Elements Of

Telecommunication
CHAPTER 5

OSCILLATORS
Aim
To equip participants with the fundamental knowledge of
oscillatory circuits and their applications in telecommunication
equipment.
Objectives
At the end of the chapter participants should be able to:

• Describe the basic concepts of an oscillator

• Discuss the basic principles of operation of an oscillator
• Analyze the operation of RC, LC and crystal oscillators
• Describe the operation of the basic relaxation oscillator circuit
Introduction

• An oscillator is a circuit that produces a continuous signal of

some type without the need of an input. These signals serve a
varierty of purposes. Communication systems, digital
systems(eg computers) and test equipment.
• An oscillator is a circuit that produces a repetitive signal from
a dc voltage
• The feedback oscillator relies on a positive feedback of the
output to maintain the oscillations
• The relaxation oscillator makes use of an RC timing circuit to
generate a nonsinusiodal signal such as a square wave
Oscillators
• An oscillator is an electronic circuit that generates a periodic
waveform on its output without an external signal source.
• Dc to ac conversion.
• The waveforms can be sine wave, square wave, triangular and
sawtooth wave
Types of oscillators
• RC oscillators
• Wein bridge
• Phase shift
• LC oscillators
• Hartley
• Colpitts
• Relaxation oscillators
Waveform Generators
• A waveform generator is an oscillator
• A waveform generator is an electronic circuit designed to
produce an alternating e.m.f. of known frequency and
waveform.
• The most commonly used in practice are sinusoidal, the
rectangular and the saw tooth waveforms.
 Sine Wave Waveform

• Periodic time, (T) - the time it takes for electrical waveforms to repeat itsself.
• The reciprocal of the period, ( 1/T ) we end up with a value that denotes the number
of times a period or cycle repeats itself in one second or cycles per second, and this is
commonly known as Frequency with units of Hertz, (Hz).
• Then Hertz can also be defined as “cycles per second” (cps) and 1Hz is exactly equal to
1 cycle per second.
Rectangular Waveform
• The positive pulse width is shorter in time than the negative
pulse width.
• Equally, the negative pulse width could be shorter than the
positive pulse width.
• These positive and negative pulse widths are sometimes called
“Mark” and “Space” respectively.
• The ratio of the Mark time to the Space time being known as
the “Mark-to-Space” ratio of the period and for a Square wave
waveform this would be equal to one.
• DUTY CYCLE is
• The-duty cycle may be a fixed quantity or, with some
waveform generators, it may be adjustable.
• The periodic time of the waveform is ()
• The PULSE REPETITION FREQUENCY (P.RF.) is the number of
pulses occurring per second and is equal to the reciprocal of
the periodic time.
• If T1 is adjusted to be equal to T2 then a square waveform is
obtained.
Rectangular Waveforms
• can be used to regulate the amount of power being applied to
a load such as a lamp or motor by varying the duty cycle of the
waveform.
• The higher the duty cycle, the greater the average amount of
power being applied to the load
• The lower the duty cycle, the less the average amount of
power being applied to the load
• An excellent example of this is in the use of “Pulse Width
Modulation” speed controllers.
Example 1

A Rectangular waveform has a positive pulse width (Mark time)

of 10ms and a duty cycle of 25%, calculate its frequency.

A rectangular waveform varying between 0V and +10 V has the

following parameters: pulse repetition frequency p.r.f =100 kHz,
duration of positive pulse 4µs. What are: -
• (i) The mark/space ration
• (ii) The duty factor of this waveform?
Square-wave Waveforms
• Used extensively in electronic and micro electronic circuits for
clock and timing control signals.
• Then we can say that for a square wave waveform the positive
or “ON” time is equal to the negative or “OFF” time so the
duty cycle must be 50%, (half of its period).
Example 2

A Square Wave electrical waveform has a pulse width of 10ms,

calculate its frequency, ( ƒ ).
Triangular Waveforms
• Triangular Waveforms are generally bi-directional non-
sinusoidal waveforms
• They oscillate between a positive and a negative peak value.
• The triangular wave is actually more of a symmetrical linear
ramp waveform because it is simply a slow rising and falling
voltage signal at a constant frequency or rate.
Triangular Waveforms
• the positive-going ramp or slope (rise), is of the same time
duration as the negative-going ramp (decay) giving the
triangular waveform a 50% duty cycle.
• Then any given voltage amplitude, the frequency of the
waveform will determine the average voltage level of the
wave.
• So for a slow rise and slow delay time of the ramp will give a
lower average voltage level than a faster rise and decay time.
• We can produce non-symmetrical triangular waveforms by
varying either the rising or decaying ramp values to give us
another type of waveform known commonly as a Sawtooth
Waveform.
Sawtooth Waveforms
• As its name suggests, the shape of the waveform resembles
the teeth of a saw blade.
• The positive ramp Sawtooth Waveform is the more common
of the two waveform types
Sawtooth Waveforms
• Waveform is rich in harmonics and for music synthesizers and
musicians gives the quality of the sound or tonal colour to
their music without any distortion.
LC tank
• LC oscillators are widely used to generate high frequency
waves
• A tank or oscillatory circuit is a parallel form of inductor and
capacitor elements which produces the electrical oscillations
of any desired frequency.
• Both these elements are capable of storing energy. Whenever
the potential difference exists across a capacitor plates, it
stores energy in its electric field.
• Similarly, whenever current flows thorough an inductor,
energy is stored in its magnetic field.
Working of LC Tank Circuit
• Capacitor is charged with a DC source having the polarities
upper plate positive and lower plate negative as shown below.
• This represents that the upper plate has of electrons
deficiency , whereas the lower plate has excess of electrons.
• Potential differences exist between these two plates
• Consider that this charged capacitor is connected across the
inductor through a switch S as shown.

