Suntan Technology Company Limited
---All Kinds of Capacitors
Quartz crystal technology offers very many advantages, but against this there are also some other points to be placed into the equation when considering their use:
Advantages:
Very high Q resonator: The Q of a quartz crystal is very high. This in turn reflects in terms of several advantages:
*Very stable signal when used in an oscillator.
*Low levels of phase noise when used in an oscillator.
*When used in a filter it is possible to achieve very high levels of selectivity.
Low cost: Basic crystals are available at very reasonable costs. Their use can often result in a cheaper clock or other source when used as the resonator.
Disadvantages:
Size: A crystal relies on mechanical vibrations for its resonant behaviour. As a result size cannot be reduced easily and they may be large when compared to other SMYT components.
That said, new surface mount technology crystals are available in very small packages now.
Soldering: In view of their performance soldering needs to be undertaken with care observing maximum temperatures and soldering times.
Fixed frequency: Although this can be an advantage as well, a crystal has its own natural resonant frequencies.
Once chosen and manufactured these cannot be altered, although it is possible to 'pull' the frequency of an oscillator by a small amount.