What is the purpose of a crystal oscillator?

A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that is used for the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material. It will create an electrical signal with a given frequency.

Why is crystal oscillator used in microcontroller?

Oscillators provide the basic timing and control for a microcontroller and its peripherals. Commonly used oscillators are of crystal because of its well known stability and durability. It produces stable output for prolonged time.

How does quartz crystal help synchronization?

It is cut with two parallel faces which have metal contacts positioned onto them. Quartz displays a piezoelectric effect, meaning that when placed under pressure, a voltage is produced across the faces. Likewise, an applied voltage causes the crystal to change shape in a shear move.

What is the difference between crystal and oscillator?

The core difference between oscillator and crystal is that the crystal is not as multi-featured as the oscillator, simply because it is one of the many things that make up an oscillator. The crystal forms the oscillator along with other parts such as the trim caps, inverting amplifier, and proper output buffer.

Why is quartz crystal commonly used in crystal oscillation?

Quartz is the mostly used type of crystal because of its availability and strong nature while being inexpensive. The ac voltage is applied in parallel to the crystal. If an AC voltage is applied, the crystal starts vibrating at the frequency of the applied voltage.

Why are quartz crystal oscillator popularly used?

Virtually all microprocessors, micro-controllers, PICs and CPU’s generally operate using a Quartz Crystal Oscillator as its frequency determining device to generate their clock waveform because as we already know, crystal oscillators provide the highest accuracy and frequency stability compared to resistor-capacitor, ( …