EEA shortlist: SiTime

Exhibitors at electronica have been approached to submit their most innovative and show-stopping products.

Chorus is SiTime's new, MEMS-based clock-system-on-a-chip (ClkSoC) clock generator family, designed to provide the timing heartbeat for AI datacentre and communication infrastructure applications. The Chorus family, launched in April 2024, is a new generation of MEMS-based clock generators that enable smarter, faster, and better system designs by eliminating the design complexities and reducing performance and reliability issues of conventional clock + quartz oscillator solutions. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) oscillators use MEMS resonators to generate stable reference frequencies for measuring time. Unlike traditional clock devices that depend on a quartz crystal resonator or oscillator as an input reference for clock generation, Chorus incorporates an integrated MEMS resonator, eliminating the need for an external quartz device.

Benefits of MEMS-based timing devices include 10x higher reliability and 10x more resilience to supply noise, EMI, shock and vibration. Chorus’s new approach combines clock, oscillator and resonator technologies in a single integrated chip, reducing BOM, simplifying system clock architecture and accelerating design time by up to six weeks. Chorus can reduce the board area for timing by up to 50% by replacing up to four standalone oscillators.

Traditional clock devices require external quartz resonators as input clock references, exposing sensitive analog nodes to system noise and causing reliability, design and performance issues. Chorus clock generators integrate a MEMS resonator, thereby eliminating all quartz-related issues. This MEMS integration increases reliability and simplifies the overall design effort by reducing component count, circuit complexity, exposure to system noise, board real estate, and time to market. Chorus combines SiTime's latest-generation MEMS resonator with a low-noise phase-locked loops (PLL) to deliver exceptional reliability, environmental resilience, and a feature-rich solution in a single device. It integrates up to four fully-programmable differential clock outputs or eight single-ended clock outputs, each with its own dedicated power supply.

Chorus solves the limitations and design headaches of legacy clock generators. Until now, traditional clock devices typically relied on external quartz resonators or oscillators to provide the input clock reference for phase-locked loops (PLLs). However, using an external quartz timing device on the printed circuit board (PCB) exposes sensitive analog nodes that provide a path for EMI and board noise to couple into the oscillation circuit. Proper PCB design must be ensured to minimise such coupling and keep interference at bay. This requires extra testing and design cycles. Board noise is not the only danger of using quartz devices. Mechanical shock or vibration from fans and other environmental stressors can degrade crystal performance and impact timing stability.

Find out more: https://www.sitime.com/chorus

The Electronics Excellence Awards ceremony will take place at electronica, on 14th November at 12.50pm on the Visionary Stage in Hall B4.

You’re all welcome to come and see which product will win!