>Broadcom will produce advanced radio frequency components — including FBAR filters
Thin-film bulk acoustic resonator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin-film_bulk_acoustic_resona...
>Trends to utilize RF spectrum more efficiently with higher frequencies than roughly 1.5–2.5 GHz and in some cases also simultaneously with increasing RF output power have supported FBAR technology to become one of the key enabling technologies in telecommunication realisations. FBAR technology complements and in some cases competes with surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology and FBAR resonators can replace crystals in crystal oscillators and crystal filters at frequencies more than 100 MHz.
Fascinating. I suppose they can be smaller than quartz crystals?
If you find that fascinating already... did you know that all cellphones use mechanical filters in the GHz range? They combine very good performance with very low energy consumption.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_acoustic_wave
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akustische-Oberfl%C3%A4chenwel... (pictures)
Honestly, the "HF physics is black magic" trope has made me numb to the phantastical contraptions. I appreciate when they look cool, like esoteric orgon wave radiators.
Small note of clarification. HF in a radio frequency (RF) context actually refers to what we would now consider fairly low frequencies between 3 and 30mhz where wavelengths are in the tens of meters. The black magic is mostly in UHF AND microwave regions where wavelengths start to measure closer to the size of circuit elements.
Although I have also heard it said “RF physics is black magic” to cover all the bases
Yes, radio found out naming is hard before software did, in very old times there was High Frequency (HF), but then circuits got fast enough to go higher, oops, ok no problem, let's call the new frequencies Very High Frequency (VHF) whew that was close, but wait they got even faster! Ugh! Ok let's call the new frequencies Ultra High Frequency (UHF), but wait, we're still not in the Ghz range yet! Thankfully they did not keep going to Super Super Mega Ultra High Frequency.
3–30 Hz Extremely low frequency
30–300 Hz Super low frequency
300–3000 Hz Ultra low frequency
3–30 kHz Very low frequency
30–300 kHz Low frequency
300 kHz – 3 MHz Medium frequency
3–30 MHz High frequency
30–300 MHz Very high frequency
300 MHz – 3 GHz Ultra high frequency
3-30 GHz Super high frequency
30–300 GHz Extremely high frequency
300 GHz – 3 THz Tremendously high frequency
So you've heard of USB?
Television resolutions appear to be on the same naming path.
Oh, they're much worse[1]. Is 4k 3840x2160 or 4096x2160? That's right, it's both! And 4096x2048! And 4096x4096! And about half a dozen other resolutions, many of which have no dimension of 4000 or 4096 pixels.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_display_resolut...
They should have started adopting olive size factors.
After Ultra High, we could have had Jumbo, Colossal, Super Colossal. and Mammoth frequency ranges.
Not to be confused with Colossal wavelengths, which is what we could have used if we need to fiddle around below Extremely Low frequencies..
Uhm.. Super High Frequency (SHF) and Extremely High Frequency (EHF) would like to have a word.
Though yes in my experience, at those frequencies people stop using ITU designations, and switch to IEEE (S,C,X-band etc).
Ahaha that's even better, I had no idea, love it!
Sky High Frequency
AFAIK, the black magic factor is much higher for HF electronics than for HF mechanics. It's at least partially because you can build more complex systems with HF electronics. The other difference is that high frequency EM oscillations easily radiate energy in the form of photons, while high energy mechanical oscillations radiate nothing for practical purposes (at least in vacuum), gravity waves if you're being pedantic.
Very little uses crystal oscillators, they’re gigantic compared with electronics today and have very wonky performance over temperature and shock.
even txco's?
You probably know this, they don't have wonky performance but are even bigger. An oven around a crystal.
Those would be OCXOs. TXCOs are just temperature compensated.
Every time I trust my memory it betrays me.
I treat my technical memories in discussions like the Russian proverb Reagan popularized in the disarmament negotiations with the Soviets.
“Trust, but verify.”Meta: Yes, I did a quick search to verify some of this before replying.
Very good. Sometimes I‘m too impatient.
I am getting into the questionable habit of arguing my point with an LLM before contributing it these days.
> доверяй, но проверяй
I wasn't aware of the source phrase, nor how much better it sounds phonetically in Russian (doveryay, no proveryay)
FBAR is cool, but what can Claude come up with?