What Is A Ceramic Resonator

Quartz crystals are more accurate and temperature stable than ceramic resonators.

What is a ceramic resonator.

The two main terminals are at each wide side of a thin ceramic material while the middle terminal is usually connected to the thin side and may be grounded or used to tap signal into the rest of the oscillator circuit. A typical ceramic resonator has three terminals. When connected in an electronic oscillator circuit resonant mechanical vibrations in the device generate an oscillating signal of a specific frequency like the similar quartz crystal they are used in oscillators for purposes such as generating. 5 3 electrical equivalent circuit for a ceramic resonator fig.

The resonator or crystal itself has two connections. Equivalent resistance l1. Ceramic resonators are made of lead zirconium titanate pzt and are easier to manufacture than crystal oscillators made out of fine cut quartz. Both ceramic resonators and quartz crystals work on the same principle.

On the left the crystal right the ceramic resonator. A ceramic resonator is an electronic component consisting of a piece of a piezoelectric ceramic material with two or more metal electrodes attached. The vibrate mechanically when an ac signal is applied to them. 5 5 impedance and phase characteristics for ceramic resonators.

A ceramic resonator is often used in place of quartz crystals as a reference clock or signal generator in electronic circuitry due to its low cost and smaller size. The ceramic resonators are not nearly as good as a crystal but they are good enough for serial and most other common tasks. In terms of application ceramic resonators are used in microprocessors where their frequency stability is not important and crystal oscillators are used for more precise time based applications. In those list of resonators the two mainly used materials are quartz crystal and ceramic making ceramic resonator quartz crystal is used in crystal oscillator and ceramic is used in ceramic resonator both of them have the same aim of generating an oscillation frequency by vibrating.

Inner electrode capacitance fig. There are various resonators that are used for an immense number of applications in the field of electronics. However the ceramic resonator has the advantage that it is a much lower cost electronic component and is therefore more applicable to mass produced rf circuit design. 5 4 equivalent circuit for a ceramic resonator in the frequency range of fr f fa fig.