Euroquartz introduces the capabilities of its UK-based AS9100 manufacturing facility and highlights the benefits regarding ITAR controls
Frequency control products are key parts, essential in many of today’s high technology systems, supplying timing and synchronisation of a myriad of processes.
Euroquartz, as a specialist British owned company with AS9100 certification and UK manufacturing facility, produces and supplies military and industrial grade quartz crystals, oscillators and filters.
Cleanroom facilities at the company’s Crewkerne headquarters in Somerset have enabled Euroquartz to manufacture a range of 7 by 5mm military and extended industrial temperature range clock oscillators for its UK customer base. A major advantage of UK produced components is their ITAR-free status making them ideal for export applications (see panel).
The Crewkerne plant is a unique crystal facility producing both legacy and surface mount products for a wide range of applications. Euroquartz has been manufacturing crystals since 1982 and has accumulated detailed knowledge of the technology which is shared with its customers. By working closely at a design level with the company’s manufacturing partners, Euroquartz can offer a comprehensive range of frequency products backed by full engineering support.
The product range includes quartz crystals, clock oscillators, TCXOs, VCXOs, OCXOs and filters. As the pace of technology development increases, Euroquartz keeps at the forefront of oscillator design by regularly releasing a variety of new products.
Recently released ranges of VCXOs offer both CMOS and differential models in a variety of package sizes. The latest TCXOs also offer a range of output waveforms combined with excellent phase noise and jitter performance in several package sizes.
Euroquartz also supplies crystals for all major Wi-Fi protocols such as: Zigbee, ISM and WLAN, and currently supplies many IoT projects.
Euroquartz has also introduced several innovative products recently offering a variety of high-speed formats such as LVDS, CML and HCSL, all designed to offer superior phase jitter performance. These oscillators are found in applications such as PCI Express, plus other high-speed data networking systems.
Another recently introduced range is a frequency selectable oscillator enabling a factory-set choice of two frequencies from a single oscillator circuit. The buffered output oscillator is another novel addition offering 60pF of drive from a single oscillator package with four identical output frequencies each with 15pF capability.
Euroquartz is committed to providing high-quality products with full traceability all combined with comprehensive technical support to deliver a quality service for engineers and buyers alike.
ITAR: a quick guide
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) are US export controls designed to restrict and control military related parts and can be a confusing issue. Strictly speaking, ITAR covers defence articles, technology and services with EAR—Export Administration Regulations—covering commercial and dual-use parts. Also included are technologies relating to them.
People often assume that an item listed as EAR99 is not regulated and there are no compliance issues. This is simply not the case as there is obviously a requirement to determine and apply the correct export control classification. However, this is only part of the requirement. Although some components are not listed with a specific control classification, it is the end-user that makes the difference to their status.
Consequently, a customer may purchase an EAR99 listed product but also need to provide an end-user declaration form (EUD).