Chapter 2: Radio-Frequency Circuits

TRUE/FALSE

1. In general, components behave the same at 20 MHz as they do at 1 kHz.

ANS: F

2. Stray capacitance is important in high-frequency amplifiers.

ANS: T

3. Microwave-frequency circuits look much different from circuits designed for 1 MHz.

ANS: T

4. All electronic devices have both capacitive and inductive properties.

ANS: T

5. As frequency increases, capacitive effects decrease.

ANS: F

6. At some frequency, a capacitor will self-resonate with the inductance of its leads.

ANS: T

7. An "unstable" amplifier is one that oscillates, or is close to oscillating.

ANS: T

8. Base-to-emitter capacitance can cause a common-emitter amplifier to oscillate.

ANS: F

9. "Distributed Constants" refers to a mathematical operation to calculate gain.

ANS: F

10. "Shielding" prevents RF signals from coupling between components in a system.

ANS: T

11. A "ground-plane" is a type of shielding.

ANS: T

12. A "gimmick" is a type of shielding.

ANS: F
13. Removing any RF signals off the VCC lines is an example of "decoupling".

ANS: T

14. Decoupling usually involves a "bypass" capacitor.

ANS: T

15. Basically, radio-frequency amplifiers can not be distinguished from other amplifiers.

ANS: F

16. Resonant circuits are common in RF amplifiers.

ANS: T

17. Increasing the load on a tuned amplifier increases its Q.

ANS: F

18. In a common-emitter amplifier, the collector-base capacitance "looks" bigger than it is.

ANS: T

19. The Miller Effect only occurs in common-base amplifiers.

ANS: F

20. The Miller Effect can reduce the bandwidth of an amplifier.

ANS: T

21. The Miller Effect can be reduced using neutralization.

ANS: T

22. A piezoelectric crystal behaves like a very low-Q tuned circuit.

ANS: F

23. The frequency of a crystal oscillator is much more stable than an LC oscillator.

ANS: T

24. Mixers must be nonlinear in order to work.

ANS: T

25. A mixer will produce "sum and difference" frequencies.

ANS: T

MULTIPLE CHOICE
 1. The time it takes a charge carrier to cross from the emitter to the collector is called:
a. base time c. charge time
b. transit time d. Miller time
ANS: B

2. A real capacitor actually contains:

a. capacitance and resistance only c. capacitance, inductance, and resistance
b. capacitance and inductance only d. reactance only
ANS: C

3. Bypass capacitors are used to:

a. remove RF from non-RF circuits c. neutralize amplifiers
b. couple RF around an amplifier d. reduce the Miller effect
ANS: A

4. A resonant circuit is:

a. a simple form of bandpass filter c. both a and b
b. used in narrowband RF amplifiers d. none of the above
ANS: C

5. Loading down a tuned-circuit amplifier will:

a. raise the Q of the tuned circuit c. "multiply" the Q
b. lower the Q of the tuned circuit d. have no effect on Q
ANS: B

6. The "Miller Effect" can:

a. cause an amplifier to oscillate c. reduce the bandwidth of an amplifier
b. cause an amplifier to lose gain d. all of the above
ANS: D

7. The Miller Effect can be avoided by:

a. using a common-emitter amplifier c. increasing the Q of the tuned circuit
b. using a common-base amplifier d. it cannot be avoided
ANS: B

8. In a BJT, the Miller Effect is due to:

a. inductance of collector lead c. base-to-emitter capacitance
b. collector-to-emitter capacitance d. base-to-collector capacitance
ANS: D

9. In RF amplifiers, impedance matching is usually done with:

a. RC coupling c. direct coupling
b. transformer coupling d. lumped reactance
ANS: B

10. Neutralization cancels unwanted feedback by:

a. adding feedback out of phase with the unwanted feedback
 b. bypassing the feedback to the "neutral" or ground plane
c. decoupling it
d. none of the above
ANS: A

11. For a "frequency multiplier" to work, it requires:

a. a nonlinear circuit
b. a linear amplifier
c. a signal containing harmonics
d. an input signal that is an integer multiple of the desired frequency
ANS: A

12. A sinusoidal oscillation from an amplifier requires:

a. loop gain equal to unity
b. phase shift around loop equal to 0 degrees
c. both a and b, but at just one frequency
d. none of the above
ANS: C

13. The conditions for sinusoidal oscillation from an amplifier are called:
a. the loop-gain criteria c. the Bode criteria
b. the Hartley criteria d. the Barkhausen criteria
ANS: D

14. The Hartley oscillator uses:

a. a tapped inductor c. an RC time constant
b. a two-capacitor divider d. a piezoelectric crystal
ANS: A

