A SEMINAR REPORT ON

OSCILLATORS
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR AWARD OF DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING BY
AMIT KUMAR (0809231013)

PRIYADARSHINI COLLEGE OF COMPUTER SCIENCES, GREATER NOIDA (U.P.) U.P.Technical University APRIL-2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate Acknowledgement Abstract Barkhausen stability criterion Types of Oscillators Wien- Bridge R-C phase Shift Hartley Colpitts Crystal References

CERTIFICATE

This is certifying that the Seminar Report entitled OSCILLATORS which is submitted by AMIT KUMAR for partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree B.Tech. In department of Electronics and Communication of U.P. Technical University Lucknow. It is a record of the candidate own work carried out by his under my/our supervision. The matter embodied in this seminar is original and has not been submitted for the award of any other degree.

ABSTRACT
An oscillator is a mechanical or electronic device that works on the principles of oscillation: a periodic fluctuation between two things based on changes in energy. Computers, clocks, watches, radios, and metal detectors are among the many devices that use oscillators. A clock pendulum is a simple type of mechanical oscillator. The most accurate timepiece in the world, the atomic clock, keeps time according to the oscillation within atoms. Electronic oscillators are used to generate signals in computers, receivers and transmitters, and audiofrequency equipment, particularly music synthesizers. There are many types of electronic oscillators, but they all operate according to the same basic principle: an oscillator always employs a sensitive amplifier whose output is fed back to the input in phase.

Thus, the signal regenerates and sustains itself. This is known as positive feedback. It is the same process that sometimes causes unwanted "howling" in public-address systems.

The frequency at which an oscillator works is usually determined by a quartz crystal. When a direct current is applied to such a crystal, it vibrates at a frequency that depends on its thickness, and on the manner in which it is cut from the original mineral rock. Some oscillators employ combinations of inductors, resistors, and/or capacitors to determine the frequency. However, the best stability (constancy of frequency) is obtained in oscillators that use quartz crystals.

In a computer, a specialized oscillator, called the clock, serves as a sort of pacemaker for the microprocessor. The clock frequency (or clock speed) is usually specified in megahertz (MHz), and is an important factor in determining the rate at which a computer can perform instructions.

Oscillators are important in many different types of electronic equipment. For example, a quartz watch uses a quartz oscillator to keep track of what time it is. An AM radio transmitter uses an

oscillator to create the carrier wave for the station, and an AM radio receiver uses a special form of oscillator called a resonator to tune in a station. There are oscillators in computers, metal detectors and even stun guns.

BARKHAUSEN STABILITY CRITERION

Block diagram of a feedback oscillator circuit to which the Barkhausen criterion applies. It consists of an amplifying element A whose output vo is fed back into its input vf through a feedback network (j).

To find the loop gain, the feedback loop is considered broken at some point and the output vofor a given input vi is calculated:

For the noise in the output of a ferromagnetic upon a change in the magnetizing force, see Barkhausen effect. The Barkhausen stability criterion is a mathematical condition to determine when a linear electronic circuit will oscillate. It was put forth in 1921 by German physicist Heinrich Georg Barkhausen (1881-1956). It is widely used in the design of electronic oscillators, and also in the design of general negative feedback circuits such as op amps, to prevent them from oscillating.

Limitations
Barkhausen criterion applies to linear circuits with a feedback loop. Therefore it cannot be applied to one port negative resistance active elements like tunnel diode oscillators.

Criterion
It states that if is the gain of the amplifying element in the circuit and is

the transfer function of the feedback path, so

is the loop gain around the feedback

loop of the circuit, the circuit will sustain steady-state oscillations only at frequencies for which: The loop gain is equal to unity in absolute magnitude, that is, There must be a positive feedback i.e., the phase shift around the loop is zero or an integer multiple of 2: Barkhausen criterion is a necessary condition for oscillation, not sufficient. This means there are some circuits which satisfy the criterion but do not oscillate. Unfortunately these can not be distinguished with the Nyquist stability criterion. The Nyquist stability criterion in its general form only indicates instability but cannot provide any information if this instability will cause oscillations or not. Thus, there seems to be still no compact formulation of an oscillation criterion that is both necessary as well as sufficient, ref. [1].

