Claims
- 1. Method of making a low aging piezoelectric resonator from a plate of piezoelectric material said method including the steps of:
- (A) making the resonator using standard fabrication techniques with identical electrodes applied to both major faces of the piezoelectric plate,
- (B) mounting the electroded plate in a suitable enclosure and vacuum baking the unit and sealing under high vacuum to remove as much contamination as possible, and
- (C) impressing a DC voltage between the resonator electrodes and the enclosure to create a static electric field within the enclosure.
- 2. Method according to claim 1 wherein the piezoelectric plate is a quartz plate.
- 3. Method according to claim 2 wherein identical electrodes of gold are applied to both major faces of the quartz plate.
- 4. Method according to claim 1 wherein the enclosure is an electrically conductive package.
- 5. Method according to claim 1 wherein the enclosure is an electrically insulating package having electrically conductive electrodes on the inside of the package.
- 6. Method according to claim 1 wherein the DC voltage impressed on each of the resonator electrodes is the same giving a zero DC field in the resonator to avoid unwanted sweeping.
- 7. Method according to claim 1 wherein the magnitude and polarity of the DC voltage impressed may be adjusted to influence the aging rate.
- 8. Method according to claim 1 wherein the electrodes on the crystal and the electrodes on the package are made of sufficiently different dimension to create a non-uniform electric field.
Government Interests
The invention described herein may be manufactured, used, and licensed by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.
US Referenced Citations (11)