SiTime Intros the World's Smallest and Thinnest MHz Resonator

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SiTime introduces the world's smallest and thinnest megahertz resonator, SiT0100. The resonator measures only 0.8 mm tall x 0.6 mm wide x 0.15 mm thick. The resonator is shipped in die form and is far smaller than the nearest quartz resonator. Unlike quartz, the megahertz resonator may be placed in a multiple chip module or system-in-package solution and handled as any semiconductor die. The resonator may be wire bonded or flip chipped and then plastic encapsulation with no substantial change in performance.

The SiT0100 SiRESTM resonator operates at 5.1 MHz and has a Q of approximately 80.000. The phase noise performance is -115 dBc / Hz @ 10 kHz allowing it to be used in most consumer, automotive, and industrial frequency control applications. The device is passive and consumes no power. When combined with an oscillator circuit the power consumption is similar to quartz devices with similar Q's.

While SiTime's MEMS oscillators are design to directly replace quartz oscillators, SiTime's MEMS resonators are not directly compatible with Quartz resonators. MEMS resonators require a unique drive circuit and a stable bias voltage for proper operation. SiTime has prepared a design-in kit, SiT0100DK, complete with a detailed datasheet, LRC model, an example 0.18 um CMOS drive circuit, and documentation for rapid and successful design-in and final plastic packaging of this new technology. The SiRESTM resonator design-in kit is available from SiTime under a non-disclosure agreement which includes 3 days of on-site support.

The SiT0100 is manufactured with SiTime's proprietary MEMS FirstTM and EpiSealTM process, which is designed to withstand extremely harsh environmental conditions allows the device to endure the rigors of plastic molding, wire bonding, lead-free soldering, and will perform well in tough automotive and industrial reliability tests. Due to small size and mass the resonator is reliable and able to withstand 30.000 G's of shock and a 50 Hz to 1 kHz 15 G continuous sine wave.

The EpiSeal process encapsulates the resonator in an extremely clean, high vacuum cavity. This vacuum cavity allows the single crystal silicon beam to resonate in a completely contamination free environment. This near perfect resonating environment yields a part that ages less than 0.15 ppm per year for 25 years with no detectable thermal hysteresis, thus eliminating frequency error sources that are impossible to calibrate. The remaining frequency error sources are a function of well characterized ultra pure single crystal silicon and 0.18 µm CMOS processing. A single point temperature calibration will yield a resonator that is better than +/-50 ppm over -40 to 85 °C and typically +/- 10 ppm.

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