TYPES OF OCSILLATOR
WIEN- BRIDGE OSCILATOR RC PHASE SHIFT HWARTLEY COLLPITS CRYSTAL

WIEN BRIDGE OSCILLATOR

Classic Wien bridge oscillator

A Wien bridge oscillator is a type of electronic oscillator that generates sine waves. It can generate a large range of frequencies. The circuit is based on an electrical network originally developed by Max Wien in 1891. The bridge comprises four resistors and two capacitors. It can also be viewed as a positive feedback system combined with a band pass filter. Wien did not have a means of developing electronic gain so a workable oscillator could not be realized. The modern circuit is derived from William Hewlett's 1939 Stanford University master's degree thesis. Hewlett, along with David Packard co-founded Hewlett-Packard. Their first product was the HP200A, a precision sine wave oscillator based on the Wien bridge. The 200A was one of the first instruments to produce such low distortion. The frequency of oscillation is given by:

Analysis

Input admittance analysis

If a voltage source is applied directly to the input of an ideal amplifier with feedback, the input current will be:

Where vin is the input voltage, vout is the output voltage, and Zf is the feedback impedance. If the voltage gain of the amplifier is defined as:

And the input admittance is defined as:

Input admittance can be rewritten as:

For the Wien bridge, Zf is given by:

If Av is greater than 1, the input admittance is a negative resistance in parallel with an inductance. The inductance is:

If a capacitor with the same value of C is placed in parallel with the input, the circuit has a natural resonance at:

Substituting and solving for inductance yields:

If Av is chosen to be 3:

Lin = R2C
Substituting this value yields:

Or:

Similarly, the input resistance at the frequency above is:

For Av = 3:

Rin = R
If a resistor is placed in parallel with the amplifier input, it will cancel some of the negative resistance. If the net resistance is negative, amplitude will grow until clipping

occurs. Similarly, if the net resistance is positive, oscillation amplitude will decay. If a resistance is added in parallel with exactly the value of R, the net resistance will be infinite and the circuit can sustain stable oscillation at any amplitude allowed by the amplifier. Notice that increasing the gain makes the net resistance more negative, which increases amplitude. If gain is reduced to exactly 3 when suitable amplitude is reached, stable, low distortion oscillations will result. Amplitude stabilization circuits typically increase gain until suitable output amplitude is reached. As long as R, C, and the amplifier are linear, distortion will be minimal.

RC PHASE SHIFT
An oscillator is a circuit, which generates ac output signal without giving any input ac signal. This circuit is usually applied for audio frequencies only. The basic requirement for an oscillator is positive feedback. The operation of the RC Phase Shift Oscillator can be explained as follows. The starting voltage is provided by noise, which is produced due to random motion of electrons in resistors used in the circuit. The noise voltage contains almost all the sinusoidal frequencies. This low amplitude noise voltage gets amplified and appears at the output terminals. The amplified noise drives the feedback network which is the phase shift network. Because of this the feedback voltage is maximum at a particular frequency, which in turn represents the frequency of oscillation. Furthermore, the phase shift required for positive feedback is correct at this frequency only. The voltage gain of the amplifier with positive feedback is given by

From the above equation we can see that if . The gain becomes infinity means that there is output without any input. i.e. the amplifier becomes an oscillator. This condition is known as the Barkhausen criterion of oscillation. Thus the output contains only a single sinusoidal frequency. In the beginning, as the oscillator is switched on, the loop gain A is greater than unity. The oscillations build up. Once a suitable level is reached the gain of the amplifier decreases, and the value of the loop gain decreases to unity. So the constant level oscillations are maintained. Satisfying the above conditions of oscillation the value of R and C for the phase shift network is selected such that each RC combination produces a phase shift of 60. Thus the total phase shift produced by the three RC networks is 180. Therefore at the specific frequency fo the total phase shift from the base of the transistor around the circuit and back to the base is 360 thereby satisfying Barkhausen criterion. The frequency of oscillation of RC Phase Shift Oscillator is given by

At this frequency, the feedback factor of the network is is required that the amplifier gain

. In order that

it

for oscillator operation.

