# How to properly connect a crystal to a Network Analyzer?

What is the correct way to connect a crystal or ceramic resonator to a network analyzer so as to be able to measure the series and parallel resonate frequencies?

Should non-attenuated probes be used? Assuming that the input and output of the analyzer is 50ohms, can the crystal be connected as follows?

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

If the Analyzer has a high-impedance input or if I were to manually plot this with a signal generator and an oscilloscope, should there be a 50ohm resistor between the right side of the crystal and ground?

The series and parallel resonant frequencies will be used to calculate the motional perimeters (Lm and Cm) of the crystal.

This appears to be a new question. I searched here and Google.

• Do you know the equivalent circuit at least? It's just a two port with Cs,Cp,Ls,Rs – Sunnyskyguy EE75 Oct 26 '16 at 16:58
• Yes, the equivalent circuit of a crystal is just an RLC circuit with the capacitance of the crystal plates. My question then is, do I need to match the impedance of that circuit to 50ohms in order to accurately measure it's properties? – Mark Baldridge Oct 26 '16 at 17:04
• You need to take the maximum drive level into account or you could damage the crystal. – Spehro Pefhany Oct 26 '16 at 17:07
• You leave the crystal alone if you want to measure its properties. If you mess about trying to match it, you will hide its properties behind the transformation and the uncertainty of the matching networks. A 50ohm analyser will measure them with respect to 50 ohms. If that doesn't give you the dynamic range you need for that particular crystal, then perhaps use a high impedance scope shunted by (say) 1k or 10k to give it a well defined input impedance. – Neil_UK Oct 26 '16 at 17:37
• It depends how accurate you need to measure Rs, Cs, Cp, Ls or whether it is more important to measure $R_s, f_s, f_p error$ or even better AT cut slope fp(T) to bin for TCXO – Sunnyskyguy EE75 Oct 26 '16 at 17:53

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

or more details read IEC 444 on standard $\pi$ network.