J. of Active and Passive Electronic Devices, Vol. 3, pp. 135–141 ©2008 Old City Publishing, Inc.

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A Novel Electronically Tunable Sinusoidal

Oscillator Based on CCCII (-IR)

Neeta Pandey1 and Sajal K. Paul2,∗

1 Department of Electronics and Communication, Bharati Vidyapeeth’s College of Engineering,
A-4, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi-110063, India
2 Department of Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering,

Indian School of Mines University, Dhanbad-826004, Jharkhand, India

A new second generation current controlled conveyor with negative intrin-

sic resistance (CCCII(-IR)) based sinusoidal oscillator configuration is
described. The circuit uses only grounded capacitors, which make it more
suitable for monolithic integration. The function of the proposed structure
is also investigated by replacing each CCCII(-IR) structure with second
generation current controlled conveyor (CCCII) and found that it still oper-
ates as an oscillator. The simulation results are illustrated to verify theory.
It is found that oscillator structure with CCCII gives closer frequency of
oscillation to the ideal value while total harmonic distortions are less in
CCCII(-IR) based structure.
Keywords: oscillator, CCCII(-IR) based oscillator.

1 INTRODUCTION

The applications and advantages in the realization of RC sinusoidal oscillators

using current conveyors have received considerable attention. Many schemes
have been developed to realize sinusoidal oscillators in recent past [1–8] using
two current conveyors (CCIIs), two or four resistors and two capacitors. Some
of these structures possess the attractive feature of independent control of
frequency of oscillation.
Recently four electronically tunable translinear oscillators based on second
generation current controlled conveyor CCCII [9] were proposed [10–13].
Ref. [10] uses two CCCIIs, two grounded capacitors and a current mirror.

∗ Corresponding author. E-mail: sajalkpaul@rediffmail.com

135

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136 Neeta Pandey and Sajal K. Paul

Refs. [11,12] use three CCCIIs and two grounded capacitors. Ref. [13] uses
only two CCCIIs and two grounded capacitors. It reveals that circuits of
refs. [10–12] use more active elements than ref. [13].
In this paper authors present a new structure of sinusoidal oscillator based
on recently introduced CCCII(-IR) [14]. The proposed sinusoidal oscillator
uses two CCCII(-IR) and two grounded capacitors. The structure is also ana-
lyzed with CCCII as building block. The proposed structures are useful for IC
implementation as only grounded capacitors are used [15].

2 CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION

The proposed oscillator structure is shown in figure 1. Since the proposed

circuit is based on recently introduced second-generation current controlled
conveyor with negative intrinsic resistance CCCII(-IR) [14] a review is given
briefly. CCCII(-IR) can be designed from translinear elements, mixed loops
and complementary current mirrors. Its properties are similar to the conven-
tional second generation current conveyor (CCII) but CCCII(-IR) has finite
negative input resistance at terminal x. Using standard notations the port
relations of an ideal CCCII (-IR) can be characterized by

vx = vy − ix | R−xi (I0i ) |, iz1 = ix , iz2 = −ix and iy = 0

where R−xi is finite negative input resistance at terminal x which is controllable

by bias current I0i and is expressed as R−xi = −VT /2I0i where VT is the
thermal voltage and i = 1, 2.
The routine analysis of the circuit yields the characteristic equation as

s 2 R−x1 R−x2 C1 C2 + (R−x1 C2 − R−x1 C1 − R−x2 C2 )s + 2 = 0 (1)

Hence at I02 = 2I01 i. e. R−x1 = 2R−x2 , the frequency of oscillation and

condition of oscillation are respectively

1/2
2 2I01 I02
ω0 = (2)
VT C 1 C2

and
C2 = 2C1 (3)

So the frequency of oscillation can be controlled externally by the bias currents

(I01 , I02 ).
The above analysis is also extended for the network of figure 1 with CCCII
(-IR)s replaced by CCCIIs (figure 2).

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 A Novel Electronically Tunable Sinusoidal Oscillator 137

FIGURE 1
Proposed CCCII (-IR) based oscillator structure.

FIGURE 2
Proposed CCCII based oscillator structure.

