Ronald Stephens

14 posts
Ronald Stephens is the former president of Q-Tech Corporation. He has degrees in Physics, Math and Operations Research and 47 years of experience in the crystal oscillator industry. He is a former chairman of the EIA’s Piezoelectric Products Group and the Piezoelectric Conference and Exhibition. In 2017 the IEEE Frequency Control Symposium awarded him the C.B. Sawyer Memorial Award “For decades of entrepreneurial leadership in the frequency control industry.

MEMS vs. Crystal Oscillators: It’s All in the Application

Putting timing and frequency control technologies in their proper place Introduction Precision frequency control and timing are essential to all modern electronics technology. Almost every electronic device you can imagine depends on a precision clock; without precision oscillator clocks, all electronic communication would stop. This article compares the benefits of the latest precision clock technologies as they perform in different applications. The Evolution of Precision Clocks Introduced in the 1920’s, the quartz crystal oscillator has long been the workhorse amongst electronic timing devices.  A newer type of oscillator that has been in development since the 1960s and available in production…

Crystal Oscillators 101

Quartz is relatively abundant in nature and easy to grow in a very pure form. What sets it apart from other piezoelectric crystals is that it can be made to vibrate in very controlled and stable ways. Thus, a properly fashioned quartz resonator can act as an ultra-stable mechanical frequency source that can be coupled to an electronic oscillator circuit.

Does anybody really know what time it is? (Part 2)

Quantum physics took the mysteries of time to a whole other level. Is time continuous or discrete? Is there a minimum size of time duration, a sort of quantum of time? Is time fundamental or is it an emergent phenomenon, or is it an illusion? Many scientists now think that time is not fundamental but that it emerges out of nothingness. Of course, nothingness itself is being redefined. Completely empty space is now thought to be a quantum foam, with virtual particles popping into and out of existence randomly and continuously. When these virtual particles happen to interact with each…

Does anybody really know what time it is? (Part 1)

Precise time keeping is of the utmost importance in science and technology and has been since the beginning of recorded time. Yet no one really knows what time is. If you look up the word “time” in a good dictionary you will see one of the longest entries, with dozens of definitions. St. Augustine, in 400 AD, said “What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain to him who asks, I know not.” Time is what a clock measures. The first clocks were natural phenomena, like the sun rising and setting and…