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AP242401 04.99
Ceramic Resonator Oscillators of the
C500 / C166 Microcontroller Family
2.3
Difference of the Start-up and Oscillation Behavior
Based on the physical difference between quartz crystals and ceramic resonators there are different
analysis methods necessary.
2.3.1 Quartz Crystal
The main problem to characterize the start-up and oscillation reliability is the drive level dependency
(DLD) of R
1
and the overall tolerance of the oscillator circuitry. During start-up time the drive level
of the oscillation is very small and is increased up to the maximum. During that time the resistance
of the crystal can reach very high values because crystals show resistance dips depending on the
drive level and temperature. This effect is called drive level dependence. The DLD of a quartz
crystal depends on the quality and can alter during production and during the life time of the crystal.
If the resistance dips of the crystal increase in a range where the loop gain of the oscillator is lower
than one, then the oscillation cannot start.
The test for start-up and oscillation reliability is done with the ’negative resistance’ method. ApNote
2420xx describes how to perform this test
2.3.2 Ceramic Resonator
The ceramic resonator shows no DLD of R
1
. Therefore R
1
depends only on variation in production.
The main problem to characterize the start-up and oscillation reliability of a ceramic resonator is the
tendency to irregular oscillation. This so called ’spurious’ oscillation of the ceramic resonator is
based on the ability to oscillate on 3rd overtone without tank. A tank consists of an additional
external capacitance and inductance to suppress the oscillation in fundamental mode.
The impedance shows a maximum at 3rd overtone for a ceramic resonator running at 3rd overtone.
The impedance at fundamental and 5th overtone is smaller than at 3rd overtone. The 3rd overton
response (main response) is larger than the fundamental and 5th one.
Depending on gain and phase of the oscillator circuit (μC, external circuit and parasitics of the PCB)
spurious oscillation can occur. Therefore most of the evaluation effort has to be spent to check the
tendency to spurious oscillation.
Note: Long wiring tends to support spurious oscillation by increasing inductance!
Figure 1 :
2 Terminal Type and 3 Terminal Type Ceramic Resonators
2 Terminal Type
3 Terminal Type