Why does the frequency of a crystal oscillator vary with temperature?

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- everything RF

May 8, 2022

In electronics, a crystal oscillator is an oscillator circuit that uses the resonance property quartz crystal to generate an electric signal at a specific frequency. Crystal oscillators are created by adding electrodes to a quartz crystal. The nominal/output frequency of the crystal oscillators mainly depends of the shape and size of the quartz crystal.

As temperature varies, there are slight changes in the size of the quartz crystal. This change in size results in the shifting of the resonant frequency of the crystal oscillator. In the datasheet of the crystal oscillator, this frequency deviation with respect to temperature is specified in tight frequency stability or frequency stability (in ppm or ppb) over the operating temperature range.

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