Book Excerpt Oscillators: The Darker Side, (Part 5 of 5)

If you are a fan of Robert Lacoste's The Darker Side column in Circuit Cellular, then you will be happy to know that he has published a book with tips and tricks to help boost your design's performance: Robert Lacoste's The Darker Side: Practical Applications for Electronic Design Concepts from Circuit Cellar. Topics covered span digital signal design to avoiding interference. We are fortunate to have an excerpt for you, from Chapter 4 on oscillators, presented on the RF and Microwave Designline in five parts.

Note that this chapter is printed with permission from Newnes, a division of Elsevier. Copyright 2010. Robert Lacoste’s, The Darker Side, Practical Applications for Electronic Design Concepts by Robert Lacoste. For more information about this title and other similar books, visit www.newnespress.com. 

Part 1: Introduction to oscillators, including piezoelectricity and how a crystal works. See Part 1 text here.
Part 2: Explains how a crystal is adjusted differently to be used as a parallel resonant frequency versus series resonance. See Part 2 text here.
Part 3: Takes a look at a classic quartz-based CMOS oscillator. See Part 3 text here.
Part 4: Reviews how to accurately determine oscillator start up time and determine if it is stable. See Part 4 text here.
Part 5: Asks/answers the question, what happens at higher frequencies (overtone mode)? See Part 5 text here.

Other chapters in the book cover impedance concerns (Chapter 1), electromagnetic compatibility (Chapter 2), signal processing (Chapter 3), communications (Chapter 5), and power (Chapter 6).