The port relationships of CCCII± are

vx = vy + ix Rxi (I0i ), iz± = ±ix and iy = 0
where Rxi is finite input resistance at terminal x which is controllable by bias
current I0i and is expressed as
Rxi = VT /2I0i

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138 Neeta Pandey and Sajal K. Paul

The routine analysis gives

s 2 Rx1 Rx2 C1 C2 + (Rx1 C1 + Rx2 C2 − Rx1 C2 )s + 2 = 0 (4)

Hence the condition of oscillation and frequency of oscillation for circuit of

fig. 2 are same as given in equation 2 and equation 3 respectively.
The passive sensitivities of the proposed oscillators are low and obtained as
1
SCω10 = SCω20 = SRωx0 = SRωx0 = SRω−x
0
= SRω−x
0
=−
1 2 1 2 2

3 SIMULATION RESULTS

To verify the theoretical predictions of the proposed networks several PSPICE

simulations of the proposed networks have been performed. The circuit of
CCCII(-IR) is realized by translinear implementation proposed in ref. 14.
The circuit of CCCII+/CCCII- is realized by schematic representations pro-
posed in refs [16,17]. Both the circuits i.e. CCCII(-IR) and CCCII are
simulated using typical parameters of bipolar transistors PR100N(PNP) and
NR100N(NPN) [18]. The simulated output waveform for the oscillator of
figure 1 with CCCII(-IR) is shown in figure 3 when power supplies are
±2.5 V, I01 = 50µA, I02 = 100µA, and capacitors are C1 = 0.01µF and
C2 = 0.017µF. Theoretically C2 should be 0.02µF for C1 = 0.01µF for suc-
cessful oscillation at I02 = 2I01 i.e. R−x1 = 2R−x2 . But due to non-idealities
of current conveyors (CCCII(-IR)) R−x1  = 2R−x2 at I02 = 2I01 . Hence
successful oscillation as shown in figure 3 is observed at a slightly deviated

FIGURE 3
Simulated oscillations obtained from circuit of Fig. 1 with I01 = 50µA, I02 = 100µA, C1 =
0.01µF and C2 = 0.017µF.

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 A Novel Electronically Tunable Sinusoidal Oscillator 139

value of C2 to satisfy the condition of oscillation. Simulation of CCCII based

oscillator (figure 2) with CCCIIs is carried out for the same values as indi-
cated except C2 = 0.023µF and corresponding output waveform is shown in
figure 4. In this case also the slight deviation of the value of C2 from 0.02µF
to 0.023µF is due to non-idealities of CCCII. The plot of simulated oscilla-
tion frequency vs. bias current is given in figure 5 to illustrate the tunability
aspect of oscillation frequency. It may be observed that at lower values of
bias currents the simulated results are closer to the theoretical values. The net-
work implemented with CCCII gives frequency of oscillation closer to ideal

FIGURE 4
Simulated oscillations obtained from circuit of Fig. 2 with I01 = 50µA, I02 = 100µA, C1 =
0.01µF and C2 = .023µF.

FIGURE 5
Variation of frequency of oscillation with bias current I01 for CCCII and CCCII(-IR).
–– Theoretical –2– Simulated with CCCII(-IR) –×– Simulated with CCCII.

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140 Neeta Pandey and Sajal K. Paul

FIGURE 6
Variation of % THD with bias current I01 . –×– Simulated with CCCII –2– Simulated with
CCCII(-IR).

value than with CCCII(-IR) specially at lower values of bias current. Figure 6
shows that the total harmonic distortion (THD) is much lower in oscillator
circuit with CCCII(-IR) than with CCCII.

4 CONCLUSIONS

A simple structure that exploits intrinsic resistance of CCCII(-IR) and CCCII

is presented to realize current controlled oscillator. The oscillation frequency
is proportional to bias current. The oscillator with CCCII(-IR) gives bet-
ter response than that with CCCII in terms of harmonic distortion. Since
the proposed oscillator structure uses only two CCCII(-IR)s/CCCIIs and
two grounded capacitors, it is suitable for monolithic implementation in
IC technology.

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