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M5NOMAD12
A quartz crystal oscillator has power consumption in the uA range for kHz ...
psevalia
Silicon MEMS oscillators expand to kHz region
R. Colin Johnson
9/15/2010 5:36 PM EDT
PORTLAND, Ore. — SiTime Corp. has fielded what it says is the first kilohertz-range microelectromechanical system (MEMS) oscillator chip. The SiT8503 covers the 200-kHz to 1,000-kHz range with claimed five-decimal-place accuracy.
"For silicon MEMS to replace quartz, it will have to support all the segments where quartz currently participates," said Piyush Sevalia, vice president of marketing at SiTime (Sunnyvale, Calif.). "Expansion from the megahertz space to the kilohertz space is another step in the overall siliconization of the quartz industry."
SiTime already claims to have the broadest portfolio of MEMS-based silicon oscillators, voltage-controlled oscillators, resonators, clock generators and spread-spectrum timing products. With the addition of a kilohertz offering, it hopes to become a one-stop-shop for all the timing needs of application developers.
The SiT8503 runs on supply voltages of 1.8 to 3.3 V, can withstand shocks to 50,000 G and vibrations up to 70 G, has configurable frequency stability of +/–20 to +/–50 ppm and consumes 10 microamps in standby mode. Packages measure as small as 2.5 x 2 mm.
"For silicon MEMS to replace quartz, it will have to support all the segments where quartz currently participates," said Piyush Sevalia, vice president of marketing at SiTime (Sunnyvale, Calif.). "Expansion from the megahertz space to the kilohertz space is another step in the overall siliconization of the quartz industry."
SiTime already claims to have the broadest portfolio of MEMS-based silicon oscillators, voltage-controlled oscillators, resonators, clock generators and spread-spectrum timing products. With the addition of a kilohertz offering, it hopes to become a one-stop-shop for all the timing needs of application developers.
The SiT8503 runs on supply voltages of 1.8 to 3.3 V, can withstand shocks to 50,000 G and vibrations up to 70 G, has configurable frequency stability of +/–20 to +/–50 ppm and consumes 10 microamps in standby mode. Packages measure as small as 2.5 x 2 mm.
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iniewski
9/15/2010 10:02 PM EDT
Quartz or MEMs or CMOS? Very interesting battle in the oscillator market. SiTime or Discera or IDT. You can make Self-Referenced Monolithic oscillators in CMOS. XTAL and XO replacement? Kris
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R_Colin_Johnson
9/16/2010 8:13 PM EDT
Yes, it seems all three technologies--quartz, CMOS and MEMS--will coexist at least for a while. Silicon Labs now has CMOS and MEMS with its acquisition of Silicon Clocks--hedging its bets.
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jg_
9/16/2010 1:06 AM EDT
Icc of 5.9mA makes these power-hogs.
Perhaps that's just a first-generation value, and they will improve it on future versions ?
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psevalia
9/17/2010 6:00 PM EDT
Hi,
I'm Piyush Sevalia, VP of Marketing at SiTime.
We compared ourselves to the other programmable oscillators in this 200 kHz – 1000 kHz product segment and there are not many providers in this segment.
a) Comparing the SiT8503 to an industry-standard 7050 package offering from another player, our active power is 75% lower.
b) Comparing the SiT8503 to a non-standard footprint device from another player, our active power is about the same, but our standby power is 50% lower.
We have a lower power option available, which cuts the power in almost half. In the variety of applications that we’ve seen, power is not an issue at these frequencies.
Obviously, this 8503 device should not be compared to a 32 kHz RTC oscillator, which is for a completely different market segment.
The comment about non-MEMS silicon oscillators is definitely interesting. Many of our customers require total frequency stability of less than +/- 50 PPM (and in some cases, as low as +/- 10 PPM), which is not offered by non-MEMS Silicon oscillators and is probably difficult to achieve. Our customers say that this requirement is for improved timing margins and system reliability. We'd love to hear some feedback on whether this total frequency stability spec is important or not.
Piyush
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jg_
9/17/2010 10:05 PM EDT
Hi Piyush,
For an example of better Crystal-Osc-Icc's look at
http://www.kds.info/html/products/technical_guide/technical_information/detail/4317802_en.htm
- and also the better Microcontrollers, that have configurable power oscillators, also cover the 200KHz-1MHz range.
If someone is going to choose a sub 1MHz ref, they are going to expect low Icc.
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psevalia
9/20/2010 10:48 PM EDT
Hi jg,
Please send me email at psevalia@sitime.com to discuss further.
I may have the wrong part link - the part that you listed is not programmable (a key value for the 8503) and also has worse specs (+/- 100 PPM stability over comm. temp. and 0.7 MHz min freq.).
I agree with you that low power is a must in less than 1 MHz applications.
Piyush
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M5NOMAD12
11/4/2010 4:57 PM EDT
A quartz crystal oscillator has power consumption in the uA range for kHz outputs.
This MEMS product is as stated above "a power HOG!"
Current Consumption Idd – 5.9mA No load condition, f = 400 KHz,
Piyush mentions they have another option that cuts the power by 1/2; that still puts it at 3 mA which is orders of magnitude above uA power consumption and unusable for most applications!
Notice how the power consumption is rated for: No load condition.
So it is a great power HOG that you can hook up to nothing!
Notice how they carefully worded the fact that they compared in to “offering from another player”
The other player must have been manufacturing vacuum tube oscillators!
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