Techniques on Crystal Oscillator Vibration Compensation

Abstract

Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillators (OCXOs) have been employed for precision timing and frequency distribution and synchronization applications, such as telecommunication, instrumentation, and test equipment in today’s Commercial, Military, Scientific, Space and Low Earth Orbit markets. Since 1978, Wenzel Laboratory has been researching and developing outstanding performance oscillators to provide the lowest phase noise, as low as -190dBc/Hz, and highest short-term stability for these markets. In this paper, various compensation techniques developed at Quantic Wenzel are discussed and compared. Quantic Wenzel employs such techniques to greatly improve the stability of its OCXOs in various mild to harsh vibration environments. Consequently, this lends itself to provide quieter performance in multiple applications, whether OCXOs are exposed to micro-vibration environments caused by disturbance sources onboard spacecraft or noisy environments such as a jet aircraft landing or taking off on a carrier. An example of a compact microcontroller-based vibration compensated OCXO developed at Quantic Wenzel will be presented. Such digitally controlled OCXOs can also be employed to correct for thermal drift or errors in GPS location when GPS signals become unavailable in telecom and navigation systems.