Method of fabricating hermetic terminal and hermetic terminal, method of fabricating piezoelectric oscillator and piezoelectric oscillator, oscillator, electronic appliance, and radio clock

A method of fabricating a hermetic terminal having an annular ring, a lead arranged to penetrate through the ring in which one end side thereof is an inner lead portion electrically connected to a piezoelectric vibrating piece and the other end side thereof is an outer lead portion electrically connected to outside as the ring is between them, and a filler fixing the lead to the ring, wherein the hermetic terminal seals the piezoelectric vibrating piece inside a case, the method comprising the steps of:

• joining and firing wherein a bar-shaped member to be the lead is inserted into the ring through the filler, and they are fired in this state to form a hermetic terminal intermediate having the bar-shaped member fixed in the ring with the filler;
• flattening wherein an end part of the bar-shaped member of the hermetic terminal intermediate to be the inner lead portion of the lead is flattened to form a stair portion;
• and
• shaping wherein at least an end part of the stair portion is cut to shape the stair portion into a predetermined shape,
• wherein in the joining and firing step, a solid round bar longer than the lead is used as the bar-shaped member, and one end side of the bar-shaped member to be the inner lead portion is inserted into the ring so that the one end side is longer than the inner lead portion in the hermetic terminal as a completed product.