Comparative analysis of MEMS, programmable, and synthesized frequency control devices versus traditional quartz based devices

Over the years there has been a natural evolution of frequency control devices. This has come about due to the various requirements, some being cost driven, others performance/reliability issues and others by the ever reducing design cycle times. The incumbent quartz based devices have long since been the standard by which most of the new invention devices are compared, at least from a marketing standpoint. This is due to the long (some 75 years) history of quartz as a very stable, high quality material. Frequency versus temperature response as well as aging, jitter and phase noise characteristics are well chronicled in the industry. However a concise technical correlation of such characteristics with the ‘replacement’ technology is rather elusive. This exercise seeks to apply standard measurement techniques under the same test conditions for all devices for direct comparison of performance and capability. All devices characterized in this paper were commercially purchased to ensure a random sampling of the technology. This data represents the technology that was commercially available at the time of the study.