Evaluation board enables fast testing for standard oscillators

7th January 2019

Alex Lynn

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Datasheet

With the IOSC Evaluation Board, IQD has enabled fast and precise testing of surface-mountable standard oscillators, VCXOs as well as TCXO/VCTCXOs. The board is available in unassembled versions and one assembled version for immediate use. The IOSC Evaluation Board comes with six smaller boards, which can be broken off from the main board.

Four-pad oscillators of different sizes (1.6x1.2mm, 2.0x1.6mm, 2.5x2.0mm, 3.2x2.5mm, 5.0x3.2mm and 7.0x5.0mm) can be mounted on these smaller boards. The substrates for the oscillators are then soldered onto the large board.

As disturbances to the supply voltage can influence the frequency of the oscillator, the IOSC Evaluation Board contains a regulated and attenuated supply voltage that can be freely selected between 1.8 and 5.0V. This way the performance of the oscillator can be observed under ideal conditions. The Evaluation Board offers the option of connecting the supply voltage directly on the board, such that disturbances and noise can be introduced in test phases and their implications understood.

The enable/disable function can be manually tested in order to precisely observe the effect and the current drawn. There is also the possibility for measuring the enable time of connecting an external digital source to test the function of the oscillator. For products with pulling input, such as VCXOs or VCTCXOs, a potentiometer is mounted on the board to reduce the frequency tolerance and the effect of soldering and to bring the frequency back to the nominal value. In addition, the pulling input can be used for manual testing the effects on the frequency.

For sensitive products like VCTCXOs, there is the possibility of improving stability, jitter and phase noise. Firstly, the tolerance is brought to the normal value with the aid of the pulling voltage. Then the resistance of the potentiometer has to be measured and replaced by a fixed resistor.

The IOSC Evaluation Board offers three connection configurations at the output stage. Here customers can choose between a CMOS output, a clipped sine wave output or a direct output without buffer or load. All outputs have an SMA connector.

The Evaluation Board is available in two versions: as an unassembled board, including the material lists required for operation of the test circuit, or as an assembled circuit board for immediate use.