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My Lecture Note The Oscillator

1. Oscillators generate an output signal without an input by using positive feedback to reinforce the output signal. The main types are feedback oscillators and relaxation oscillators. Feedback oscillators consist of an amplifier and positive feedback circuit to maintain oscillations, while relaxation oscillators use an RC timing circuit to generate non-sinusoidal waves like square waves. 2. For a feedback oscillator to oscillate, the phase shift around the feedback loop must be 0 degrees and the loop gain must equal 1. Positive feedback amplifies the output, which is fed back to reinforce the signal in a continuous loop. The gain is reduced to 1 once oscillations start to avoid distortion. RC feedback oscillators like the Wien bridge oscillator use

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133 views17 pages

My Lecture Note The Oscillator

1. Oscillators generate an output signal without an input by using positive feedback to reinforce the output signal. The main types are feedback oscillators and relaxation oscillators. Feedback oscillators consist of an amplifier and positive feedback circuit to maintain oscillations, while relaxation oscillators use an RC timing circuit to generate non-sinusoidal waves like square waves. 2. For a feedback oscillator to oscillate, the phase shift around the feedback loop must be 0 degrees and the loop gain must equal 1. Positive feedback amplifies the output, which is fed back to reinforce the signal in a continuous loop. The gain is reduced to 1 once oscillations start to avoid distortion. RC feedback oscillators like the Wien bridge oscillator use

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Victor Anthony
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1.

0 THE OSCILLATOR

- Oscillators are electronic circuits that generate an output signal without the necessity
of an input signal.
- It produces a periodic waveform on its output with only the DC supply voltage as an
input.
- The output voltage can be either sinusoidal or non-sinusoidal, depending on the type of
oscillator.
- Different types of oscillators produce various types of outputs including sine waves,
square waves, triangular waves, and saw tooth waves.
- A basic oscillator is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Illustration of an oscillator operation and feedback oscillator

Feedback Oscillators
- One type of oscillator is the feedback oscillator, which returns a fraction of the output
signal to the input with no net phase shift, resulting in a reinforcement of the output signal.
- After oscillations are started, the loop gain is maintained at 1.0 to maintain
oscillations.
- A feedback oscillator consists of an amplifier for gain (either a discrete transistor or an
op-amp) and a positive feedback circuit that produces phase shift and provides
attenuation, as shown in Figure 1.

Relaxation Oscillators
 A second type of oscillator is the relaxation oscillator.
 Instead of feedback, a relaxation oscillator uses an RC timing circuit to generate a
waveform that is generally a square wave or other non-sinusoidal waveform.
 Typically, a relaxation oscillator uses a Schmitt trigger or other device that changes
states to alternately charge and discharge a capacitor through a resistor.
2.0 FEEDBACK OSCILLATORS

- Feedback oscillator operation is based on the principle of positive feedback.


- In this section, we will look at the general conditions required for oscillation to occur.
- Feedback oscillators are widely used to generate sinusoidal waveforms.

Positive Feedback

- In positive feedback, a portion of the output voltage of an amplifier is fed back to the
input with no net phase shift, resulting in a strengthening of the output signal.
- This basic idea is illustrated in Figure 3(a).

- As you can see, the in-phase feedback voltage is amplified to produce the output
voltage, which in turn produces the feedback voltage.
- That is, a loop is created in which the signal maintains itself and a continuous sinusoidal
output is produced.
- This phenomenon is called oscillation.
- In some types of amplifiers, the feedback circuit shifts the phase and an inverting
amplifier is required to provide another phase shift so that there is no net phase shift.
- This is illustrated in Figure 3(b)

Conditions for Oscillation

- Two conditions, illustrated in Figure 4, are required for a sustained state of oscillation:
1. The phase shift around the feedback loop must be effectively 0 °.
2. The voltage gains, Acl around the closed feedback loop (loop gain) must
equal 1 (unity).
- The voltage gain around the closed feedback loop, Acl is the product of the amplifier
gain, Av, and the attenuation, B, of the feedback circuit.
A cl = AVB

- If a sinusoidal wave is the desired output, a loop gain greater than 1 will rapidly cause
the output to saturate at both peaks of the waveform, producing unacceptable distortion.
- To avoid this, some form of gain control must be used to keep the loop gain at exactly 1
once oscillations have started.
- For example, if the attenuation of the feedback circuit is 0.01, the amplifier must have a
gain of exactly 100 to overcome this attenuation and not create unacceptable distortion
(1 0 0 X 0.0 1 = 1).
- An amplifier gain of greater than 100 will cause the oscillator to limit both peaks of the
waveform.

Start-Up Conditions

- So far, you have seen what it takes for an oscillator to produce a continuous sinusoidal
output.
- Now let's examine the requirements for the oscillation to start when the dc supply
voltage is first turned on.
- As you know, the unity-gain condition must be met for oscillation to be maintained.
- For oscillation to begin, the voltage gain around the positive feedback loop must be
greater than 1 so that the amplitude of the output can build up to a desired level.
- The gain must then decrease to 1 so that the output stays at the desired level and
oscillation is sustained.
- The voltage gain conditions for both starting and sustaining oscillation are illustrated in
Figure 5.
Note from the illustration, When oscillation starts at Acl > 1 , the condition causes the sinusoidal output
voltage amplitude to build up to a desired level. Then Acl decreases to 1 to maintain the desired amplitude.

2.1 OSCILLATORS WITH RC FEEDBACK CIRCUIT


 Three types of feedback oscillators that use RC circuits to produce sinusoidal outputs are the
1) Wien-bridge oscillator
2) Phase-shift oscillator
3) Twin-T oscillator
 Generally, RC feedback oscillators are used for frequencies up to about 1 MHz
 The Wien-bridge is by far the most widely used type of RC feedback oscillator for this
range of frequencies.

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