CRYSTAL OSCILLATOR

A crystal oscillator is an electronic circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal to generate a sinusoidal electronic signal at a very precise frequency. The translation by certain materials of a a mechanical impulse to an electrical oscillation is called the piezoelectric effect. The most common type of piezoelectric resonator is the quartz crystal and electronic circuits designed around them are called crystal oscillators. Background:Piezoelectricity was discovered by Jacques and Pierre Curie in 1880. The first crystal-controlled oscillator was constructed at Bell Laboratories in 1917 by Alexander Nicholson using a crystal of Rochelle salt. Walter Cady, a professor at Wesleyan University, built the first quartz crystal oscillator in 1921. By 1926, quartz crystals were used to control the frequency of AM radio broadcast transmitters and were widely used by amateur radio operators. Application of Crystal Oscillators:Radio receivers and transmitters both require a precise frequency reference, and this reference almost always is provided by a crystal oscillator.

Virtually all LMR receivers, includin the MASTR II, employ a superheterodyne receiver that requires a particularly accurate and pure loca oscillator (LO). In the MASTR II receiver, two local oscillators are used with mixers to step down the radio frequency signal from a frequency in the receive band (806-824 MHz) to each of two intermediate frequencies, where effective filtering and demodulation can take place. The first LO is generated by an Integrated Circuit Oscillator Module (ICOM) not to be confused with the radio manufacturer of the same name. The ICOM uses a precisely cut quartz crystal and a matched temperature compensation circuit to generate the LO frequency. A MASTR II repeater cannot be retuned without replacing the ICOM or replacing the crystal in the ICOM.

A block diagram of the MASTR II receiver shown in Figure 1. Note that the ICOM is th subassembly that generates the first L frequency. In the MASTR II receiver, the LO is 4 MHz below the receive frequency.

Explanation:-

To illustrate the application of crystal oscillators to land-mobile radio, we will consider the Harris 800 MHz MASTR II repeater. The MASTR II repeater was manufactured from the mid-1980s through 1993. It is still used in public safety and private LMR systems, but 800 MHz rebanding in the United States caused many MASTR IIs to be replaced because the crystal oscillator in the receiver was no longer supported and no reliable substitute was readily available. Modern receivers do not have this problem because a single frequency oscillator (usually 10 MHz) is used in all receivers and the tuned frequency is generated by a frequency synthesizer using the the fixed oscillator as a reference. Although the MASTR II is obsolete, the problem with the receiver oscillator reveals the temperature and aging variations that apply at some level to all crystal oscillators.

The ICOM is a metal package that consists of single quartz crystal and associated circuitry tha generates a pure sine wave at the desire frequency. The precise physical dimensions of th quartz crystal determine its frequency. When voltage is applied across the quartz crystal, th crystal will flex at its resonant frequency.

Courtesy :http://urgentcomm.com/mobile_voice/mag/how-radio-crystal-oscillators-work-200910/