Mercury United Electronics, Inc. and Micro Oscillator, Inc. have formed a strategic alliance to bring micro power silicon oscillators, pulse generators, and inductive proximity sensors to the market. This collaboration combines the unique patented silicon expertise of Micro Oscillator and the assembly, packaging and test expertise of Mercury United Electronics.
The new SH series of silicon based, patented, ultra-low micro power Si-gate CMOS oscillators produces a square wave output with an ultra-fast start up time and requires no external components, other than power supply bypass capacitors. It also offers a total frequency error of less than 1.0 percent.
Silicon oscillators are typically available in plastic molded packaging. The SH series, however, is packaged in a lead-free, RoHS-compliant, hermetically sealed and metal-lid grounded, ceramic leadless package that provides a superior moisture sensitivity level (MSL 1 – Unlimited), insuring proper mounting.
The SH series of silicon oscillators is available in package sizes measuring 3.2 x 2.5 x 1.0mm or 5.0 x 3.2 x 1.2mm. Applications include low speed USBs, remote controls, display drives, motor and building controls, home appliances, advanced battery chargers and as a replacement for ceramic resonators. Sample quantities are available at a frequency of 32.768KHz, with other frequencies available in the near future.
Also available from Mercury United Electronics and Micro Oscillator is the new FH series of frequency shift keyed silicon oscillators, which is equivalent to the SH series described above with one additional feature.
The input on Pin 1 can be toggled between logic high and logic low. If the input on Pin 1 is logic high or there is no connection, the output is at the nominal frequency. Whereas, toggling Pin 1 to logic low, produces an increase or shift in the frequency by approximately 5 percent. This allows the binary signals to be transmitted as two distinct frequencies.
This product is ideal for applications for remote controls, data transmission and where microprocessor clocks are used.
The new PG series of silicon precision monostable pulse generators generates a single output pulse, known as a ‘one-shot’, normally at a high level. The negative edges of the input pulse, produces a negative going output with a constant pulse width and no external components are required. An ultra-low supply current, very fast recovery and start up time and a retriggerable capability make this a very attractive product. While a pulse width of 10 µ seconds is the most popular, a pulse width from 5 µ seconds to 600 µ seconds can be manufactured.
Ideal applications for the PG series include watchdog timers, frequency discriminators, envelope detection and missing pulse detection, compact consumer electronic devices and high density boards.
“When you combine these package implementations with the internal frequency resistor, the user gets the benefit of a fixed frequency oscillator, a frequency shift keyed oscillator and a precision monostable pulse generator, without having to worry about an external resistor tolerance and performance degradation over temperature,” Fred Mirow, president of Micro Oscillator, said.
“It is a trend that quartz and silicon technologies are merging,” Jason Yen, vice president of engineering at Mercury United, said. “This collaboration brings to the market, the first hermetically sealed silicon oscillators that are suitable for harsh environment applications, such as the automotive industry. These products will have the same quality performance that current Mercury United customers have become accustomed to.”
