Oscillators

 An oscillator is a circuit for producing voltages that vary in a regular fashion with respect to
time. The output wave forms of oscillators are repeated exactly in equal successive intervals
of time as shown in Fig 1a and Fig 1b
 The output wave-form of an oscillator may be sinusoidal as shown in
Fig 1a. Such oscillators are known as sine wave oscillators or
harmonic oscillators
 The output of oscillators may be square, triangular or saw-tooth
waveform as shown in Fig 1b. Such oscillators are known as
non-sinusoidal oscillators or relaxation oscillators
 Requisites of a oscillator
The basic requirements for an oscillator are;

 A stable DC power supply source

 An amplifier

 A regenerative (positive) feedback from output to input

 A LC tank circuit to determine the frequency of oscillations.

To summarize, the following are the requirements of an oscillator circuit to take-off with oscillations
and have sustained oscillations;

– There must be positive feedback.

– Initially the loop gain product Aβ must be > 1.

– After the circuit starts oscillating, the loop gain product Aβ must decrease to 1 and remain at 1
Hartley Oscillator

 One of the simplest of sinusoidal oscillators is the Hartley oscillator

 Shown in Fig 6a is a series-fed Hartley oscillator

 This oscillator is called series-fed because, the high frequency

oscillations generated and the DC paths are the same, just as they
would be in a series circuit. Series-fed Hartley oscillators are not
preferred due to their poor stability of oscillations

 Fig 6b is parallel-fed Hartley oscillator commonly used in radio

receivers. Parallel-fed Hartley oscillators are known for their high
stability of oscillations
 The circuit at Fig 6b is actually an amplifier  The capacitor C and the inductors L1 + L2
with positive (regenerative) feedback to have forms the resonant tank circuit of the oscillator
sustained oscillations. which determines the frequency of oscillations.
 The capacitor C2 and inductor L2 form the Capacitor C can be made as a variable
path for RF current in the collector to ground capacitor for tuning the oscillator to different
circuit frequencies. C1 and R1 form the RC circuit

 RF current through L2 induces a voltage in which develops the bias voltage at the base

L1 in proper phase and amplitude to sustain  The RF choke at the collector keeps the high
oscillations frequency AC signal out of the VCC supply. In

 The position of the tap at the junction of L1 cheaper oscillator circuits the RF choke is

and L2 determines how much signal is fed omitted and is replaced by a resistor

back to the base circuit

 Resistor R2 connected in the emitter Checking Oscillator Frequency
provides DC stabilization. R2 is bypassed by  The frequency of an oscillator can be computed
C3 to prevent AC degeneration if the values of L (L = L1+ L2) and C are
 The Hartley oscillator coil has three known using the formula,
connections. These are usually coded on the where, f is in hertz, L in henrys, and C in farads
coil. If they are not, it is generally possible to
 The frequency of an oscillator may be measured
identify them by a resistance check
in two ways,
 The resistance between the taps T and P as
– Using a direct read-out frequency meter also
shown in Fig 6b, is small compared with the
known as frequency counter which is most
resistance between T and G. If the coil
accurate,popular and easy to use.
connections are not made properly, the
– Using an oscilloscope with a calibrated time base
oscillator will not work
to measure the period of the wave-form.
From the measured period t, frequency is  The advantage of using a medium wave
calculated using the formula oscillator coil for L is that the output can be

where, f is the frequency in Hz and t the time taken out of the secondary winding (4 and 5)

period in seconds of the coil

 The transistor used is a silicon high frequency
 A practical Hartley Oscillator circuit using
transistor (BF series) as the oscillator
medium-wave oscillator coil as L is shown in
frequency is in the range of 1 MHz
Fig 7
 The divider biasing is provided to make the
DC conditions such that the amplifier works as
Class A. With the heavy feedback (large ß), the
large feedback signal drives the base of the
transistor into saturation and cut-of
 This large feedback signal produces negative (different transistors, temperature, voltage etc.),
DC clamping at the base, changing the but not so much that you lose more output than
operation from Class A to Class C necessary
 The negative clamping automatically adjusts  The frequency of oscillations of the oscillator
the value of Aß to 1. If the feedback is too circuit at Fig 7 can be varied by varying the
large, it may result in loss of some of the position of the shaft of the gang capacitor (C4)
output voltage because of the stray power
loses

