In recent years, due to advances in semiconductor technology and mature integrated circuit design, complex signal processing equipment is beginning to be replaced by the integrated circuit. This paper presents an integrated circuit programmable frequency generator for open-loop resonator application and its evaluation. It can eventually replace the conventional discrete component system and be used to find the resonance frequency shift for the readout of micro-balances or similar devices. The oscillator provides an analog tuning input to set the coarse center frequency and bit resolution, and uses a digital input to control the frequency sweep. Calculating the resonance frequency difference between the active balance and a passive reference can mitigate some environmental effects on the resonator (e.g. temperature). The generator circuit is designed using Synopsys¡¦ HSPICE and Cadence's Spectre to perform circuit simulation. The circuit is implemented by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in 0.35 £gm 2-poly 4-metal CMOS process technology. The potential detection precision of a micro-balance using the forward generator is assessed by connecting test chips to an evaluation PCB with commercial piezo crystals providing a known resonance frequency for testing. National Instruments¡¦ LABVIEW is used to record the data output, and MATLAB to analyze the results. A minimum detection accuracy of 1 kHz is demonstrated with this setup.

Piezoelectricity crystal is used in different area in industry, such as downhole oil, gas industry, and ballistics. The piezoelectricity crystals are able to create electric fields due to mechanical deformation called the direct piezoelectric effect, or create mechanical deformation due to the effect of electric field called the indirect piezoelectric effect. In this thesis, piezoelectricity effect is the core part. There are 4 parts in the frequency output pressure transducer: two crystal oscillators, phase-locked loop (PLL), mixer, frequency counter. Crystal oscillator is used to activate the piezoelectricity crystal which is made from quartz. The resonance frequency of the piezoelectricity crystal will be increased with the higher pressure applied. The signal of the resonance frequency will be transmitted to the PLL. The function of the PLL is detect the frequency change in the input signal and makes the output of the PLL has the same frequency and same phase with the input signal. The output of the PLL will be transmitted to a Mixer. The mixer has two inputs and one output. One input signal is from the pressure crystal oscillator and another one is from the reference crystal oscillator. The frequency difference of the two signal will transmitted to the frequency counter from the output of the mixer. Thus, the frequency output pressure transducer with a frequency counter is a portable device which is able to measure the pressure without oscilloscope or computer.

This thesis deals with thermal stabilization of crystal oscillators. A simple thermostat of piezoelectric crystal unit is designed in first part. Main emphasis is set to low input power. The second part deals with crystal oscillators with 102,5MHz and 10MHz frequency. They are simulated with Ansoft Designer software. Both of these oscilators are measured for short term and midterm frequency stability.

Nous avons caractérisé différents cristaux piézoélectriques de Langatate La3Ga5.5Ta0.5O14 (LGT), de différentes couleurs afin d’évaluer l’influence des défauts sur la qualité de dispositifs du domaine Temps-Fréquence (résonateurs acoustiques).Nous avons étudié la composition de ces cristaux dont les variations autour de la composition stoechiométrique sont surtout dues à l’évaporation du Ga2O au cours de la croissance compensée par un excès de Ga2O3 dans le mélange initial. Pour déterminer cette composition, la technique ICP-AES, précédée par une mise en solution par fusion alcaline, est la plus fiable.La présence d’impuretés chimiques, telles que les éléments métalliques ou les terres rares, liée à la pureté des oxydes de base, au frittage de la charge dans un creuset alumine… est étudiée. Nous expliquons ainsi la nature des centres colorés qui évolue selon l’atmosphère de tirage ou lors d’un recuit particulier.C’est ainsi que nous avons déterminé certaines propriétés de LGT permettant l’obtention de dispositifs comme les résonateurs à ondes de volume dont le produit Q.f est supérieur à celui des résonateurs à quartz. Pour cela, nous montrons notamment qu’il est nécessaire que :- la composition du cristal soit la plus proche possible de la stoechiométrie,- la résistivité électrique soit la plus grande possible,- l’étude spectroscopique ne révèle aucune absorption dans le domaine du visible.Dans ces conditions, le facteur de qualité Q d’une résonance à 10 MHz peut être de 1.44 million au point d’inversion de la courbe fréquence-température (1.35 pour le quartz) mais qu’il diminue notablement pour atteindre 0.35 million si nous pratiquons un recuit sous air à 1000°C pendant 48 h. / We have characterized Langatate piezoelectric crystals La3Ga5.5Ta0.5O14 (LGT), differently colored in order to evaluate the defects influence on the quality of Bulk Acoustic Waves resonators for the Time and Frequency domain.We have analyzed the composition of crystals whose variations around stoichiometric composition are mainly due to the evaporation of the Ga2O during growth compensated by adding an excess of Ga2O3 in the initial mixture. Among different techniques, the ICP-AES spectrometry, preceded by a dissolution by alkaline fusion seems to be the most accurate technique to determine the composition.The inevitable presence of chemical impurities, such as metallic elements, rare earth… linked to the purities of the raw materials, to the sintering of the load in an alumina crucible… is also studied. We try to explain in particular the nature of the color centers that evolve according to the growth atmosphere or during a particular annealing.So, we conclude by a list of necessary properties to obtain BAW resonators exhibiting a Q.f product higher than quartz. For this, we establish that it is necessary that:- the crystal composition is as close as possible to the stoichiometric composition,- the electrical resistivity is the highest possible,- the spectroscopic study does not reveal any absorption band in the visible domain.In these conditions, we were able to highlight that the quality factor of a 10 MHz resonance is of 1.44 million at the inversion temperature of the frequency-temperature curve (1.35 for the quartz crystal in the same conditions), but that this one decreases significantly to reach 0.35 million if we perform an annealing under air at 1000 °C during 48 hours.