Opinions about potential Crystal Oscillator book???

Hi there,

I work for a publishing company and an editor is proposing a book about crystal oscillators. I thought going to a user group forum would be a good way to get feedback on market desire for such a book.

The book is organized so that it can be read cover to cover or used as a quick reference on specific crystal oscillator types.

If asking for this feedback is against the rules, I apologize in advance. I am purposely excluding the name of my publishing company to prevent to the appearance of any spamming effort.

Any feedback you would be so generous to provide would be appreciated. For example, would you like a book like this? Where do you go now to find detailed information on the topic? What would you love to see the book cover?

Thanks so much.

Tara

You can e-mail me directly if you wish at tara_book snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com.

Reply to
Tara
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Tara;

Nearly everyone involved with embedded design uses Crystals as the main frequency source for their embedded processors. Some also use external Crystal oscillators as the frequency source. The difference being where the gain and feedback stage is located: on chip or off.

There has always been a raging rwell below the surface regarding the different quartz peizoelectric modes. The debate at issue parallel vs series resonant mode. I have heard both sides of argument from good sources. If for that reason alone, a book on the subject would be most welcome.

The trouble with books these days is finding the middle ground between the "Dummies Guide to Quartz Oscillators" and the "IEEE Ultimate Compendium on PeizoElectric Devices" edited by every scientist in the field.

I used to buy tons of books, but somehow the target audience for them changed. I hope it wasn't my ability to learn.

Regards,

Reply to
Blakely LaCroix

There is at least two separate audiences that might be interested, users of cheap processor clock crystal oscillators with mediocre performance and high performance low phase noise TXCO and oven stabilised oscillators for RF applications.

Paul

Reply to
Paul Keinanen

"Tara" wrote

"Go not to the Elves for advice ..." JRRT

I do not think you can hope to fill a book with crystal _oscillators_, there just isn't that much to say. On the other hand, I am sure there is somewhere a 3-volume set on "The Migration Patterns of the Lesser Grebe".

I would think a 10 page application pamphlet from a crystal manufacturer would fit the bill just right.

As to the market for a book with information on designing electronic circuits that oscillate with the aid of a crystal, I am afraid it would be dismal: The real oscillator as the circuit designers are the IC design folks and each semiconductor house already has an 'oscillator guy'. You have a market base of maybe less than 100 engineers?

The folks who use the oscillators that are part of the above designed ICs just hook the crystal up as it says to do in the spec sheet.

If a discrete oscillator is needed, well I have my 'standard designs' sketched into the inside front cover of my ITT handbook, and I suppose most other engineers do the same. I have one made with transistors and one made from a ring of gates, both designs have been proven in many millions of products -- what more do I need?

Unless you are also an IC designer, network specialist or quartz materials engineer I am not sure what you would have to say on the subject. If your role is to 'collate the knowledge', well we have lots of books like that in the landfill already: full of misquotes, virgin inaccuracies, and the advice of 'experts' that aren't. Watch out for the experts that aren't as they are the ones with the time on their hands to collaborate with you.

Be sure to discount the advice of _all_ the "experts that aren't": what do I know about publishing, quartz, or oscillators: close to zilch.

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer:  Electronics; Informatics; Photonics.
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Reply to
Nicholas O. Lindan

There's already a very good book on this subject, no doubt out of print. I found it in my University library when I needed detailed info and honest-to-goodness equations. British publisher, IIRC. The Radio Amateur's handbook also has some info, as do more general design books such as AofE.

Try sci.electronics.design for more feedback- that's where the kind of people that design oscillators tend to hang out on usenet. Few people actually design oscillators these days (most just buy a module or try to pick a crystal or a ceramic resonator that is compatible with an existing (eg. Pierce) oscillator that's living in a corner of an otherwise mostly digital chip. There is some justification for more emphasis on drive power issues nowadays and perhaps some emphasis on SPICE modelling, but I'm not sure there's enough material for more than a couple of chapters with any real meat to them. Would I buy such a book at typical technical book prices? Probably not, sorry.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

--
"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com             Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

So this book is already written ? Who is the Author ? List of chapter titles / excerpt ?

What is the expected price ? Does it include a CD ROM, with Spice models, and a Spice Simulator, to support the text ?

-jg

Reply to
Jim Granville

I actually had to design a product using an overtone oscillator a few years back. In my library search I found about zero on the subject. I eventually got lucky and found a bloke that had a design which I then duly tried to implement. It didn't work very well. After much discovery it works like a charm at 130Mhz and 250 uA current. No where in undergraduate texts is their a decent coverage on oscillator design! A good book and I mean good ie it teachs you design principles without an overblown level of complexity like you find in Phd articles in magazines like Microwave Design or IEEE journals etc The text would need to cover modern PLL examples like LM2326 some software tools, Phase noise trade offs etc. Feel free to get your potential author to email me direct.

regards

Andrew Tweddle

Reply to
Andrew Tweddle

Did you also search the amateur radio literature? There are some sources about oscillator design in general and also about crystal oscillator design.

That must have been a 7th overtone design, which can be quite problematic. I have used 116 MHz 5th overtone designs, but for 130 MHz, a less risky approach would be a 65 MHz oscillator followed by a push pull frequency doubler.

Paul

Reply to
Paul Keinanen

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