 When you build an oscillator, you can adjust

the amount of feedback to maximize the
output voltage. The trick isto use enough
feedback to start under all conditions
 COLPITT’S Oscillator  The parallel-fed or shunt-fed Colpitt’s
oscillator shown in Fig1, uses the common
 Colpitts oscillator is another type of
emitter configuration. The capacitors C1A &
sinusoidal oscillator or harmonic oscillator
C1B form the voltage divider used to provide
which uses a tank circuit for oscillations
the feedback signal
 Colpitts oscillators are very popular and
 The voltage drop across C1B determines the
are widely used in commercial signal
feedback voltage. All other components in
generators and communication receivers
this circuit have the same function as in the
 A typical Colpitt’s oscillator shown in Fig1
Hartley circuit
is similar to a Hartley oscillator. The only
difference is that the Colpitts oscillator
uses a split capacitor for the tank instead of
a split inductor used in Hartley oscillators
 The frequency of oscillations of the oscillator varies
Colpitt’s oscillator is given by, Colpitts oscillators are generally used for

where, f is the frequency of oscillation in generating frequencies above 1 MHz

hertz, L is the inductance of the coil in henry A practical Colpitts oscillator circuit using a ganged

C is the total capacitance in farads given by, capacitor for C1A and C1B and a medium wave
oscillator coil for L is shown in Fig 2

The frequency of oscillations can be changed

by using a miniature ganged capacitor for C1A
& C1B

By varying the shaft of the ganged capacitor,

both the capacitances C1A and C1B get varied,
and hence, the frequency of oscillations of the
 Crystal Oscillators
 The LC oscillator circuits such as Hartley  Other reasons for frequency deviation are, the
and Colpitts have the problem of frequency leads of transistor, inter electrode and wiring
in-stability. The most important reason for capacitances
the frequency drift in LC oscillators is, the  The problem of frequency drift can be largely
change in value of capacitance and overcome by using high Q coils and good
inductance of the tank circuit that occurs quality capacitors. But, with ordinary inductors
when temperature changes and capacitors, Q-values in excess of a few
 As the temperature increases or decreases, hundred is very difficult or impossible to
the values of L and C deviate causing the achieve
circuit to oscillate at a frequency different  Large improvements in frequency stability can
from the desired resonant frequency be achieved by using a quartz crystal in the
place of the conventional tuned circuit. Such
oscillator circuits are referred to as crystal
controlled oscillators

Piezo Electric Effect

It was discovered that certain crystals such as
quartz and Rochelle, exhibit a special property
known as piezoelectric property

A quartz crystal looks like a piece of thin frosted

glass usually cut into 1/4 to 1 inch squares as
shown in Fig 3
 When such a crystal is held between two flat  In a gramophone record, small mechanical
metal plates and pressed together, a small vibrations are produced when the stylus tracks
emf will be developed between the plates as the groove on the gramaphone plate. This
if the crystal became a battery for an instant. vibrating force gives rise to corresponding
When the plates are released, the crystal voltages representing the recorded sound at
springs back to its original shape and an emf the pick-up terminals
of opposite polarity is developed between  In addition to the above property of the
the two plates crystal, when an emf is applied across the two
 In this way, mechanical energy/force is plates of the crystal, the crystal will distort
converted to electrical energy by the crystal. from its normal shape
This property is made use of in the pick-ups  If an opposite polarity emf is applied, the
for gramophone records crystal will reverse its physical distorted
shape. In this way, these crystals also convert
electrical energy into mechanical energy  So far as the electrical properties are concerned, a
 The above two reciprocal actions of a quartz crystal is equivalent to the LC resonant
crystal are known as piezo-electric effect. circuit shown in Fig.4
Such crystals are housed in crystal holders
as shown in Fig 3

 Amongst several crystals having this

piezo-electric property, the quartz crystal is
most popular because, this material is
almost perfectly elastic. If mechanical
oscillations are started in this crystal it
takes a long time for the oscillations to die The values of L, R, C and Cm depend upon the

away. Quartz crystals therefore, have a physical size of the crystal and how the crystal is

very high mechanical Q cut from the original mass

 For using the crystal in electronic circuits, two the frequency of oscillation is determined almost
conducting electrodes are placed on to its two entirely by the crystal
faces. Connecting leads are then joined to these  Q values in excess of 20,000 are easily
electrodes obtained with readily available crystals
 When the leads are connected to a source of resulting in highly stable oscillating frequency
oscillating voltage, mechanical vibrations are  Hence, when accuracy and stability of the
set up within the crystal oscillation frequency are important, a quartz
 If the frequency of the oscillating voltage is crystal oscillator is used instead of Hartley or
close to a resonant frequency of the crystal, Colpitts oscillators
then the crystal forces the oscillating voltage to
coincide with the oscillating frequency of the
crystal. Hence, in an oscillator, by using the
crystal in the place of an LC resonant circuit,
 Crystal cuts slab, the fundamental frequency of vibration of

