We offer a wide choice of Oven Controlled Oscillators (OCXOs) for applications demanding very high temperature stability.
What is an Oven Controlled Crystal Oscillator (OCXO)?
An oven controlled crystal oscillator (OCXO) is a crystal oscillator that is temperature controlled by a mini internal oven. This type of oscillator has a temperature controlling circuit to maintain a consistent temperature of the crystal and other key components.
OCXOs are typically used when temperature stabilities of ±1 x 10-8 or better are required. While this type of oscillator has a tenfold improvement over a temperature compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) for temperature vs. frequency stability, the OCXO tends to be higher in price and consumes more power.
OCXOs’ typical power consumption is 1.5W to 2.0W in a steady state condition (at +25°C ambient temperature).
The two most important qualities of an OCXO Oscillator
Bliley Technologies, whose products are available through Farnell, has defined the two most important qualities of an OCXO Oscillator as high stability and low phase noise. High stability: The signal stability of the oven controlled crystal oscillator is determined by the crystal's Q factor, which in turn is inversely proportional to the frequency at which the device is designed to operate. The higher the frequency, the less stable is the crystal. That is why most of the research done to develop new oven controlled crystal oscillator designs focuses on the need to create an oscillator which is able to remain stable even when operating at a high frequency.
The phase noise of an oscillator refers to the frequency domain represented by quick and short fluctuations that occur at random in the phase of a waveform. These fluctuations are a result of time variations that occur during the period in which the signal is processed.
In an ideal oscillator, the wave output of the frequency spectrum would be a line. This type of output isn't possible in the real world, and so the attempt while creating a more efficient oscillator is to keep the output reading as close to a straight line as possible, signalling the generation of low phase noise.
