Product Spotlight: The Industry’s Smallest Resonator Is a Titan

Good things come in small packages. Today's miniaturized electronics are expanding capabilities. They make daily life more convenient, interconnected and mobile, both at home and in industry. Smart watches, fitness rings, hearing aids, continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), smart homes, asset trackers and industrial IoT sensors-to name a few applications-make life easier. What will they think of next? The future is bright. SiTime's latest Titan Platform™ family of resonators is a timing-industry breakthrough that unleashes new potential for product innovation.

The Titan Platform is comprised of the industry's smallest resonators-4x to 7x smaller than the smallest quartz crystal resonators. This latest innovation unlocks new paths for OEM and semiconductor partners to shrink product designs and enhance them with new or more robust features.

How Titan Resonators Enable OEM and Semiconductor Partners to Deliver More Innovative Products

The Titan resonators have two implementation options:

• PCB-mounted for rapid adoption.
• Bare-die co-packaged with SoCs or MCUs, eliminating the need for a discrete resonator on the board.

"Once a Titan resonator is integrated, it becomes part of the SoC or MCU platform for the life of that product," notes Dave Altavilla, Principal Analyst HotTech Vision And Analysis. "The Titan Platform is a disruptor, not only for how semiconductor and end-product engineers implement their timing solutions, but for the timing industry as a whole. It also represents a very sticky new revenue stream for SiTime."

The Titan Platform is built on FujiMEMS™, SiTime's sixth generation MEMS technology. The resonators come in a 0.46 x 0.46 mm 0505 CSP package, 4x smaller than 1008 quartz resonators and 7x smaller than 1210 quartz resonators. Enabling up to 50% lower oscillator circuit power and roughly 3x faster startup with 3x lower startup energy, they are a great option when power budgets are tight. In addition, they have 5x better aging stability (specified for running 5 years at the maximum temperature) and tighter stability across wide temperature ranges up to -40°C to 125°C. Titan resonators also have up to 50x better shock and 50x better vibration resilience, making them virtually indestructible in the presence of harsh environmental stressors.

Altogether, the Titan resonators enable more flexible, resilient and robust designs with extended battery life in the smallest form factor.

"SiTime's Titan resonators are a game-changer," said Scott Hanson, founder and CTO of Ambiq. "Our partnership with SiTime allows us to deliver a uniquely integrated solution-combining ultra-low power processing with Precision Timing. This collaboration empowers our customers to build intelligent, connected products that push the boundaries of what's possible, especially in Edge AI applications where performance and efficiency are critical."

The Titan Platform is comprised of the industry's smallest resonators-4x to 7x smaller than the smallest quartz alternatives. SiTime Titan MEMS resonator, shown here with a 1210 sized quartz crystal, consumes 7x less PCB area.

Titan Resonator: PCB Mounted vs. SoC or MCU Integrated

Titan devices are compatible with the oscillator circuitry found in existing SoCs and MCUs. Because of this, transitioning a Titan device into existing quartz resonator sockets is seamless and fast. Whether replacing the crystal resonator on a product refresh or designing something new from the ground up, Titan gives additional board space, lower power and MEMS reliability to get the most out of designs relative to competing options.

Semiconductor vendors have begun designing Titan inside SoC and MCU packages to create higher-value product variants. With the resonator eliminated from the board, the board design process will be simplified and the board space normally occupied by the resonator can be reclaimed by other functionality. In fact, it is "one and done," meaning integrating it into an SoC or MCU eliminates resonator design work for all future product generations-for both the semiconductor vendor and their end customers. Integrating the resonator not only lessens the engineering workload over the life of the product, it also can reduce design risk, shorten time to market and minimize support calls related to timing performance. Not only are these advantages realized for end-product companies, but the SoC and MCU companies that integrate Titan will enhance their offerings, enabling them to charge higher prices and increase their market share with more differentiated and integrated chips.

Titan SiT11100 (32MHz) consumes 7x smaller PCB area compared to the smallest-available 32MHz quartz crystal, which is 1210 in size (1.2 x 1.0 mm). Integrating the resonator into the SoC or MCU package eliminates the resonator component from the board.

"Titan fulfills our vision of being the only provider of complete timing components- oscillators, clocks and now, resonators," said Rajesh Vashist, CEO of SiTime. "Titan is the result of over a decade of innovation in MEMS design, materials science and semiconductor process engineering. SiTime's proprietary MEMS technology, now in its sixth generation with FujiMEMS™, is the foundation for Titan, which is years ahead of competitors. By integrating resonators into SoCs, MCUs, and wireless chip packages at scale, customers can capture more system value and revenue with their products. This integration is transformative for the entire electronics industry."

The Titan Platform Advantage

Miniaturization and integration in electronic systems have transformed how technology is designed and implemented. This shift to shrink components and combine functions not only enables sleek consumer devices like smartphones and wearables but also drives innovation in applications where space, power efficiency and reliability are critical. The Titan Platform is a breakthrough in miniaturization and integration, disrupting the timing industry by enabling complex systems to do more with less, putting greater performance and functionality at customers' fingertips.

The Titan Platform family of resonators comes in five frequencies: 32, 38.4, 40, 48 and 76.8 MHz, addressing a significant portion of the available short range wireless connectivity SoCs and low-power 32-bit MCUs.

Learn more about the Titan Platform Family of Resonators.