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Oscillators Oscillators

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Contents
1 Introduction 2 RC oscillators 2.1 Wien bridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Phase-shift oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Double T-lter oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 LC oscillators 3.1 Colpitts Oscillator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Biliography 1 1 2 4 4 4 4 5

Introduction

Oscillators are circuits that produce a repetitive waveform with only a DC voltage at the output. The output waveform can be sinusoidal, rectangular, triangular, etc. At the base of almost any oscillator there is an amplication stage with a positive feedback circuit that will produce a phase shift and an attenuation. Positive feedback consist in the redirecting of the output signal to the input stage of the amplier without a phase shift. This feedback signal is then amplied again generating the output signal, that produces the feedback signal. This phenomenon, in wich the output signal takes careof itself in order to generate continuum signal is called oscillation. Two conditions then should be fullled to have an stable oscillator: 1. The phase shift of the feedback loop should be 0 2. The overall gain of the feeddback loop should be 1 In order to arrive to the stable regime of the oscillator, during the starting period the gain of the feedback loop should be greater than one, to allow the amplitude of the output signal to achieve the desired level. Once this amplitude has been reached, the overall gain should goes down again to one. The very rst oscillations are generated by trasitory reactions and noises once the power is switched on. The feedback circuit should be designed to amplify just a single frequency, and the relatively faint signal picked up from transitories and noise is then used to startup the oscillator

RC oscillators

This type of oscillators, use RC elements in the feedback branch. Useful to frequencies up to 1 MHz.

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Av

Vout

A fl = A v B

In Phase
Figure 1: Positive feedback. Oscillator conditions

2.1

Wien bridge

Wien bridge is a sinusoidal oscillator based in so called RC lead-lag network, as shown in the gure 2

R1 Vin

C2 Vout C1 R2

Figure 2: Lead-lag network We can see this network as a pass-low lter (R1 and C1 ) together as a high-pass lter (R2 and C2 ). The transfer function of this setup is easily computed: vout R2 || jXC2 = vin R1 jXC1 + R2 || jXC2 The most interesting case is when R1 = R2 and C1 = C2 then H(jw) = H(jw) =
jRX RjX

(R jX) +

jRX RjX

jRX RX = 2 jRX (R jX) 3RX + j(R2 X 2 ) 1

B=

9 + (X/R R/X)2 Page 2

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Oscillators = arctan

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X/R R/X 3 In gure 3 are shown both the gain in tension (B) as the phase shift () as a function of the frequency. The oscillating frequency is fr = 1 2RC

and for this frequency we have that B = 1/3 and = 0o . This means that the amplier should have a gain A = 3 and introduce a phase shift = 0o /
Gain Phase shift
80 60 40 20 0 0.15 0.1 0.05 0 -2 10 -20 -40 -60 -80 10
-1

0.3 0.25 0.2

10 Frequency (au)

10

-2

10

-1

10 Frequency (au)

Figure 3: Lead-lag network gain and phase shift for RC = 1/2

In the gure 4 is shown the base schematics of a Wien oscillator, based in an opamp. The positive feedback is created by the lead-jag network, and the negative feedback create a non-inverting amplifer with gain A=1+ R1 =3 R2 R1 = 2R2

In the beginning, the gain of the negative feedback should be greater than 3, and later, once the output amplitude has been achieved, go back to 3. There are various methods to accomplish it in an automatic way. 1. The most easy and classical method is to use a low power incandescende lamp instead of R2 . When swicth on, the resistance of the lamp is small, giving an amplication greater that 3. Once the oscillations grows in amplitude the resistance also goes up, arriving to a value R in the desired amplitude. If the feedback resistance is chosen to be R1 = 2R , we will obtain automatically a gain A = 3, giving the stable oscillations. See gure 5 2. Another method consist is adding a third resistor R3 in parallel with two zener diodes conected back to back as shown in gure ??. When switch on, the zener diodes are in open circuit, giving then the value of the gain as: A=1+ R1 + R3 R3 =3+ R2 R2

Once the output arrives to the zener voltage, the diodes short circuit the resistor restoring the gain A = 3 and the output signal becomes stable.

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R1

R2

Vout C R

Figure 4: Wien-bridge, base setup

2.2

Phase-shift oscillator

Figure ?? shows the two congurations of the phase-shift oscillators, a phase shift oscillator. Each of the RC circuits in the positive feedback introduces a phase shift that depend of the actual values of R and C. Only the frequency that produces a pahse shift on each sector equal to 90o , will be stable, so the pahse shift of is 180o , then the op-amp should work in an inverting conguration with gain 1. The frequency that fullll this condition is: fr = 1 2RC 6

2.3

Double T-lter oscillator

LC oscillators

RC oscillators are good for frequencies up to 1 MHz, but for higher frequencies, LC oscillators are better. Due to the limited bandwidth of most of opamps the amplication is based on discrete BJT transistors.

3.1

Colpitts Oscillator

The resonance frequence of this circuit (see gure 7-a) is the resonance frequence of the LC circuit: 1 C1 C2 fr CT = C1 + C2 2 LCT

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2R
+

R1 Vout C R C R R

R3
+

R2

Vout C C R

(a)

(b)

Figure 5: Wien-bridge (a) with lamp, (b)

The gain of the feedback circuit depend of the values of the capacitors, (see gure 7-b) Vr IXC1 XC1 1/2fr C1 C2 = = = = Vout IXC 2 XC 2 1/2fr C2 C1 Then the amplier gain should be C2 A= C1 In the common emitter conguration shown in the example, the gain is rC A= re B= But this expression is valid only for low frequencies, with higher frequencies the lag networks in base and collector can distort, and even kill the oscillation. Indeed the actual value of A depend on the bandwidth of the transistor. If the cut frequencies of these networks are bigger than oscillation frequency, the gain is the quoted in the previous expression. If the oscillation frequency is larger than the cut frequency then the gain is signicantly lower that rC /re that togheter with the phase shifts introduced will kill the oscillation. Another thing to take into account is the effect of the input impedance of the the amplication. Input impedance is part of the load of the resonant circuit, and can reduce the Q factor of this circuit, then the resonant frequency change accordingly with the following expression: fr = 1 2 LCT Q2 Q2 + 1

In case ofQ > 10 (most of the cases) the effect is less than 1%, and this effect can be ignored, but in order to minimize the effect of the input impedance, we can replace BJT transistor by a FET, with input impedance much larger than in BJT . In case that the load of the circuit is too low, the Q factor can be also reduced. To avoid this a transformer coupling that will increase the load impedance is adviced.

Biliography
1 Electronique, Thomas L. Floyd, Ed. Reynald Goulet (1999)

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C R

C R

Vout (a)

R C

R C

Vout (b)

Figure 6: Phase shift oscillators (a) lead network and (b) lag network

2 The Art of Electronics,

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Vcc

(a)
R1 R1 C2 Vout

(b)
Vout

R1

R1

C2 C2

C2 Vout

L Vr C2 C2

Figure 7: Colpitts oscillator (a) base circuit and (b) Resonant circuit attenuation

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