• When the switch S is closed, the electron current flow or

electrons moves from plate A to B through the inductor coil.
• Therefore the energy stored or strength of the electric field in
the capacitor decreases.
• The current flowing through the inductor induces an EMF
which opposes the electrons flow through it.
• This current flow set up a magnetic field around the inductor
thereby it starts storing the magnetic energy.
• When the capacitor is fully discharged, current or electron
flow through the coil becomes zero.
• At this time magnetic field has maximum value and there is no
electric field.
• Once the capacitor is fully discharged, magnetic field around
the inductor starts collapsing and produces the counter emf.
• As per the Lenz’s law, this counter emf produces the current
which begin to charge the capacitor with opposite polarity by
making plate upper plate negative and lower plate positive.
• When the capacitor is fully charged in opposite direction, the
entire magnetic energy is converted back into the electric
energy in capacitor, i.e., magnetic energy is collapsed.
• At this instant, capacitor starts discharging in the opposite
direction.
• Once again the capacitor is fully discharged and this process
will be continued.
• This continuous charging and discharging process results an
alternating motion of electrons which is nothing but an oscillating
current.
• Oscillations of the capacitor are damped because every time
transferring of energy from L to C and C to L dissipates energy in the
form of heat in the resistance of the coil and in the connecting wires
in the form of electromagnetic radiation.
• These losses decrease the amplitude of oscillating current gradually
till it ceases. These are called as exponentially decaying oscillations or
damped oscillations.
• The energy that must be supplied to the oscillatory circuit to maintain
oscillation can be provided by the use of an amplifier.
Frequency of LC Oscillator
• At a particular combination of capacitor and inductor, this
circuit becomes resonant or tuned circuit that has a resonant
frequency at which both inductive reactance and capacitive
reactance are identical.
• The sustained oscillations can be obtained by providing the
supply energy to L and C components.
• The frequency of oscillations generated by this tank circuit
entirely depends on the values of capacitor and inductor and
their resonance condition.
Principle of Operation
• An oscillator is an electronic circuit designed to produce an
alternating e.m.f. of known frequency and waveform.
• An oscillator is an amplifier that provides its own input signal,
which is derived from the output signal.

FREQUENCY Vout
AMPLIFIER Vin
DETERMINING
A
NETWORK

FEEDBACK NETWORK
Vin= βVout β
• A fraction β (Beta) of the output voltage is fed back to the
input.
• If the voltage gain of the amplifier is Av

• The output voltage is and

• The input voltage, so that

• In this equation, the input voltage cannot be zero as an output
voltage exists and therefore () must be zero, and the so-called
loop-gain must equal unity, hence:

