Carrier suppression system to measure phase noise of acoustic resonators with low motional resistance.

A carrier suppression system is implemented in order to measure the phase noise of acoustic resonators that have a low motional resistance. A special adapters' system using transformers is proposed to improve the loaded quality factor of the resonators. With this developed device and described protocol, the inherent noise of resonators can be obtained without the usual electronical oscillator conditioning that could take part in the results. The loaded quality factor is improved from about 10% to 60% of the intrinsic quality factor. As an example, the system is used to study Langatate crystal resonators vibrating at 10 MHz. Langatate crystals can be an alternative to substitute for the quartz crystal resonators for frequency and time applications. Their coupling coefficient and the product quality factor-frequency are normally higher than those in quartz crystal resonators. For ultrastable resonators, the motional resistance obtained with Langatate crystals is about five times lower than that for the quartz crystal; it can reach typically few ohms. These resonators have been characterized in terms of impedance, Q-factors, turnover temperature, amplitude-frequency effect, and phase noise. The short-term stability of these resonators is given in terms of Allan standard deviation. The influence of the driving power is presented.

Experimental verification of stress compensation in the SBTC-cut.

The authors have demonstrated experimental verification of the stress compensation feature for the fast thickness shear mode of vibration of stress-compensated for B-mode and temperature-compensated for C-mode (SBTC)-cut quartz resonators. For the resonator design used in the cylindrical probe structure, the motional resistance for the B-mode of vibration was approximately 12% of that of the C-mode. The relatively large motional resistance for the C-mode of vibration of the SBTC-cut was found to be largely due to the lower piezoelectric coupling for the thickness excitation of this mode. In addition the proximity of the third overtone of the A-mode to the fifth overtone of the C-mode also contributed to the increase in the motional resistance. The authors have obtained experimental data on the temperature dependence of the planar stress coefficient and pressure dependence of the frequency-temperature characteristic for both the thickness-shear modes of the SBTC-cut. It is noted that such a doubly rotated cut can have applications in the design of either stable frequency sources or sensors for pressure and temperature measurements.

Doubly rotated quartz resonators with a low amplitude-frequency effect: the LD-cut.

This article deals with a crystal quartz cut with virtually no amplitude-frequency effect (also called "isochronism defect" or "anisochronism"). The cut, called LD-cut (Low isochronism Defect), is set in a BVA-type structure for later use in an Ultra-Stable Oscillator (USO). Various design parameters are presented, along with the properties of the resonator. The resonance frequencies of various modes, the temperature dependence, the motional parameters and the phase noise in relation to the power supplied to the resonator are mainly studied. These properties are compared to those of the SC-cut resonators.

A dual-mode thickness-shear quartz pressure sensor.

The development of a dual-mode thickness-shear quartz pressure sensor to meet the demanding performance requirements of oil-field applications is discussed. The objective was to develop a sensor with an operating pressure range of 0-103.42 MPa (0.15 000 lb/in(2)), a temperature range of -10 to +175 degrees C, a pressure calibration accuracy of 6894.8 Pa (1 lb/in(2)), and resolution of 68.95 Pa (0.01 lb/in(2)) with 1-s counter gate time. Doubly rotated cuts with piezoelectric coupling to both the C-modes of vibration were investigated. A theoretical study and general design considerations in the development of such sensors are described. Experimental results were obtained for two sensor designs: one uses a cylindrical design with the SBTC-cut, and the other, called SPA, is a special resonator design vibrating around 5 MHz without any activity dips. Pressure sensitivity of approximately 145 Hz/MPa (1 Hz/lb/in(2)) at 175 degrees C is obtained. Laboratory evaluation of the static and dynamic performances is discussed for the prototypes based on the SPA design.