[time-nuts] Re: OCXO Oven design (was: E1938A phase noise improvement)

[Magnus Danielson]

Hi,

On 2021-12-26 23:38, Attila Kinali wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Dec 2021 15:54:06 -0500
> Bob kb8tq <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:
>
>> The market is what dictates how fancy an OCXO gets made. Bottom
>> line is that there really isn’t that big a market (and willingness to pay
>> for super duper TC). If indeed you could do all the fancy stuff and
>> still keep the sell price below $10 then who knows ….
> I wonder about that. I was told by an ex-manager of
> Oscilloquartz, that their biggest problem with the 8607
> was that the Option 08 sold too well. So much, that
> they had a huge over-supply of the other, lesser
> versions of the 8607, to the point that even raising
> the price of the Option 08 beyond what a car cost
> didn't recover its cost.
>
> Sure, such a high stability oscillator doesn't have a
> mass market. And it's definitely not a comodity item.
> But there seems to be decent market even if its very
> expensive.

Well, within some very small market segment it may feel unlimited. Trust 
me when I say I wish I could fit 8607s into my boxes, but they would not 
fit the price-range, size and to some degree power options. There is 
actually quite many oscillators made today that also do not fit the bill.

There isn't one market. There is actually several parallel market 
segments, each with their own quirks and logics to them. The oscillators 
is put in different environments for various reasons.

I see increased market for wider temperature range, as more devices 
needs to operate in cars, so outside of 0 to 70 C range into -40 to +85 
C. That does only benefit a small class of oscillators market and 
feature wise.

Another thing we see is that synthesizer chips take over. We use less 
odd frequency oscillators today in our designs. That also changes the 
market.

So what may be true for Oscilloquartz and their very narrow 
customer-range, does not apply to other uses, and I am also in telecom 
timing just as them.

Cheers,
Magnus