Column: Design with frequency components
Table 2: The sweet spot between performance, power and cost the TCXO in regular applications
• With precision still increasing, the production costs of TCXOs are dropping with rising volumes, making TCXOs a commodity product.
Table 1: Comparison of various frequency components
definition, functions and use cases, but very little on when a design is better if using a TCXO versus other frequency components. In Table 1, we compare various frequency components with that of the TCXO’s, but it’s worth noting that a thorough comparison can only be achieved for a defined application with clear technical design goals. Even in that case, components are not necessarily chosen because they are the best but rather because they fulfil the scope within a given budget. Looking at Table 1, it can be easily
concluded that OCXOs are suitable for applications where the frequency over temperature must be ultra stable. Whilst this was largely the case before, many designs no longer need ultra- stable raw oscillators because most modern systems handle stability in software or firmware. This, then, gives way to TCXOs, which are gaining growing importance in electronic designs.
Although less common overall,
OCXOs still remain essential in applications that need ultra-stable frequency – but only if you can afford the power, size and warm-up time.
TCXO considerations Te importance of the TCXO in designs grows continuously, driven by modern- day applications. Its benefits include: • They are essential wherever extremely precise timekeeping and signal synchronisation are required, since they best compensate for the temperature fluctuations.
• Te choice between quartz crystal and oscillator/TCXO must be considered case by case, based on the mid- to long- term business case, which will include application precision vs cost. It is not a simple decision on component level. A crystal will always remain the most cost- effective frequency component, but it will not alone form an oscillation circuit with the best accuracy over temperature.
• Unlike 5G networks and aviation, for example, not every application requires extremely performing or special TCXOs. Ultimately, there is no general
“technical breakeven” with TCXOs; it remains a technical choice, depending on the application and its allocated budget. Table 2 shows the TCXO’s balance between performance, power and cost for regular applications.
The growing need for TCXOs While the evolution of defence industries, 5G networks and aerospace significantly drive the development of high-performance TCXOs over a wide temperature range, the automation sector, smart environment, IoT applications and increasingly the healthcare sector are using more common TCXOs where the requirement of precision, miniaturisation and low power consumption go hand in hand. The TCXO is also continuously
evolving, providing reliable frequency stability across any environment.
This series continues in the next edition of Electronics World
www.electronicsworld.co.uk February 2026 11
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