An observation on quartz resonator aging.

Aging and acceleration sensitivity of certain fabrication lots of quartz resonators show a trend that may arise from a common predominating mechanism, such as stresses arising from the mounting structure. The presence or absence of such a trend is discussed. As part of the work on bulk-acoustic-wave (BAW) resonators, a database of all known parameters of the resonators in question was assembled. Resonator processing and electrical parameters were examined for correlations with the acceleration sensitivity. A similar effort was being undertaken in regard to resonator aging, and possible correlations between the aging and acceleration sensitivities of the various resonators were examined. The results for two such fabrication lots are shown. The magnitude of the observed aging was typically in the 10(-10) per day range. The identity of the common contributor is unknown at the present time. It is likely that mounting related stresses are the common contributor.