Specification of Precision Oscillators

This paper reviews Revision B of the military specification for quartz crystal oscillators, MIL-0-55310B. The emphasis is on those aspects of MIL-0-55310B which are of greatest interest to the PTTI community, i.e., on specifying high precision oscillators. MIL-0-55310B has been in the making since 1982. The five-year effort, which included repeated government-industry coordinations, has produced a completely overhauled document that is expected to be released early in 1988. The revised specification will supercede MIL-0-55310A, which was issued on 29 November 1976. The B-revision now permits the specification and acquisition of the more reliable and higher performance crystal oscillators required by modern military and space systems. Major modifications and improvements were made to the requirements specifying design and construction, performance and test, quality assurance, and qualification. Definitions were expanded and two new oscillator types, the microcomputer-compensatedcrystal oscillator MCXO and the rubidium-crystal oscillator RbXO, were added. An index has also been added to facilitate use of the specification. Revision B contains more than thirty new performance and corresponding test requirements.