[time-nuts] Bye-Bye Crystals

[David Armstrong]

I work for a company that builds electronics products, low volume,
highly complex units.  

It used to be that you bought a crystal and then made an oscillator
that would use that crystal.  Or you had a single chip micro that used
a crystal for the time base, in the early days you might have to fight
with that oscillator to make it work acceptably.

Now for under a dollar one can have an oscillator without the hassle.
If the oscillator is a (very) small part of the unit cost, one can
spend the engineering effort on more complex parts of the design.

You can chose the parameters you want to optimize cost, phase noise,
stability etc.    



On Mon, 13 Mar 2017 10:09:39 -0700
"Richard (Rick) Karlquist" <richard at karlquist.com> wrote:

> A complete oscillator consists of the crystal integrated with the 
> electronics.  A loose crystal is just a resonator, and the buyer has
> to supply his own electronics.  You rarely see the latter any more in 
> applications other  than oven oscillators.  The same thing happened
> in SAW resonators.  About all you can buy now are SAW oscillators.
> 
> Rick N6RK
> 
> On 3/13/2017 12:07 AM, Bryan _ wrote:
> > sorry, what do you mean by "complete oscillator" have outnumbered
> > loose crystals?
> >
> >
> > -=Bryan=-
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > From: time-nuts <time-nuts-bounces at febo.com> on behalf of Richard
> > (Rick) Karlquist <richard at karlquist.com> Sent: March 12, 2017 4:38
> > PM To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> > Subject: Re: [time-nuts] Bye-Bye Crystals
> >
> > I got a job in 1975 to design Konel's first synthesized radio, which
> > was to obsolete their crystal controlled radios.  That's over 40
> > years ago.  The other trend (not mentioned) is that since 20 years
> > ago or so, complete oscillator sales have vastly outnumbered sales
> > of loose crystals.
> >
> > Rick N6RK
> >
> > On 3/11/2017 8:51 PM, Bob Camp wrote:  
> >> Hi
> >>
> >> International’s main business  was re-channeling non-synthesized
> >> radios and replacing broken crystals in various pieces of com
> >> gear. It’s been a *lot* of years since the last of the
> >> non-synthesized radios came out. The business probably has been
> >> dropping off pretty steadily for many years …
> >>
> >> Bob
> >>  
> >>> On Mar 11, 2017, at 10:39 PM, jimlux <jimlux at earthlink.net> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> On 3/11/17 4:30 PM, Scott McGrath wrote:  
> >>>> From the tone of the letter it sounds like the bank cancelled
> >>>> line of credit,  
> >>>
> >>> Or, he wants to retire and nobody wants to carry it on.  His dad
> >>> started it in 1950, the son picked it up in 1970.  It's 47 years
> >>> later. 
> >>>>
> >>>> Which is stupid given that much of their line is military which
> >>>> is getting a huge boost in spending  
> >>>
> >>> Plenty of other crystal and oscillator manufacturers around.
> >>>
> >>> There's also a change in what kinds of crystals are needed.   I
> >>> suspect most things being built and designed today use the
> >>> crystal as a "master oscillator" that is used to drive some sort
> >>> of synthesis chain. The need for "I have to have a 12.345,324 Hz
> >>> crystal" is going away.
> >>>
> >>>  
> >>>>  
> >>>>> On Mar 11, 2017, at 4:56 PM, Bryan _ <bpl521 at outlook.com> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Disappearing or manufacturing just moving overseas?. Video at
> >>>>> the bottom is interesting, classic.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> http://hackaday.com/2017/03/11/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-crystals/  
> > [https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVF.LElrlkkbByR3K%2f6qfaeHjg&pid=Api]<http://hackaday.com/2017/03/11/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-crystals/>
> >
> > So Long, and Thanks for all the
> > Crystals<http://hackaday.com/2017/03/11/so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-crystals/>
> > hackaday.com There was a time when anyone involved with radio
> > transmitting -- ham operators, CB'ers, scanner enthusiasts, or
> > remote control model fans -- had a collection of ...
> >
> >
> >  
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> -=Bryan=-
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