On 3/14/17 12:39 PM, Attila Kinali wrote:
On Tue, 14 Mar 2017 13:39:02 +0100
Magnus Danielson <[email protected]> wrote:
Some claims that MEMS will kill crystals. It will surely eat a good
market share, but I think there is applications where MEMS is not mature
enough compared to crystals.
The big promise of MEMS oscillators was, that they'd be cheaper (due to
integration in silicon) and used less power. As far as I am aware,
neither promise could be upheld.
Well, the SiLabs parts are quite attractive for places where they are
appropriate. They're cost competitive in small quantities with the
"XO+PLL" modules, and physically much smaller.
As for the demise of single quartz crystal units, I think that is not
going to happen any soon.
<a few popular frequencies available in large quantities from multiple
sources>
I think the "individual crystal" market will remain, but it will be
expensive. I fully expect that folks like Bliley and Croven (part of
Wenzel since 2006) will be around for a long long time.
What probably won't last much longer is companies like ICM that you
could send your "frequency control module" to and have them "recrystal"
it for a new frequency.
The low budget folks (ham radio) will go to little synthesizer board
retrofits of some sort or another - which they've already started doing,
since really nice 10 MHz GPSDOs became available, rather than using that
special oscillator at around 90 MHz (I can't remember the magic
frequency) that you could double and triple up to microwave frequencies
step by step while using your trusty 28 or 144 MHz transceiver as a back
end.
And some day, all those 1970s and 1980s FM repeaters still on the air 40
years later having been repurposed from land mobile radio service will
be replaced by something else. My friends with a garage full of old
Moto and GE gear that they've been saving just in case will have to
dispose of it.
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