Quartz-like frequency stability from a simple, tiny, silicon chip oscillator?
That is the claim of fabless start-up eoSemi of Congleton Cheshire: accuracy, small size, low power, low cost, and no micromachining.
Last year it sampled its first product: a 1.5x1.5mm 32kHz timing reference chip for mobile phones.
This year, we will see what the market thinks, and await higher frequency products.
Its IP, 'accurate timing oscillator circuit' (Atoc), does not involve physical resonators, micromachined or otherwise, nor squeezing every last error out of the oscillator. It is about error compensation - going so far as to correct for stress in the silicon chip substrate. “We have a technique for tuning oscillators, it could be any oscillator: RC or LC,” said CEO Ian Macbeth. “All the smarts are in the compensation, not the oscillator.”
After manufacture, calibration codes to be applied at power-up are blown into non-volatile memory. Plus there is some continuous re-calibration.