 The natural shape of a quartz crystal is a the crystal varies

hexagonal prism with pyramids at the ends as  The resonant frequency of a crystal is

shown in Fig 5a. usually between 0.5 and 30 MHz

 To get an usable crystal out of this, a

rectangular slab is cut out of the natural
crystal as shown in Fig 5b. Depending upon
the angle of the cut and the thickness of the
 Pierce crystal oscillator for feedback

 The pierce crystal controlled oscillator  The AC voltage across C2 provides the
shown in Fig 6 is often used because it necessary positive feedback to the base
requires very few components and has
good frequency stability

 The pierce crystal oscillator is similar to

the Colpitts oscillator but for the
inductance coil replaced by a crystal. Here
the crystal across the collector and the base
 In Fig 6, the crystal acts like an inductor that
terminals of the transistor determines the
resonates with C1 and C2
oscillating frequency

 As in a Colpitts oscillator, capacitors C1

 In the base circuit, the R1 R2 divider supplies  Crystal oscillators are generally used in,
forward bias voltage from the Vcc. Bias – mobile radio transmitters and receivers
stabilization is provided by the RE CE – broadcast transmitters
combination in the emitter circuit
– test equipments such as signal generators where
 In Fig 6, if the crystal resonant frequency is,
exact frequency and very high frequency stability
say 3579.545 Hz, then the oscillator oscillates
are of utmost importance. The frequency drift in
at the same frequency and gives a sinusoidal
crystal controlled oscillators will be less than 1 Hz
output of 3579.545 Hz
per 106Hz
 RC Oscillators  Then, the frequency of oscillations depends

 LC oscillators are not suitable for generating on the RC values. Two important types of RC

frequencies less than 1 MHz. To make audio oscillator are;

frequency oscillators (<20 kHz) if LC – the RC phase-shift oscillator

oscillators are used, the LC values required – the Wien-bridge oscillator
will be too large. Hence, LC tuned circuit is
not used in audio frequency oscillators.

 For generating audio frequencies, resistors

and capacitors(RC) can be used to provide
the necessary phase shift for positive
feedback
 Wein-bridge oscillator
 It is essentially a two stage amplifier with a RC
 Wein-bridge oscillator is a standard oscillator bridge (known as wien bridge). The four arms of
for generating low frequencies in the range of bridge consist of R1 in series with C1 , R2
10 Hz to 1 MHz. Wien_x0002_bridge parallel with C2, R3 and R4
oscillator is a RC feedback oscillator  The wein bridge oscillator uses both positive
 Positive feedback is applied through the path and negative feedback-positive feedbacks
with RB CB and RACA to the + terminal. This through the path with R1C1 and R2C2 to the
feedback produces oscillations base of a
 The negative feedback is through voltage
divider R3 & R4. R1 is normally in the form of
temperature sensitive lamp. Whose resistance
increase with increase in current
 The circuit oscillates only at the frequency at  The 360o phase shift (positive feedback)
which the bridge is balanced. In this required for oscillator is obtained by using 2
condition the positive feedback is balanced stage amplifier. Q1 transistor introduces 180o
with negative feedback phase shift and Q2 transistor introduces

 The frequency at which the bridge will another phase shift of 180o

oscillate can be calculated using the formula.

In the bridge circuit if R1 in series with C1

produces a current lag R2 in parallel with C2

will produce a lead to one particular frequency.

Hence the total phase shift of the bridge circuit
will be zero
Operation: The circuit is set in oscillation by Advantages
any random changes in base current of 1 Provides a stable low distribution output over a
transistor Q1 that may be due to noise wide range of frequency.
inherent in the transistor or variation in 2 The frequency range can be selected simply by
voltage of dc supply. This noise or variation in using decade resistance boxes.
base current is amplified by two stage
3 The frequency of oscillation can be easily varied
amplifier and feedback to wien bridge. The
by varying C1 & C2 simultaneously.
bridge will allow only one particular
Disadvantages
frequency for which total phase shift will be
1 The circuit needs two transistors and a large
zero. This frequency is further fed to amplifier
number of other components.
and sustained oscillations are obtained
2 The maximum frequency output is limited because
of amplitude and the phase shift characteristics of