UNIT – II

OSCILLATORS
INTRODUCTION TO FEEDBACK SYSTEMS:
As we’ve seen, negative feedback is an incredibly useful principle when applied
to operational amplifiers. It is what allows us to create all these practical circuits, being
able to precisely set gains, rates, and other significant parameters with just a few
changes of resistor values. Negative feedback makes all these circuits stable and self-
correcting.
The basic principle of negative feedback is that the output tends to drive in a
direction that creates a condition of equilibrium (balance). In an op-amp circuit with no
feedback, there is no corrective mechanism, and the output voltage will saturate with
the tiniest amount of differential voltage applied between the inputs. The result is a
comparator:
With negative feedback (the output voltage “fed back” somehow to the inverting
input), the circuit tends to prevent itself from driving the output to full saturation.
Rather, the output voltage drives only as high or as low as needed to balance the two
inputs’ voltages:
Another type of feedback, namely positive feedback, also finds application in op-
amp circuits. Unlike negative feedback, where the output voltage is “fed back” to the
inverting (-) input, with positive feedback the output voltage is somehow routed back
to the noninverting (+) input. In its simplest form, we could connect a straight piece of
wire from output to noninverting input and see what happens:
The inverting input remains disconnected from the feedback loop, and is free to receive an external
voltage. Let’s see what happens if we ground the inverting input:

With the inverting input grounded (maintained at zero volts), the output voltage will be dictated by
the magnitude and polarity of the voltage at the non inverting input. If that voltage happens to be
positive, the op-amp will drive its output positive as well, feeding that positive voltage back to the
non inverting input, which will result in full positive output saturation. On the other hand, if the
voltage on the non inverting input happens to start out negative, the op-amp’s output will drive in the
negative direction, feeding back to the non inverting input and resulting in full negative saturation .
 INTRODUCTION TO 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 sawtooth waves.
- A basic oscillator is shown in Figure 1.
Oscillators can be of 2 types.

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 2.

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 nonsinusoidal 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.
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.
Two general classes of oscillators exist: sinusoidal and relaxation.

Sinusoidal oscillators consist of amplifiers with RC or LC circuits that have adjustable oscillation
frequencies, or crystals that have a fixed oscillation frequency.

Op-amp sine-wave oscillators operate without an externally-applied input signal.

Instead, some combination of positive and negative feedback is used to drive the op amp into
an unstable state, causing the output to cycle back and forth between the supply rails at a
continuous rate.
The frequency and amplitude of oscillation are set by the arrangement of passive and active
components around a central op amp.
Op-amp oscillators are restricted to the lower end of the frequency spectrum because op amps
do not have the required bandwidth to achieve low phase shift at high frequencies.

Voltage-feedback op amps are limited to a low kHz range because their dominant, open-loop
pole may be as low as 10 Hz. The new current-feedback op amps have a much wider
bandwidth, but they are very hard to use in oscillator circuits because they are sensitive to
feedback capacitance. Crystal oscillators are used in high-frequency applications up to the
hundreds of MHz range.
• The voltage gain around the closed feedback loop, , is the product of the
amplifier gain,AV , and the attenuation B , of the feedback circuit.

• 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 .
• An amplifier gain of greater than 100 will cause the oscillator to limit
both peaks of the waveform.
REQUIREMENTS FOR OSCILLATION:

The canonical, or simplest, form of a negative feedback system is used to

demonstrate the requirements for oscillation to occur.

Figure 1 shows the block diagram for this system in which V IN is the input voltage,
VOUT is the output voltage from the amplifier gain block (A), and β is the signal, called
the feedback factor, that is fed back to the summing junction.

E represents the error term that is equal to the summation of the feedback factor
and the input voltage.
As the phase shift approaches 180° and |Aβ| → 1, the output voltage of the
now-unstable system tends to infinity but, of course, is limited to finite
values by an energy-limited power supply.

When the output voltage approaches either power rail, the active devices in
the amplifiers change gain. This causes the value of A to change and forces
Aβ away from the singularity; thus the trajectory towards an infinite voltage
slows and eventually halts.

At this stage, one of three things can occur:

(i)Nonlinearity in saturation or cutoff causes the system to become stable
and lock up at the current power rail.
(ii) The initial change causes the system to
saturate (or cutoff) and stay that way for a long time before it becomes
linear and heads for the opposite power rail.
(iii) The system stays linear and reverses direction, heading for the opposite
power rail. The second alternative produces highly distorted oscillations
(usually quasi-square waves), the resulting oscillators being called relaxation
oscillators. The third produces a sine-wave oscillator.
PHASE SHIFT IN THE OSCILLATOR:
The 180 phase shift in the equation Aβ = 1 ∠–180° is introduced by active and passive components.

Like any well-designed feedback circuit, oscillators are made dependent on passive-component phase shift because it
is accurate and almost drift-free.

The phase shift contributed by active components is minimized because it varies with temperature, has a wide initial
tolerance, and is device dependent.

Amplifiers are selected so that they contribute little or no phase shift at the oscillation frequency.
These constraints limit the op-amp oscillator to relatively low frequencies.

