A voltage-controlled crystal oscillator (VCXO) from Kaben Wireless Silicon is well suited for applications in the timing market. It employs the firm's patented delta-sigma-based fractional-N frequency synthesis techniques to achieve maximum root-mean-square (RMS) jitter of 0.5 ps at frequencies to 1.4 GHz. The company has fabricated the oscillator using IBM's 180-nm silicon-germanium (SiGe) 7WL semiconductor process.
The model KWS410 VCXO is available as a stand-alone integrated circuit (IC) or can be integrated as part of a larger system-on-chip (SoC) solution to eliminate the need for off-chip components. According to Bill Bereza, Kaben's Director of Marketing, "The ultra-low jitter, and programmable frequency range makes this VCXO ideal for precision clock conditioning or jitter attenuation applications. This product replaces multiple, external VCXOs in multi-band applications. The reduced BoM offers significant cost benefits."