Pierce Oscillator

Pierce Oscillator

The Pierce oscillator is a crystal oscillator that uses the crystal as part of its feedback path and therefore has no resonant tank circuit. The Pierce Oscillator uses a JFET as its amplifying device as it provides a very high input impedance with the crystal connected between the output Drain terminal and the input Gate terminal as shown below.

Pierce Crystal Oscillator

In this simple circuit, the crystal determines the frequency of oscillations and operates on its series resonant frequency giving a low impedance path between output and input.

There is a 180° phase shift at resonance, making the feedback positive. The amplitude of the output sine wave is limited to the maximum voltage range at the Drain terminal.

Resistor, R1 controls the amount of feedback and crystal drive while the voltage across the radio frequency choke, RFC reverses during each cycle. Most digital clocks, watches and timers use a Pierce Oscillator in some form or other as it can be implemented using the minimum of components.