in fig2 an embodiment of the one - pin crystal oscillator of the invention is depicted and identified by the numeral 20 . this embodiment is implemented using a nmos process . transistor m 1 is the actual gain element of the oscillator . transistor m 1 , in a preferred embodiment is a depletion mode fet ( field effect transistor ). transistor m 2 is the biasing current source which has a grounded gate . transistor m 2 in a preferred embodiment is also a depletion mode fet . together these elements , along with the feedback network composed of the crystal y 2 and capacitors c 1 and c 2 , give the necessary loop gain and phase shift for oscillations to occur . as can be seen in fig2 the drain terminal of transistor m 1 is connected to v dd with the source terminal thereof connected to a node 3 which is connected to the drain terminal of transistor m 2 . the source of transistor m 2 is connected to ground which can be considered node 2 of the above basic oscillator block circuit . capacitors c 1 and c 2 are connected in series between the gate of transistor m 1 ( node 1 ) and the ground ( node 2 ). the connection between capacitors c 1 and c 2 is communicated with node 3 . crystal y 2 is also connected between node 1 and node 2 . resistors r 1 and r 2 are connected between v dd and ground at node 2 . a transistor m 3 is provided such that its gate is connected to v dd , with its drain connected to the gate of transistor m 1 and its source connected to the line connecting resistors r 1 and r 2 . in a preferred embodiment , transistors m 3 is an enhancement mode fet . since a very high impedance at the gate of transistor m 1 is necessary , the bias voltage generated by resistors r 1 and r 2 is coupled to node 1 by transistor m 3 whose small - signal source - drain resistance is made large . this configuration can give an impedance at node 1 on the order of one megaohm in the preferred embodiment while keeping the die area within allowable limits . as node 3 is not externally available , capacitors c 1 and c 2 must be integrated . in the nmos implementation 50 of the embodiment , capacitors c 1 and c 2 are realized using the gate capacitance c 1 &# 39 ;, c 2 &# 39 ; of depletion transistors biased in the linear region . this is accomplished by tying the source and drain terminals together , the capacitance being provided between the gate terminal and the tied - together source and drain terminals . the capacitors of this embodiment , as specified below , are approximately one - tenth the size of the capacitors used in the prior art . in this embodiment , the output of the oscillator 20 may be taken from either node 1 or 3 . node 1 is preferrable because its bias voltage is known precisely , and is generally closer to the threshold of a standard inverter . also the output amplitude at node 1 is larger , thus requiring fewer stages of gain to generate a square wave . y 2 crystal parameters ( a 4 - mhz quartz crystal in preferred embodiment with low series resistance and low case capacitance ). m 1 = 20 / 10 ( w / l : where w / l is the ratio of the width in microns to the length in microns of the gate of the fabricated fet ) the one - pin crystal oscillator of the invention can also be implemented in at least the two other ways depicted in fig3 and 4 . in fig3 a cmos process is used . this implementation has the same small - signal behavior as the embodiment of fig2 . the only difference is in the bias points , and thus the output signal amplitude and bias voltage . in the embodiment of fig3 oscillator 30 has transistors m 1a , m 2a m 3a which are preferably implemented with the p - channel fets . in this embodiment , transistor m 1a is the actual gain element of the oscillator 30 , and transistor m 2a is the biasing current source . transistor m 2a is biased at node 4 by an internally generated reference . resistors r 1a and r 2a generate the bias voltage for node 1 . since a very high impedance at the gate m 1a is necessary , this bias voltage is coupled to node 1 by transistor m 3a , whose small - signal source - drain resistance is made large . as node 3 is not externally available , capacitors c 1a , c 1b must be integrated . in cmos implementation , this can be accomplished by either poly - poly or metal - metal capacitors . as can be seen in fig3 the source terminal of transistor m 2a is connected to v dd with the drain thereof connected to node 3 to which the source of transistor m 1a is connected . the drain of transistor m 1a is grounded at node 2 . capacitor c 2a is tied between nodes 2 and 3 with capacitor c 1a and crystal y 3 provided in series between nodes 3 and 2 . the point of interconnection of capacitor c 1a and crystal y 3 is connected to the gate of transistor m 1 and the source of transistor m 3a . the gate of transistor m 3a is grounded at node 2 . resistors r 1a and r 1b are provided in series between v dd and node 2 with their point of interconnection connected to the source of transistors m 3 . oscillator 40 in fig4 is an nmos implementation similar to fig2 with the exception that the gate of transistor m 3b is connected to v dd directly and m 3b is a depletion mode transistor with transistor m 1b being an enhancement mode transistor . the operation of crystal oscillator 20 of fig2 is as follows . the circuit essentially supplies energy to a crystal y 2 which operates in a parallel resonant mode . the crystal y 2 and capacitors c 1 , c 2 operate as a feedback loop ( and can be modeled as an lc circuit in an ideal situation ) in order to regulate the energy provided to crystal y 2 . the transistor m 3 and the resistors r 1 and r 2 can be thought of as a single resistance in parallel with crystal y 2 in order to bias the gate of transistor m 1 . the input voltage to the feedback circuit is measured across capacitor c 2 and the output across capacitor c 1 . at resonance , crystal impedance is at a maximum , and a large feedback voltage is developed . if the frequency drifts above or below resonance , the crystal impedance decreases rapidly , decreasing feedback . thus the crystal effectively determines feedback and stabilizes the oscillator output frequency . in an ideal situation transistors m 1 and m 2 can be thought of as controlled current sources that either push current into or pull current from the node interconnecting capacitors c 1 and c 2 . as the gate to source voltage of transistor m 1 increases due to increased feedback from the feedback circuit , more current is pushed to node 3 than transistor m 2 can handle , and the current is pushed to the node between capacitors c 1 and c 2 to energize the crystal y 2 . as the gate to source voltage of transistor m 1 decreases due to decreased feedback from the feedback circuit , less current is provided to node 3 , and current is pulled from the node between capacitors c 1 and c 2 by transistor m 2 providing less energy to the crystal y 2 . the limiting phenomenon which stabilizes oscillator output is that the transistors go into a non - linear operating region which reduces positive feedback and thereby stabilizes output amplitude . for the circuit of fig2 with the component values listed above , the parallel resonant mode frequency is about 4 mhz . it is to be understood that the frequency range for the embodiment of fig2 is about 50 khz to 20 mhz depending on the values of the components . the operation of the other embodiments is similar to the embodiment described above . other objects and advantages of the invention can be obtained from a review of the figures and claims herewith .