Generally, AT-cut quartz crystals have a limited scope of use when it comes to high-precision measurement of very small impedance changes due to their nonlinear frequency-temperature characteristics in the range between 0 °C and 50 °C. The new method improving quartz oscillator frequency-temperature characteristic compensation is switching between two impedance loads. By modifying the oscillator circuit with two logic switches and two impedance loads, the oscillator can switch oscillation between two resonance frequencies. The difference in resonance frequencies compensates the frequency-temperature characteristics influence as well as the influence of offset and quartz crystal ageing. The experimental results show that the new approach using the switching method highly improves second-to-second frequency stability from ±0.125 Hz to ±0.00001 Hz and minute-to-minute frequency stability from 0.1 Hz to 0.0001 Hz, which makes the high-precision measurement of aF and fH changes possible.

This review presents various ways of detection of different physical quantities based on the frequency change of oscillators using piezoelectric crystals. These are influenced by the reactance changes modifying their electrical characteristics. Reactance in series, in parallel, or a combination of reactances can impact the electrical crystal substitute model by influencing its resonant oscillation frequency. In this way, various physical quantities near resonance can be detected with great sensitivity through a small change of capacitance or inductance. A piezoelectric crystal impedance circle and the mode of frequency changing around the resonant frequency change are shown. This review also presents the influence of reactance on the piezoelectric crystal, the way in which the capacitance lost among the crystal’s electrodes is compensated, and how the mode of oscillators’ output frequency is converted to lower frequency range (1–100 kHz). Finally, the review also explains the temperature–frequency compensation of the crystals’ characteristics in oscillators that use temperature–frequency pair of crystals and the procedure of the compensation of crystals own temperature characteristics based on the method switching between the active and reference reactance. For the latter, the experimental results of the oscillator’s output frequency stability (f_out = ±0.002 ppm) at dynamical change of environment temperature (0–50 °C) are shown.

The magnitude of the relative permittivity of the ferroelectric nematic phase ( N F ) has been the subject of lively scientific discussion since the phase was recently discovered. Dielectric spectroscopy measurements (DSMs) give a huge value of relative permittivity, which depends on the cell thickness, but this is argued to result from a misinterpretation of the DSM results. We have conducted DSM using a set of cells differing in thickness of the N F layer, type of electrodes, and presence/absence of nanoscale-thick surface polymer layers. To model the DSM results, cells are presented by an equivalent electric circuit that includes a capacitor due to the N F layer with frequency dependent complex relative permittivity, capacitors due to surface layers, and a resistor describing the limited conductivity of electrodes. DSM results for different cells with the same liquid crystal in the N F phase are semiquantitatively reproduced by the same set of physical parameters if a huge relative permittivity of the N F , which is even orders of magnitude larger than the measured apparent values, is assumed. We show that the capacitance of surface layers should also be considered in cells with no polymer alignment layer on the electrodes. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Generally, quartz crystal inductance frequency pulling in oscillators is very low and therefore is not often used in practice. The new method of improving frequencypullability uses inductance to compensate for quartz stray capacitances. To this end, a special AT fundamental quartz crystal working near the antiresonance frequency is selected. By modifying its equivalent circuit with load inductance and series tuning capacitance, the magnetic sensing of the circuit can be highly improved. The experimental results show that the new approach using the quartz crystal stray capacitance compensation method increases the frequency pulling range (from ≅ 2 kHz/mH to ≅ 600 kHz/mH) by × 300 depending on the type of oscillator, making possible the measurement of nano-magnetic changes.

This paper presents a new method of substantially improving frequency pullability and linearity using reactance in series with an AT fundamental crystal operated with a series load capacitance in the range of 3 to 50 pF and frequencies in the range of 3.5 to 21 MHz. The research describes high quartz pullability and linearity by varying the load capacitance. The paper also gives impedance circuits for crystal unit (3.5 MHz) together with load capacitance and compensation reactance. The experimental results show that the new approach using compensation method of quartz crystal connected in series reactance increases the frequency pulling range by ×25 to ×100 depending on the type of oscillator and compensation factor ˝k˝ in the temperature range of 10 to 40 °C.

This article proposes a novel method for the temperature-compensated inductance-to-frequency converter with a single quartz crystal oscillating in the switching oscillating circuit to achieve better temperature stability of the converter. The novelty of this method lies in the switching-mode converter, the use of additionally connected impedances in parallel to the shunt capacitances of the quartz crystal, and two inductances in series to the quartz crystal. This brings a considerable reduction of the temperature influence of AT-cut crystal frequency change in the temperature range between 10 and 40 °C. The oscillator switching method and the switching impedances connected to the quartz crystal do not only compensate for the crystal’s natural temperature characteristics but also any other influences on the crystal such as ageing as well as from other oscillating circuit elements. In addition, the method also improves frequency sensitivity in inductance measurements. The experimental results show that through high temperature compensation improvement of the quartz crystal characteristics, this switching method theoretically enables a 2 pH resolution. It converts inductance to frequency in the range of 85–100 µH to 2–560 kHz.