Texas Instruments unveiled this week what the company describes as “breakthrough” bulk acoustic wave (BAW) resonator technology. With microresonator technology, TI no longer needs to use external quartz crystal. Instead, it can integrate high-precision and ultra-low-jitter clocks directly into packages that contain other circuits, according to the company. This has enabled TI to roll out for the embedded market the industry’s first crystal-less, wireless MCU, SimpleLink CC2652RB, with the clock included in the same silicon.

In parallel, by applying the same BAW technology to network infrastructure, TI is launching a network synchronizer called LMK05318, enabling 400-Gbps link performance even under high system-level disturbances.

Ray Upton, TI’s vice president of Connected Microcontrollers, explained that the new technology is critical to “moving around massive amounts of data in a stable manner,” thus improving high-performance communication. The technology also achieves high precision and robust communication among IoT devices that can be developed now in a less bulky form, said Kim Wong, TI’s vice president of High Speed Data & Clocks.

Put simply, advancements in BAW technology lend wired and wireless networks “increased performance, simpler design, lower cost, and smaller size,” Wong explained.

Why BAW resonator technology is important

Philip Solis, research director for Connectivity and Smartphone Semiconductors at IDC, told EE Times that the new BAW resonator technology “is important because TI is integrating it into its silicon products, reducing design time, solution size, and component costs.”

In addition, said Solis, “using a BAW resonator is much more accurate than using a quartz crystal.” A quartz crystal needs additional components to extend its accuracy as — over time — its properties change, beyond the temperature variations that can be controlled, he added.

As he explained, “If it were merely a different way of doing timing, it would be more accurate and reduce the need for other external components, but the BAW resonator is produced in silicon as part of various TI products.”

Today, timing normally requires quartz crystals. “Everyone uses quartz crystals for the clock,” said Solis. In that context, BAW resonator technology gives TI a huge advantage by eliminating the need for external components mounted on the PCB, he noted.

Asked why nobody in the industry has built something like the BAW resonator, Upton said, “This is extremely difficult to develop.” TI had dabbled with it for several years while working on MEMS. But it was not easy to convert electrical energy to mechanical acoustics while keeping signals stable and robust within a clean clock.

Key features

TI’s SimpleLink multi-standard CC2652RB is a wireless MCU with a BAW resonator in a quad flat no-lead (QFN) package. It claims a reduced overall footprint, absent an external high-speed 48-MHz crystal.

(Source: TI)

This also offers a simplified design, said TI. The CC2652RB is the lowest-power multi-standard device supporting Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth Low Energy, and proprietary 2.4-GHz connectivity on a single chip. Enabling more design options and flexibility in a wider range of applications and environments, the CC2652RB works in the full −40°C to 85°C temperature range, unlike many crystal-based solutions.

TI’s other splash, an ultra-low-jitter single-channel LMK05318 network synchronizer clock, provides higher network performance. Featuring a BAW resonator, TI’s single-channel network synchronizer clock for 400-Gbps links helps systems transmit more data faster while also providing a higher margin for system jitter budgets than competing devices, TI explained.

With ultra-low jitter and the industry’s best hitless switching performance, the LMK05318 delivers the lowest bit errors for 56-Gbps and emerging 112-Gbps pulse-amplitude modulation-4 links — enabling better network performance.

(Source: TI)

Tradeoffs?

Asked if there is any tradeoff by integrating a BAW resonator in the wireless MCU package, Wong noted a potential power delta at about 2% — “a couple of hundred microamps.” He called it “a reasonable tradeoff, [considering] its benefits outweigh [it].”

Availability

Pre-production samples of the CC2652RB are now available through the TI store in a 7 × 7-mm very thin QFN (VQFN) package, according to the company. Pricing starts at $3.55 in 1,000-unit quantities. Developers can get started with the SimpleLink CC2652B wireless MCU-based TI LaunchPad development kit available through the TI store.

The LMK05318 is now available in production quantities in a 48-pin, 7 × 7-mm VQFN package. Pricing starts at $11.44 per 1,000 units. Developers can evaluate this device with the LMK05318 evaluation module, available today for $399.00 from the TI store and authorized distributors.