Basic Material Quartz and Related Innovations

Although material quartz is of scientific interest in its own right, its volume of usage and variety of applications dictate its technological importance.The technological prominence of α-quartz stems largely from the presence of piezoelectricity, combined with extremely low acoustic loss. It was one of the minerals with which the Brothers Curie first established the piezoelectric effect in 1880. In the early 1920s, the quartz resonator was first used for frequency stabilization. Temperature-compensated orientations (the AT and BT shear cuts) were introduced in the 1930s, and assured the technology’s success. By the late 1950s, growth of cultured bars became commercially viable, and in the early 1970s, cultured quartz use for electronic applications first exceeded that of the natural variety. The discovery of cuts that addressed compensation of stress and temperature transient effects occurred in the 1970s, and led to the introduction of compound cuts such as the SC, which hasboth a zero temperature coefficient of frequency, and is simultaneously stress-compensated [1–5]. Between 10⁹ and 10¹⁰ quartz units per year were produced by 2000 at frequencies from below 1 kHz to above 10 GHz. Categories of application include resonators, filters, delay lines, transducers, sensors, signal processors, and actuators. Particularly noteworthy are the bulk- and surface-wave resonators; their uses span the gamut from disposable timepieces to highest precision oscillators for position-location, and picosecond timing applications. Stringent high-shock and high-pressure sensor operations are also enabled. Table 2.1 shows the major applications of quartz crystals. These applications are discussed subsequently in greater detail. For general background and historical developments, see [1,6–11].