How Timing Solutions Shape a Connected World

We Depend on Connected Devices. Connected Devices Depend on Timing Circuits.

“Everything is connected” is no longer a phrase reserved only for physicists and philosophers. Technology has digitally incorporated this concept by interconnecting electronic devices to create “smart” devices and experiences. In a smart home, for instance, appliances, devices, your Wi-Fi and even household fixtures comprise a network for intercommunication to make households more efficient. In other environments enhanced by Internet of Things (IoT), such as the smart hospital, interconnectivity between systems, devices and sensors deliver efficiencies and insights for medical professionals in the workplace.

Connection can, of course, occur at longer distances than within the home or between floors of a hospital. Our global thinking, from economics to the environment, is driven by our ability to share information, ideas, currency and more across the world in milliseconds. The world today is about connection, and the resources and opportunities those connections provide.

There is a great deal of discussion about how these connective technologies will alter our world. What new information will interconnected systems provide? Instead of offering options, what decisions will they be able to make on our behalf? What are the boundaries of behavior learning and algorithmic technologies?

While we wonder about how connection will shape our lives, less attention is paid to how these applications are shaped in the first place. This requires a look behind the scenes. What you will discover is that the technology that supports connectivity is just as fascinating for its importance in affecting our connected future.

Timing Solutions Perform the Work that Lets Connected Devices Shine

Whether a person is sending data from one continent to another or receiving notifications about their thermostat on their smartphone, interconnectedness relies on circuit timing to ensure that necessary tasks within a product’s electronics happen when they are supposed to happen.

Timing solutions are highly effective at delivering requirements that connected devices demand:

• Executing tasks: High-quality frequency components ensure that a sensor is monitoring or taking measurements in real-time, as is the case in smart vehicles that consistently require data to make real-time decisions. These same components can also signal a device to monitor or take measurements intermittently.
• Synchronizing: A central timing solution can serve as a reference clock for other circuits to synchronize when tasks should be performed. A real time clock’s function measures the passage of “real time” and maintains a user interface that communicates time accurately or even maintains that accuracy when a device loses power.
• Strong communication: Clean, stable frequencies are required to enhance how communication signals perform. A high-quality, high-performing timing signal directly contributes to the performance and quality of a communication signal.

While these strengths provide our society with many applications that have made our connected world possible, timing components are not one-size-fits-all. The circuitry of any device has required parameters that are dependent on the task it is meant to execute, the environment in which it is deployed and more. Therefore, timing circuitry itself requires two additional behind-the-scenes players: an engineer and their chosen manufacturer.

Finding a Business with the Timing Solutions Inventory that Meets Your Needs

Your project may require multiple timing components with various performance specs to deliver on its promise of connectivity, as well as all its other use cases. To acquire these components, it is important to work with a manufacturer that features a broad portfolio of timing solutions that meet your needs.

The following considerations can help you select a partner that will ensure your product functions effectively at the timing level:

1. Consider a manufacturer that builds crystal oscillators as opposed to alternative timing solutions, such as MEMS technology. Although MEMS oscillators promise significant ruggedness and longevity, these qualities can also be excessive when put in perspective.

   MEMS oscillators’ ruggedness may only prove useful in a volatile environment where your application could experience unusual amounts of agitation (e.g., farm equipment). The longevity of MEMS will likely far outlast the usefulness of your application before a new design is needed.

   Alternatively, a crystal oscillator’s performance only flags long after the application’s reasonable lifespan. Crystal oscillators also draw less power without the additional compensations that MEMS require to perform at their highest level.

2. A manufacturer’s portfolio should include several types of timing devices that are designed for specific environments and circumstances that may be useful to your project. For example, a company that offers a wide variety of products to suit different use cases (e.g., OCXOs, TCXOs, AEC-Q200-qualified products and prestressed crystals to minimize frequency drift) anticipate a wide range of requirements, from real time clock functions to a wide temperature range.
3. Look for a manufacturer with a long-standing history of delivering timing solutions for multiple industries. Not only does this point to the number of solutions the manufacturer has been able to provide for its breadth of clients, but it also demonstrates that, as demand has grown, they’ve proven they can authoritatively meet engineers’ needs for timing circuitry.

Explore more articles on the relationship between connectivity and frequency, as well as a full archive of resources on timing and its many applications.