EMI-induced failures in crystal oscillators

Abstract

An electromagnetic interference (EMI) induced failure mode pertaining to crystal-based voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO) has been studied. The failure consists of a transition to a frequency of oscillation that differs from the crystal's fundamental resonant frequency, when the circuit is temporarily exposed to continuous or pulsed radio-frequency electromagnetic fields. The new state persists even after the EMI source is removed and leads to hang-up in digital systems. This mode transition has been observed experimentally. Its essential properties have been predicted theoretically and simulated numerically, using simplified oscillator models. The likelihood of observing such a failure in a noisy electromagnetic environment is assessed with respect to the radiated susceptibility levels given in MIL-STD-461B.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>