capacitance CL) = fL
and fL - fr = deltaf
then,

Load capacitance and oscillation frequency

The above equation is induced.
The load capacitance can be regarded as the series capacitance of C01,
C02 and C03 + CV, as shown in Fig.7., including stray capacitances of transistors and circuit patterns.
Therefore, the load capacitance CL is given by the following equation.

Load capacitance and oscillation frequency

The "pulling range", the frequency variation range when the load capacitance of the oscillation circuit can be altered from CL1 to CL2, is expressed as,

Load capacitance and oscillation frequency

If the equivalent series capacitance C1, parallel capacitance C0, and the above CL1 and CL2 are given, the frequency variation range can be induced from the above equation. The "pulling Sensitivity", the sensitivity of an element near the load capacitance (CL), is given by the following equation.

Load capacitance and oscillation frequency

The resonance frequency vs. load capacitance characteristics are shown in Fig. 9. The result of calculating the above equations (3), (5), (6)
under the given conditions of C1 = 16fF, C0 = 3.5pF, CL = 30pF, CL1 = 27pF, and CL2 = 33pF.

Fig.9 Frequency vs. load capacitance
Fig.9 Frequency vs. load capacitance

By applying this phenomenon, the output frequency of the oscillationcircuit can be trimmed to the nominal frequency, by adjusting a variable trimmer capacitor to offset the deviation due to production deviation of the crystal unit and the deviation of components in the oscillation circuit.
Although a reduction in the load capacitance (CL) in Equation (6) will increase the device sensitivity, it will also, conversely, decrease the stability.
Please note that a reduction in the load capacitance will increase the difficulty in starting oscillation because the effective resistance of the crystal unit will increase, as shown in equation (7).

Fig.9 Frequency vs. load capacitance

3. Drive level of crystal oscillator

In order to ensure the stable oscillation of the crystal oscillator, a certain degree of drive power must be applied. Fig.13 shows how the frequency varies with the drive level, the amount of the frequency shift increasing as the drive level increases.

Applying a high drive power (approx. 50mW) to a crystal unit will cause damage to it. For use in a normal oscillation circuit,
the preferred drive power is 0.1 mW or less (max. 0.5 mW).

Drive level of crystal oscillato

4. The following points must be considered when designing a PCB pattern.

The pattern length from the oscillation stage to the crystal unit shall be the minimum in order to keep the stray capacitance of the oscillation loop to a minimum.
When putting other components and wiring patterns over the oscillation loop, the increase of stray capacity shall be kept to a minimum.

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