
AVR042
11
2521C-AVR-09/05
be used. Then the value of the external capacitors can be determined by Equation 2.
The CKOPT Fuse should be unprogrammed when using external capacitors.
Please reefer to the datasheet to assure whether the device has internal capacitors or
not. Devices who support 1.8-5.5V operating voltages do not have internal capacitors
(except Atmega162). Note that AT90S8535, Atmega163 and Atmega103 does not
have the CKOPT-fuse, instead they have dedicated pins (TOSC1-TOSC2), to
connect the 32.768 kHz watch crystal to.
Using the clock option that selects “ext. ceramic resonator” it is strongly
recommended to consult the datasheet to determine the capacitors to apply. Always
use the capacitive load recommended there since the resonant frequency of the
ceramic resonators is very sensitive to capacitive load.
5.5 Pullability of the nominal frequency
The frequency of the resonator is depending on the capacitive load that is applied.
Applying the capacitive load specified in the datasheet of the resonator will provide a
frequency very close to the nominal frequency (intended oscillating frequency). If
other capacitive loads are applied the oscillating frequency will change. The
frequency will increase if the capacitive load is decreased and decrease if the load is
increased. The frequency pullability - how far from the nominal frequency the
resonant frequency can be forced by applying load - is depending on the type of
resonator used or actually the Q-factor of the resonator. Typically crystals have a very
high Q-factor, meaning that the pullability of the resonant frequency is relatively low.
Some crystals have especially high Q-factors, e.g. 32.768kHz crystals since they are
typically used for timing purposes, which require that the frequency is very exact.
Ceramic resonators do not have high Q-factors and are therefore more sensitive to
changes in capacitive load.
Regardless of the resonator type the resonant frequency can be pulled, by changing
the capacitive load, but if a high capacitive load is applied it must be ensured that the
oscillator can start in all conditions of operation. If the resonator is overloaded the
oscillation can have problems starting, but once the oscillation has started it will
seldom stop again due to overload. Touching the pins of a resonator that have not
started oscillating, with a finger or an oscilloscope-probe, can be sufficient to start the
oscillation and it can therefore be tricky to identify the overload problem.
To be able to determine the pullability of the resonator the “motional” capacitance of
the resonator should be know. This value is not listed in all crystal datasheet and it is
recommended to not intentionally try to pull the resonant frequency of the resonator
unless understanding the theory behind this
5.6 Unbalanced external capacitors
In noisy environments the oscillator can be affected crucially by the noise. If the noise
is strong enough the oscillator can “lock up” and stop oscillating. To make the
oscillator less sensitive to noise the size of the capacitor at the high impedance input
of the oscillator circuit, XTAL1, can be increased slightly. Increasing only one of the
capacitors does not affect the total capacitive load much, but unbalanced capacitors
can affect the resonant frequency to a higher degree than the change of the total
capacitive load. However, unbalanced capacitive loads will affect the duty cycle of the
oscillation and therefore one should in general not use unbalanced capacitive loads.
This is especially critical if running the AVR close to it’s maximum speed limit.