An electronic device comprises an oscillator circuit portion comprising an inverter and a crystal oscillator connected between the input and output terminals of the inverter. An amplitude regulator circuit portion is arranged to supply a current to the inverter. The amplitude regulator monitors a voltage at the input of the inverter and varies the current supplied to the inverter in response to the monitored voltage. The amplitude regulator comprises a trimmable resistor arranged such that the voltage at the input of the inverter is set to an operating point when the supply current is equal to a threshold value, the operating point being at least partly determined by the selected resistance of the resistor. A current monitor is arranged to monitor the current supplied to the inverter during operation and to determine therefrom whether the voltage at the input terminal of the inverter is within a predetermined range.

A constant-g.sub.m current source, arranged to generate a supply current for a Pierce oscillator. First and second transistors have source terminals connected to first and second supply rails, respectively, and drain terminals connected together and to the gate terminal of the first transistor. Third and fourth transistors have source terminals connected to the first and second supply rails, respectively, and drain terminals are connected together and to the gate terminal of the fourth transistor. An output portion varies the supply current in response to a voltage at the drain terminals of the third and fourth transistors. The gate terminals of the first and third transistors are connected together, and the gate terminals of the second and fourth transistors are connected together. An auto-calibration transistor has its source terminal connected to the first supply rail and its drain terminal connected to the source terminal of the first transistor.

A low voltage crystal oscillator (XTAL) driver with feedback controlled duty cycling for ultra low power biases an amplifier for an XTAL in the sub-threshold operating regime. A feedback control scheme can be used to bias the amplifier for an XTAL biased in the sub-threshold operating regime. The amplifier of a XTAL oscillator can be duty cycled to save power, e.g., the XTAL driver can be turned off to save power when the amplitude of the XTAL oscillation reaches a maximum value in range; but be turned back on when the amplitude of the XTAL oscillation starts to decay, to maintain the oscillation before it stops. In addition or alternatively, a feedback control scheme to duty cycle the amplifier of a XTAL oscillator can be used to monitor the amplitude of the oscillation.

The oscillation circuit 1 comprises: an oscillator X1; a first capacitance CF having one end connected to the oscillator X1; a second capacitance CO having one end connected to the other end of the first capacitance CF; an output terminal Vo connected to a connection point N2 of the first capacitance CF and the second capacitance CO; an amplifier circuit A1 connected between a node between the oscillator X1 and the first capacitance CF and a connection point N2 of the first capacitance CF and the second capacitance CO to form an oscillation loop together with the first capacitance CF; a differential amplifier circuit A2 arranged on the oscillation loop; and a feedback path 3 configured to feed a part of an output on the output terminal Vo to the differential amplifier circuit A2.

The present description concerns an electronic oscillator comprising a resonator coupled in parallel to at least one active circuit, the resonator comprising two electrodes coupled to separate variable capacitive elements forming a charge capacitive element of the electronic oscillator, and a control device configured to independently control the values of the variable capacitive elements.

Apparatus and methods for back gate biasing of crystal oscillators for enhanced negative resistance are disclosed herein. In certain embodiments, a crystal oscillator includes a crystal and an inverter having an input connected to a first terminal of the crystal and an output connected to a second terminal of the crystal. The inverter includes an n-type metal oxide semiconductor (NMOS) transistor and a p-type metal oxide semiconductor (PMOS) transistor that serve to invert an input oscillation signal from the crystal. The crystal oscillator further includes a back gate bias control circuit that adjusts a negative resistance of the inverter by controlling a back gate bias of at least one of the NMOS transistor or the PMOS transistor.

Provided is a method for controlling the bias current, I.sub.PIERCE, of an oscillator. The method includes acquiring or determining a digital representation encoding a bias current. The method also includes carrying out an algorithm to update the digital representation if the oscillation amplitude is measured, by one or more peak detectors, to be outside of upper and lower thresholds. Also provided is an apparatus arranged to control the bias current of an oscillator using this method, the apparatus including one or more peak detectors and a current digital to analogue converter.

A crystal oscillator includes a current source that charges a capacitor. A charge on the capacitor is periodically injected into a crystal of the crystal oscillator. A switch couples the capacitor to the crystal and a timing circuit controls the switch to cause the charge to be injected beginning at approximately a peak of a crystal output signal. The timing circuit is configurable into a self-resonant mode for calibration of a delay through the timing circuit by coupling an output of the timing circuit to an input of the timing circuit. A comparator compares a magnitude of the crystal output signal to a reference voltage and supplies compare results to a gain control circuit. The gain control circuit adjusts the current from the current source to adjust the charge being injected into the crystal from the capacitor to thereby control the magnitude of the crystal output signal.

An oscillation circuit which includes a Pierce circuit and a Colpitts circuit that share an oscillator and an input node to respective amplifiers and switches connected to output nodes of the respective amplifiers of the Pierce circuit and the Colpitts circuit. The switches are controlled to cause the oscillation circuit output oscillation signals of the Pierce circuit at the time of oscillation start-up and output oscillation signals of the Colpitts circuit at the time of steady-state oscillation.

Piezoelectric materials, particularly ones with high quality factor used for mechanical antenna implementations, are sensitive to environmental conditions including temperature swings, humidity, vibration. Under the varying environmental conditions, the resonant frequency of the piezoelectric antenna can drift, and this results in the dampened piezoelectric radiator performance due to the mismatch between RF source' excitation frequency and piezoelectric antenna's resonant frequency. The frequency drift can be detrimental to the operation of the communication system that involves piezoelectric transmitter/receiver as a system component. In embodiments, the piezoelectric antennas may be integrated into a crystal oscillator to lock a drive frequency of the piezoelectric antennas to a resonant frequency of the piezoelectric antennas.