A Closer Look at Piezoelectric Crystal
56 points
9 days ago
| 6 comments
| samaterials.com
| HN
csours
4 hours ago
[-]
reply
throwpoaster
1 hour ago
[-]
Related: the triboelectric[0] effect.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboelectric_effect

reply
panki27
10 hours ago
[-]
The link appears to be broken, it redirects me to the main page.
reply
zenmac
8 hours ago
[-]
reply
sixothree
5 hours ago
[-]
Do we still use piezo to power clock circuits of modern computers?
reply
nakamoto_damacy
4 hours ago
[-]
no, we use atomic clocks now... j/k

piezoelectric refers to generation of electricity from pressure applied to the material... the inverse of that effect is what generates oscillation.. quartz has a natural resonant frequency determined by its shape, size, and the way it’s cut, and when you apply AC it oscillates at a specific frequency.. the applied electricity causes is the material to deform.. that is the basic physical effect used in oscillators

MEMS oscillators are increasingly replacing quartz in compact, rugged, or integrated designs.

PLL-based frequency synthesis is used to scale a low-frequency reference (e.g., 25 MHz crystal) up to CPU/GPU GHz speeds.

reply
willis936
4 hours ago
[-]
MEMS are made on a different process than other silicon devices, which slightly increases their cost. They also need to have hermetically sealed packaging, same as quartz. Together there is little fundamental savings to be had with MEMS, but they do offer a higher ceiling on performance. I don't see crystals going away anytime soon.

Also, if you get a MEMS in a small epoxy / CSP package be weary of gases that permeate the packaging material, such as helium.

https://hackaday.com/2018/10/31/helium-can-stop-your-iphone-...

reply
wizardforhire
12 hours ago
[-]
Obligatory must watch old dod training film on the subject.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZYyAYIUvI-M&pp=ygUiUXVhcnR6IGNye...

reply
thenthenthen
9 hours ago
[-]
As well as Crystals go to war, on the industrial production of crystal oscillators: https://youtu.be/wHenisSTUQY?si=GzjfOFHFOknKRQ9m
reply
mikkupikku
8 hours ago
[-]
I wish people still talked with the accent/style used in these old videos. It's so easy to understand and listen to, compared to the typical modern American accent.
reply
FuriouslyAdrift
1 hour ago
[-]
The midwest has the most neutral accent although it is slowly drifting

https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-united-states-of-acce...

reply
ahartmetz
6 hours ago
[-]
It seems to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_American_Speech aka Mid-Atlantic Accent - an artificial accent - with a fairly strong natural accent of the speaker coming through.
reply
kulahan
2 hours ago
[-]
What is an artificial accent? Isn't every accent just the way people choose to speak?
reply
mitthrowaway2
37 minutes ago
[-]
An artificial accent is one where there are no native speakers raised with it, but rather people are professionally trained to speak with it.
reply
FuriouslyAdrift
1 hour ago
[-]
It's a way of speaking taught in broadcasting and acting schools
reply
kulahan
1 hour ago
[-]
I was under the impression that this is effectively teaching people to speak without any accent at all
reply
FuriouslyAdrift
23 minutes ago
[-]
Oh no... it's an "accent". It's just a "desirable" one. Kind of like a posh accent in England.
reply
kulahan
13 minutes ago
[-]
Well no, definitely not - it’s just meant to be as clear as possible. The point is to make sure as many people as possible can understand you, which is very important in informational and entertaining broadcasts.
reply
southwindcg
9 days ago
[-]
*Crystal
reply
pillars
9 days ago
[-]
Thank you! Updated.
reply