[time-nuts] Improving the stability of crystal oscillators

Richard (Rick) Karlquist richard at karlquist.com
Sun Oct 14 01:11:41 EDT 2007


Neon John wrote:

> Nah, not for this application.  A Peltier module typically has a COP of 1.  That is,
> it moves a watt of energy for each watt consumed.   Thus, for each watt moved, two
> watts have to be dissipated to air.
> 
> I can't imagine a well-insulated quartz oscillator needing more than a watt or two of
> cooling at the most.  A heat sink capable of handling 4-5 watts should do the job
> just fine.
> 
> Don:  I've seen peltier-controlled "ambient" ovens before but I can't recall the
> details.  I'm fairly sure one was a Fluke precision voltage transfer standard in
> which the zener reference diode was controlled to a constant temperature.

The problem with Peltier coolers is that they have low thermal 
resistance to ambient.  This makes them suitable only for
non critical ovens.

Rick Karlquist N6RK



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