A Closer Look at Piezoelectric Crystal

Posted2 months agoActive2 months ago

pillars

70 points

23 comments

samaterials.comResearchstory

calmpositive

Debate

20/100

PiezoelectricityCrystal StructuresMaterials Science

Key topics

Piezoelectricity

Crystal Structures

Materials Science

The article explores the properties of piezoelectric crystals, sparking a discussion on their applications, history, and related scientific phenomena.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Moderate engagement

First comment

Peak period

Day 9

Avg / period

5.8

Comment distribution23 data points

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Based on 23 loaded comments

Key moments

01Story posted
Oct 22, 2025 at 12:12 PM EDT
2 months ago
Step 01
02First comment
Oct 22, 2025 at 1:28 PM EDT
1h after posting
Step 02
03Peak activity
10 comments in Day 9
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03
04Latest activity
Nov 2, 2025 at 2:27 PM EST
2 months ago
Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (23 comments)

Showing 23 comments

southwindcg

2 months ago

1 reply

*Crystal

pillarsAuthor

2 months ago

Thank you! Updated.

wizardforhire

2 months ago

2 replies

Obligatory must watch old dod training film on the subject.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZYyAYIUvI-M&pp=ygUiUXVhcnR6IGNye...

mikkupikku

2 months ago

2 replies

I wish people still talked with the accent/style used in these old videos. It's so easy to understand and listen to, compared to the typical modern American accent.

ahartmetz

2 months ago

1 reply

It seems to be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_American_Speech aka Mid-Atlantic Accent - an artificial accent - with a fairly strong natural accent of the speaker coming through.

kulahan

2 months ago

2 replies

What is an artificial accent? Isn't every accent just the way people choose to speak?

FuriouslyAdrift

2 months ago

1 reply

It's a way of speaking taught in broadcasting and acting schools

kulahan

2 months ago

2 replies

I was under the impression that this is effectively teaching people to speak without any accent at all

FuriouslyAdrift

2 months ago

1 reply

Oh no... it's an "accent". It's just a "desirable" one. Kind of like a posh accent in England.

kulahan

2 months ago

Well no, definitely not - it’s just meant to be as clear as possible. The point is to make sure as many people as possible can understand you, which is very important in informational and entertaining broadcasts.

mrguyorama

2 months ago

2 replies

>effectively teaching people to speak without any accent at all

There's no such thing as "no accent"

ahartmetz

2 months ago

In English at least. Some (maybe most? - no idea honestly) languages do have more or less official standard accents. For German, that standard accent is very close to how people speak in Hannover.

NetMageSCW

2 months ago

I used to speak with pretty close to no accent as I learned English in Okinawa, then went to 2nd and third grade in Arkansas and then went to school in southern Virginia. The mix resulted in an unaccented speech compared to most localities. Now I have a slight southern accent.

mitthrowaway2

2 months ago

An artificial accent is one where there are no native speakers raised with it, but rather people are professionally trained to speak with it.

FuriouslyAdrift

2 months ago

The midwest has the most neutral accent although it is slowly drifting

https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-united-states-of-acce...

thenthenthen

2 months ago

As well as Crystals go to war, on the industrial production of crystal oscillators: https://youtu.be/wHenisSTUQY?si=GzjfOFHFOknKRQ9m

panki27

2 months ago

1 reply

The link appears to be broken, it redirects me to the main page.

zenmac

2 months ago

https://archive.ph/E4TZ7

sixothree

2 months ago

1 reply

Do we still use piezo to power clock circuits of modern computers?

nakamoto_damacy

2 months ago

1 reply

no, we use atomic clocks now... j/k

piezoelectric refers to generation of electricity from pressure applied to the material... the inverse of that effect is what generates oscillation.. quartz has a natural resonant frequency determined by its shape, size, and the way it’s cut, and when you apply AC it oscillates at a specific frequency.. the applied electricity causes is the material to deform.. that is the basic physical effect used in oscillators

MEMS oscillators are increasingly replacing quartz in compact, rugged, or integrated designs.

PLL-based frequency synthesis is used to scale a low-frequency reference (e.g., 25 MHz crystal) up to CPU/GPU GHz speeds.

willis936

2 months ago

MEMS are made on a different process than other silicon devices, which slightly increases their cost. They also need to have hermetically sealed packaging, same as quartz. Together there is little fundamental savings to be had with MEMS, but they do offer a higher ceiling on performance. I don't see crystals going away anytime soon.

Also, if you get a MEMS in a small epoxy / CSP package be weary of gases that permeate the packaging material, such as helium.

https://hackaday.com/2018/10/31/helium-can-stop-your-iphone-...

csours

2 months ago

Synthetic quartz growing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFH8_uLzano

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzHqhNoyx2o

throwpoaster

2 months ago

Related: the triboelectric[0] effect.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboelectric_effect

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