The influence of support-configuration on the acceleration sensitivity of quartz resonator plates

The changes in the thickness-shear resonance frequencies of a circular, rotated Y-cut of quartz plate subject to in-plane steady accelerations was found to be a function of the direction and magnitude of the acceleration, the orientation of the crystal cut, the diameter-to-thickness ratio of the plate, and the numbers and positions of the metal ribbon supports at the edge of the crystal. The purpose of the present study is to investigate how the support configuration will influence the acceleration sensitivity of a resonator. An AT-cut circular quartz plate with four metal ribbon supports is chosen for a systematic parametric study. In order to examine the influence of the supportconfigurations on the frequency changes, the support configuration is changed from a reference configuration by displacing, for instance, one support in increments of 15° counterclockwise while holding the other supports fixed. For each displaced configuration, the frequency changes due to acceleration are computed as a function of the acceleration direction. In the same manner, computations are performed for a total of seven series of configuration variations. Then in each series, the particular support configurations and acceleration directions are identified as giving maximum and zero acceleration effects.