15. The Colpitts VFO uses:

a. a tapped inductor c. an RC time constant
b. a two-capacitor divider d. a piezoelectric crystal
ANS: B

16. The Clapp oscillator is:

a. a modified Hartley oscillator c. a type of crystal-controlled oscillator
b. a modified Colpitts oscillator d. only built with FETs
ANS: B

17. A varactor is:

a. a voltage-controlled capacitor c. used in tuner circuits
b. a diode d. all of the above
ANS: D

18. Crystal-Controlled oscillators are:

a. used for a precise frequency
b. used for very low frequency drift (parts per million)
c. made by grinding quartz to exact dimensions
 d. all of the above
ANS: D

19. If two signals, Va = sin(wat) and Vb = sin(wbt), are fed to a mixer, the output:
a. will contain w1 = wa + wb and w2 = wa – wb
b. will contain w1 = wa / wb and w2 = wb / wa
c. will contain w = (wa + wb ) / 2
d. none of the above
ANS: A

20. In a balanced mixer, the output:

a. contains equal (balanced) amounts of all input frequencies
b. contains the input frequencies
c. does not contain the input frequencies
d. is a linear mixture of the input signals
ANS: C

21. "VFO" stands for:

a. Voltage-Fed Oscillator c. Varactor-Frequency Oscillator
b. Variable-Frequency Oscillator d. Voltage-Feedback Oscillator
ANS: B

22. A "frequency synthesizer" is:

a. a VCO phase-locked to a reference frequency
b. a VFO with selectable crystals to change frequency
c. a fixed-frequency RF generator
d. same as a mixer
ANS: A

COMPLETION

1. Generally, conductor lengths in RF circuits should be ____________________.

ANS: short

2. At UHF frequencies and above, elements must be considered as ____________________ instead

of as being "lumped".

ANS: distributed

3. When one side of a double-sided pc board is used for ground, it is called a

____________________.

ANS: ground-plane

4. Interactions between parts of an RF circuit can be reduced by using ____________________

between them.

ANS: shielding
 5. In high-frequency RF circuits, the placement of wires and ____________________ can be
critical.

ANS: components

6. A ____________________ circuit is used to remove RF from the DC voltage bus.

ANS: decoupling

7. A ____________________ capacitor is used to short unwanted RF to ground.

ANS: bypass

8. The bandwidth of a tuned-circuit amplifier depends on the ____________________ of the tuned

circuit.

ANS: Q

9. A value of ____________________ or more for Q is required for the approximate tuned circuit
equations to be valid.

ANS: 10

10. In a class C RF amplifier, the ____________________ extracts one frequency from all the
harmonics contained in the device current (e.g. collector current).

ANS: tuned circuit

11. Using additional feedback to compensate for "stray" feedback is called ____________________.

ANS: neutralization

12. A Colpitts oscillator uses a ____________________ voltage divider to provide feedback.

ANS: capacitive

13. Electrically, a piezoelectric crystal has both a ____________________ and a

____________________ resonant frequency.

ANS: series, parallel

14. To produce sum and difference frequencies, a mixer must be a non-____________________

circuit.

ANS: linear

15. At some bias point, a diode or a transistor can act as a ____________________-law mixer.

ANS: square

SHORT ANSWER
1. What inductance would you use with a 47-pF capacitor to make a tuned circuit for 10 MHz?

ANS:
5.4 mH

2. What value of Q is required for a 10-MHz tuned circuit to have a bandwidth of 100 kHz?

ANS:
100

3. A tuned-circuit amplifier with a gain of 10 is being used to make an oscillator. What should be
the value of the feedback ratio to satisfy the Barkhausen criteria?

ANS:
0.1

4. What is the advantage of a Clapp oscillator compared to a Colpitts oscillator?

ANS:
It is more stable because it "swamps" the device capacitance with large value capacitors in the
feedback divider.

5. If a varactor has a capacitance of 90 pF at zero volts, what will be the capacitance at 4 volts?

ANS:
30 pF

6. An oscillator has a frequency of 100 MHz at 20°C, and a tempco of +10 ppm per degree Celsius.
What will be the shift in frequency at 70°C? What percentage is that?

ANS:
50 kHz, 0.05%

7. Two sinusoidal signals, V1 and V2, are fed into an ideal balanced mixer. V1 is a 20-MHz signal; V2
is a 5-MHz signal. What frequencies would you expect at the output of the mixer?

ANS:
15 MHz and 25 MHz

8. Suppose the phase-locked-loop frequency synthesizer of Figure 2.39 has a reference frequency of
1 MHz and a fixed-modulus divider of 10. What should be the value of the programmable divider
to get an output frequency of 120 MHz?

ANS:
12