Excess Noise in Quartz Crystal Resonators

Abstract

Abstract : Frequency and phase noise in quartz crystal resonators are studied as a function of the driving power. At low power, where the crystal behaves linearly, 1/f fluctuations of the resonance frequency are observed. At medium power the nonlinearities of the crystal significantly increase the phase fluctuations at low Fourier frequencies. At high power, thermal instabilities and chaotic behavior occur characterized by the generation of high level white noise.