Taiwan-based TXC has reduced sizes of its quartz crystal components to as small as 1212 (1.2mm x 1.2mm), while fellow maker Harmony Electronics has signed for cooperation with government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute to produce smaller quartz crystal components based on MEMS, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

In response to SiTime's indication of the replacement of quartz oscillators with MEMS-based silicon solutions, Taiwan-based makers disagree by saying that quartz oscillators are of higher precision required by high-end application such as cloud computing servers although the replacement may exist to low-end application such as consumer electronics, the sources pointed out. MEMS-based silicon oscillators are unable to completely replace quartz models in 5-10 years but will influence prices of the latter, the sources indicated.

TXC has reportedly defeated Japan-based Epson Toyocom to win adoption of it products for use in iPhone 4S, but the company declined to comment. TXC has seen orders for shipments to be finished within one month and utilized 80% of its production capacity, the sources noted.

Both TXC and Harmony Electronics hold conservative business outlook for the first quarter of 2012, the sources indicated.

Source:digitimes