Electronic Components - Crystals and Crystal Oscillators.

Commonly Used Frequencies.
Manufacturers of Crystals and Crystal Oscillators.
Crystals Packages.
Crystal Oscillators Packages.
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What is a Crystal Oscillator?

A Crystal Oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses a vibrating crystal’s mechanical resonance to create an electrical signal with an exact frequency.

This frequency can be used to keep track of time, in order to provide a clock signal for digital intergrated circuits. This frequency can also be used to keep the frequencies for radio transmitters and recievers stable.

In order to contruct a crystal oscillator, a quartz crystal is mounted to the oscillator's housing. For large crystals, they are usually held by tension wires around the edge of the surface, while with smaller crystals are usually held by two points on a ceramic header. The housing for the Oscillators come in surface mount and thru-hole forms.

The frequency of Crystal Oscillators we carry range from 32.768 KHz to 80 MHz. You will tend to find lower frequencies to be used for Real-time clocks, quartz watches, and clocks. While, with higher frequencies, you will find these usually being used for electronic communication, such as in cellular devices, remote controls, GPS, radio and modems. However, some of the higher frequencies are used for clocks and some of the lower frequencies are used for electronic communications.

These oscillators are used in reciever and transmitters, phones, computers, clocks and microprocessors, as displayed below.

We will be sure to meet your needs for any oscillator with our large inventory of crystal oscillators that range from all frequencies.

Commonly Used Frequencies:

Frequency	Common Uses
32.768 KHz	Real-time clock, quartz watches and clocks
2.0972 MHz	Real-time clock
2.4576 MHz	UART clock
2.583 MHz	Real-time clock, quartz watches and clocks
3.088 MHz	Real-time clock, quartz watches and clocks
4.0000 MHz	Low-power Microcontrollers
4.1934 MHz	Real-time clocks
4.9152 MHz	CDMA systems and UART clocks
6.0000 MHz	Low speed USB devices, such as Key Boards
7.3728 MHz	UART clocks
11.0590 MHz	UART clock and clock for Intel 8051 microprocessors
12.0000 MHz	Reference clcok for USB 1.0 and 2.0, used in CAN bus systems and clock for Intel 8051 microprocessors
12.288 MHz	Digital audio systems, MiniDisc and sound cards
12.352 MHz	Digital signal 1-bit clock
14.3182 MHz	Common seed clock for modern PC motherboard clock benerator chips, clock for Industry Standard Architecture, CGA and VGA cards and found in 8-bit computers
14.7456 MHz	UART clock and clock for microcontrollers
16.0000 MHz	CAN bus systems and some USB devices
16.5000 MHz	UART clock
17.734 MHz	PAL B/G/H color subcarrier
20.0000 MHz	10 Mbits/s ethernet available as TXCO and OCXO and stratum 3 Network Time Protocol frequency
20.2500 MHz	UART clock
23.9616 MHz	UART clocks
24.576 MHz	Digital audio systems and Firewire systems
25.0000 MHz	Ethernet clock
36.864 MHz	UART clock
49.152 MHz	Digital audio and refference clock for Firewire
66.6666 MHz	CPU clock and PCI bus clock