HARTLEY OSCILLATOR
The Hartley oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses an inductor and a capacitor in parallel to determine the frequency. Invented in 1915 by American engineer Ralph Hartley, the distinguishing feature of the Hartley circuit is that the feedback needed for oscillation is taken from a tap on the coil, or the junction of two coils in series.

Operation

Schematic diagram

A Hartley oscillator is essentially any configuration that uses two series-connected coils and a single capacitor (see Collpits oscillator for the equivalent oscillator using two capacitors and one coil). Although there is no requirement for there to be mutual coupling between the two coil segments, the circuit is usually implemented this way. It is made up of the following: Two inductors in series, which need not be mutual One tuning capacitor

Advantages of the Hartley oscillator include: The frequency may be adjusted using a single variable capacitor The output amplitude remains constant over the frequency range Either a tapped coil or two fixed inductors are needed

Disadvantages include: Harmonic-rich content if taken from the amplifier and not directly from the LC circuit.

Note that, if the inductance of the two partial coils L1 and L2 is given (e.g. in a simulator), the total effective inductance that determines the frequency of the oscillation is (coupling factor):

Applications

The Hartley oscillator was extensively used on all broadcast bands including the FM 88108MHz band. An example is given of the Scott 310E RF oscillator for its FM section.

Part of Scott 310E circuit diagram

COLPITTS OSCILLATOR

Historic schematic using a vacuum tube

A Colpitts oscillator, named after its inventor Edwin H. Colpitts,[1] is one of a number of designs for electronic oscillator circuits using the combination of an inductance (L) with a capacitor (C) for frequency determination, thus also called LC oscillator. The distinguishing feature of the Colpitts circuit is that the feedback signal is taken from a voltage divider made by two capacitors in series. One of the key features of this type of oscillator is its simplicity (needs only a single inductor) and robustness. The left picture shows the schematic as used in the first publication. Colpitts obtained US Patent 1624537 for this circuit. The frequency is generally determined by the inductor and the two capacitors at the bottom of the drawing.

Figure 2: Simple common Colpitts oscillator (with simplified biasing) Figure 1: Simple common Colpitts oscillator (with simplified biasing)

Oscillation frequency
The ideal frequency of oscillation for the circuits in Figures 1 and 2 are given by the equation:

where the series combination of C1 and C2 creates the effective capacitance of the LC tank. Real circuits will oscillate at a slightly lower frequency due to junction capacitances of the transistor and possibly other stray capacitances.

CRYSTAL OSCILLATOR

Schematic symbol and equivalent circuit for a quartz crystal in an oscillator

A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency. This frequency is commonly used to keep track of time (as in quartz wristwatches), to provide a stable clock signal for digital integrated circuits, and to stabilize frequencies for radio transmitters and receivers. The most common type of piezoelectric resonator used is the quartz crystal, so oscillator circuits designed around them became known as "crystal oscillators." Quartz crystals are manufactured for frequencies from a few tens of kilohertz to tens of megahertz. More than two billion (2109) crystals are manufactured annually. Most are used for consumer devices such as wristwatches, clocks, radios, computers, and cell phones. Quartz crystals are also found inside test and measurement equipment, such as counters, signal generators, and oscilloscopes.

REFERNCES
www.scribbd.com www.wikipedia.com www.google.com SEDRA/SMITH Microelectronic Circuits (6th edition)