[HN Gopher] A Closer Look at Piezoelectric Crystal
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       A Closer Look at Piezoelectric Crystal
        
       Author : pillars
       Score  : 59 points
       Date   : 2025-10-22 16:12 UTC (9 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.samaterials.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.samaterials.com)
        
       | southwindcg wrote:
       | *Crystal
        
         | pillars wrote:
         | Thank you! Updated.
        
       | wizardforhire wrote:
       | Obligatory must watch old dod training film on the subject.
       | 
       | https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZYyAYIUvI-M&pp=ygUiUXVhcnR6IGNye...
        
         | thenthenthen wrote:
         | As well as Crystals go to war, on the industrial production of
         | crystal oscillators:
         | https://youtu.be/wHenisSTUQY?si=GzjfOFHFOknKRQ9m
        
         | mikkupikku wrote:
         | I wish people still talked with the accent/style used in these
         | old videos. It's so easy to understand and listen to, compared
         | to the typical modern American accent.
        
           | ahartmetz wrote:
           | It seems to be
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_American_Speech aka Mid-
           | Atlantic Accent - an artificial accent - with a fairly strong
           | natural accent of the speaker coming through.
        
             | kulahan wrote:
             | What is an artificial accent? Isn't every accent just the
             | way people choose to speak?
        
               | FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
               | It's a way of speaking taught in broadcasting and acting
               | schools
        
               | kulahan wrote:
               | I was under the impression that this is effectively
               | teaching people to speak without any accent at all
        
               | FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
               | Oh no... it's an "accent". It's just a "desirable" one.
               | Kind of like a posh accent in England.
        
               | kulahan wrote:
               | Well no, definitely not - it's just meant to be as clear
               | as possible. The point is to make sure as many people as
               | possible can understand you, which is very important in
               | informational and entertaining broadcasts.
        
               | mrguyorama wrote:
               | >effectively teaching people to speak without any accent
               | at all
               | 
               | There's no such thing as "no accent"
        
               | mitthrowaway2 wrote:
               | An artificial accent is one where there are no native
               | speakers raised with it, but rather people are
               | professionally trained to speak with it.
        
           | FuriouslyAdrift wrote:
           | The midwest has the most neutral accent although it is slowly
           | drifting
           | 
           | https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-united-states-of-
           | acce...
        
       | panki27 wrote:
       | The link appears to be broken, it redirects me to the main page.
        
         | zenmac wrote:
         | https://archive.ph/E4TZ7
        
       | sixothree wrote:
       | Do we still use piezo to power clock circuits of modern
       | computers?
        
         | nakamoto_damacy wrote:
         | no, we use atomic clocks now... j/k
         | 
         | piezoelectric refers to generation of electricity from pressure
         | applied to the material... the inverse of that effect is what
         | generates oscillation.. quartz has a natural resonant frequency
         | determined by its shape, size, and the way it's cut, and when
         | you apply AC it oscillates at a specific frequency.. the
         | applied electricity causes is the material to deform.. that is
         | the basic physical effect used in oscillators
         | 
         | MEMS oscillators are increasingly replacing quartz in compact,
         | rugged, or integrated designs.
         | 
         | PLL-based frequency synthesis is used to scale a low-frequency
         | reference (e.g., 25 MHz crystal) up to CPU/GPU GHz speeds.
        
           | willis936 wrote:
           | MEMS are made on a different process than other silicon
           | devices, which slightly increases their cost. They also need
           | to have hermetically sealed packaging, same as quartz.
           | Together there is little fundamental savings to be had with
           | MEMS, but they do offer a higher ceiling on performance. I
           | don't see crystals going away anytime soon.
           | 
           | Also, if you get a MEMS in a small epoxy / CSP package be
           | weary of gases that permeate the packaging material, such as
           | helium.
           | 
           | https://hackaday.com/2018/10/31/helium-can-stop-your-
           | iphone-...
        
       | csours wrote:
       | Synthetic quartz growing:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFH8_uLzano
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzHqhNoyx2o
        
       | throwpoaster wrote:
       | Related: the triboelectric[0] effect.
       | 
       | [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboelectric_effect
        
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