• Where is the loop-gain

• It is also known as the Barkhausen criterion.
• Hence loop-gain must be unity.
TYPES OF OSCILLATORS
• RC oscillators
• Wein bridge
• Phase shift
• LC oscillators
• Hartley
• Colpitts
• Relaxation oscillators
• The frequency-determining
tuned circuit is connected
in series with the collector
terminal of the transistor.
• R1, R2 and R3 are bias and
DC stabilization
components while C1 and
C2 are decoupling
components.
• Variable capacitor C3 tunes
the circuit to oscillate at
the desired frequency and
C4 is a DC blocking but
signal coupling capacitor.
• When the collector supply voltage is first
switched on
• The resulting surge DC current causes a minute
oscillatory current to flow in the collector tuned
circuit.
• This current flows in inductor L1 and induces an
e.m.f. at the same frequency into inductor L2.
• This voltage is then applied to the base of the
transistor.
• The transistor introduces 180 degrees phase
shift between base and collector and the mutual
inductance coupling between L1 and L2 must be
such that the loop-phase shift is zero.
• The amplified voltage causes a larger oscillatory
current flow in L1 and induces a larger e.m.f into
L2 and so on.
• Provided the loop gain is greater than unity the
oscillation amplitude builds up until the point is
reached where the transistor is driven into the
point Where the transistor is driven into
saturation and cut-off.
• The loop gain is then reduced to unity and the
The Hartley Oscillator
• The Hartley Oscillator design uses two inductive coils in series
with a parallel capacitor to form its resonance tank circuit and
produce sinusoidal oscillations.
Hartley Oscillator
• Tuned LC circuit is connected between the collector and the base of a
transistor amplifier.
• As far as the oscillatory voltage is concerned, the emitter is connected
to a tapping point on the tuned circuit coil.
• The feedback part of the tuned LC tank circuit is taken from the centre
tap of the inductor coil or even two separate coils in series which are in
parallel with a variable capacitor, C as shown.
• The Hartley circuit is often referred to as a split-inductance oscillator
because coil L is centre-tapped.
• In effect, inductance L acts like two separate coils in very close proximity
with the current flowing through coil section XY induces a signal into coil
section YZ below.
• An Hartley Oscillator circuit can be made from any configuration that
uses either a single tapped coil (similar to an autotransformer) or a pair
of series connected coils in parallel with a single capacitor as shown
below.
• When the circuit is oscillating, the voltage at point X (collector), relative to point Y
(emitter), is 180 degrees out-of-phase with the voltage at point Z (base) relative
to point Y.
• At the frequency of oscillation, the impedance of the Collector load is resistive
and an increase in Base voltage causes a decrease in the Collector voltage.
• Then there is a 180degrees phase change in the voltage between the Base and
Collector and this along with the original 180 phase shift in the feedback loop
provides the correct phase relationship of positive feedback for oscillations to be
maintained.
• The amount of feedback depends upon the position of the “tapping point” of the
inductor.
• If this is moved nearer to the collector the amount of feedback is increased, but
the output taken between the Collector and earth is reduced and vice versa.
• Resistors, R1 and R2 provide the usual stabilizing DC bias for the transistor in the
normal manner while the capacitors act as DC-blocking capacitors.
• In this Hartley Oscillator circuit, the DC Collector current flows through part of the
coil and for this reason the circuit is said to be “Series-fed” with the frequency of
oscillation of the Hartley Oscillator being given as.
The Colpitts Oscillator
• The Colpitts Oscillator design uses two centre-tapped
capacitors in series with a parallel inductor to form its
resonance tank circuit and produce sinusoidal oscillations.
• Just like the Hartley oscillator, the tuned tank circuit consists
of an LC resonance sub-circuit connected between the
collector and the base of a single stage transistor amplifier
producing a sinusoidal output waveform.
• The basic configuration of the Colpitts Oscillator resembles
that of the Hartley Oscillator but the difference this time is
that the centre tapping of the tank sub-circuit is now made at
the junction of a “capacitive voltage divider” network instead
of a tapped autotransformer type inductor as in the Hartley
oscillator.
• The Colpitts oscillator uses a capacitive voltage divider
network as its feedback source.
• The two capacitors, C1 and C2 are placed across a single
common inductor, L as shown.
• Then C1, C2 and L form the tuned tank circuit with the
condition for oscillations being: XC1 + XC2 = XL, the same as
for the Hartley oscillator circuit.
• The advantage of this type of capacitive circuit configuration is
that with less self and mutual inductance within the tank
circuit, frequency stability of the oscillator is improved along
with a more simple design.
• As with the Hartley oscillator, the Colpitts oscillator uses a
single stage bipolar transistor amplifier as the gain element
which produces a sinusoidal output.
• The emitter terminal of the transistor is effectively connected to the junction of the
two capacitors, C1 and C2 which are connected in series and act as a simple voltage
divider.
• When the power supply is firstly applied, capacitors C1 and C2 charge up and then
discharge through the coil L. The oscillations across the capacitors are applied to
the base-emitter junction and appear in the amplified at the collector output.
• Resistors, R1 and R2 provide the usual stabilizing DC bias for the transistor in the
normal manner while the additional capacitors act as a DC-blocking bypass
capacitors.
• A radio-frequency choke (RFC) is used in the collector circuit to provide a high
reactance (ideally open circuit) at the frequency of oscillation, ( ƒr ) and a low
resistance at DC to help start the oscillations.
• The required external phase shift is obtained in a similar manner to that in the
Hartley oscillator circuit with the required positive feedback obtained for sustained
undamped oscillations.
• The amount of feedback is determined by the ratio of C1 and C2. These two
capacitances are generally “ganged” together to provide a constant amount of
feedback so that as one is adjusted the other automatically follows.
• The frequency of oscillations for a Colpitts oscillator is
determined by the resonant frequency of the LC tank circuit
and is given as:
• The configuration of the transistor amplifier is of a Common Emitter
Amplifier with the output signal 180o out of phase with regards to the
input signal.
• The additional 180o phase shift require for oscillation is achieved by the
fact that the two capacitors are connected together in series but in parallel
with the inductive coil resulting in overall phase shift of the circuit being
zero or 360o.
• The amount of feedback depends on the values of C1 and C2. We can see
that the voltage across C1 is the the same as the oscillators output voltage,
Vout and that the voltage across C2 is the oscillators feedback voltage.
• Then the voltage across C1 will be much greater than that across
C2.Therefore, by changing the values of capacitors, C1 and C2 we can
adjust the amount of feedback voltage returned to the tank circuit.
• However, large amounts of feedback may cause the output sine wave to
become distorted, while small amounts of feedback may not allow the
circuit to oscillate.
• Then the amount of feedback developed by the Colpitts oscillator is based
on the capacitance ratio of C1 and C2 and is what governs the the
excitation of the oscillator.
Crystal Oscillator
Any questions?
Thank you!