A single-pole RL or RC circuit contributes up to 90° phase shift per pole, and because 180 of phase shift is required for
oscillation, at least two poles must be used in the oscillator design. An LC circuit has two poles, thus it contributes up
to 180 phase shift per pole pair.

But LC and LR oscillators are not considered here because low frequency inductors are expensive, heavy, bulky, and
highly nonideal.

LC oscillators are designed in high frequency applications, beyond the frequency range of voltage feedback op amps,
where the inductor size, weight, and cost are less significant.

Multiple RC sections are used in low frequency oscillator design in lieu of inductors.

Phase shift determines the oscillation frequency because the circuit oscillates at whatever frequency accumulates a
180° phase shift. The sensitivity of phase to frequency, dφ/dω, determines the frequency stability. When buffered RC
sections (an op amp buffer provides high input and low output impedance) are cascaded, the phase shift multiplies by
the number of sections, n (see Figure 2).
In the region where the phase shift is 180°, the frequency of oscillation is very
sensitive to the phase shift. Thus, a tight frequency specification requires that the
phase shift, dφ, be kept within exceedingly narrow limits for there to be only small
variations in frequency, dω, at 180°.
Figure 2 demonstrates that, although two cascaded RC sections eventually provide
180° phase shift, the value of dφ/dω at the oscillator frequency is unacceptably
small. Thus, oscillators made with two cascaded RC sections have poor frequency
stability. Three equal cascaded RC filter sections
• have a much higher dφ/dω (see Figure 2), and the resulting oscillator has
improved frequency stability. Adding a fourth RC section produces an
oscillator with an excellent dφ/dω (see Figure 2); thus, this is the most stable
RC oscillator configuration.
• Four sections are the maximum number used because op amps come in
quad packages, and the four-section oscillator yields four sine waves 45°
phase shifted relative to each other. This oscillator can be used to obtain
sine/cosine or quadrature sine waves.
• Crystal or ceramic resonators make the most stable oscillators because
resonators have an extremely high dφ/dω as a result of their nonlinear
properties. Resonators are used for high-frequency oscillators, but low-
frequency oscillators do not use resonators because of size, weight, and cost
restrictions. Op amps are not generally used with crystal or ceramic
resonator oscillators because op amps have low bandwidth. Experience
shows that rather than using a low-frequency resonator for low frequencies,
it is more cost effective to build a high frequency crystal oscillator, count the
output down, and then filter the output to obtain the low frequency
• Gain in the Oscillator:
The oscillator gain must be unity (Aβ = 1∠–180°) at the oscillation frequency. Under normal
conditions, the circuit becomes stable when the gain exceeds unity, and oscillations cease.

However, when the gain exceeds unity with a phase shift of –180°, the nonlinearity of the active
device reduces the gain to unity and the circuit oscillates.

The nonlinearity becomes significant when the amplifier swings close to either power rail because cutoff or saturation reduces
the active device (transistor) gain.

• The paradox is that worst-case design practice requires nominal gains exceeding unity for manufacturability, but excess gain causes
increased distortion of the output sine wave.

• When the gain is too low, oscillations cease under worst case conditions, and when the gain is too high, the output wave form
looks more like a square wave than a sine wave. Distortion is a direct result of excessive gain overdriving the amplifier; thus, gain
must be carefully controlled in low-distortion oscillators.

• Phase-shift oscillators have distortion, but they achieve low-distortion output voltages because cascaded RC sections act as
distortion filters. Also, buffered phase-shift oscillators have low distortion because the gain is controlled and distributed among the
buffers.

• Most circuit configurations require an auxiliary circuit for gain adjustment when low-distortion outputs are desired. Auxiliary
circuits range from inserting a nonlinear component in the feedback loop, to automatic gain control (AGC) loops, to limiting by
external components such as resistors and diodes.
• Consideration must also be given to the change in gain resulting from temperature variations and component tolerances, and the
level of circuit complexity is determined based on the required stability of the gain. The more stable the gain, the better the purity of
the sine wave output.
SAWTOOTH WAVE GENERATOR USING OP-AMP
• Here am going to explain sawtooth waveform generator using op-amp. sawtooth waveform can be also
generated by an asymmetrical astable multivibrator followed by an integrator The sawtooth wave generators
have wide application in time-base generators and pulse width modulation circuits.
•
The difference between the triangular wave and sawtooth waveform is that the rise time of triangular
wave is always equal to its fall of time while in saw tooth generator, rise time may be much higher than its fall
of tim , vise versa . The triangular wave generator can be converted in to a sawtooth wave generator by
injencting a variable dc voltage into the non inverting terminal of the integrator.
•
In this circuit a potentiometer is used (47K) . Use of the potentiometer is when the wiper moves towards -
V ,the rise tim of the sawtooth become longerthan the fall time. If the wiper moves towards +V , the fall time
becomes more than the rise time.

Reason is when comparator output is at -ve saturaion. When wiper moves to -ve supply, a negative
voltage is added to inverting terminal. This causes the potential difference across R1 decreases and hence the
current through the resistor and capacitor decreases . Then slope of the output, I/C decreases and un tern rise
time decreases.
When the compartor output goes positive , due to presence of negative voltage at the inverting
terminal, potential difference of across the resistor R1 increases and hebce cyrrent increases. Then slope
increases and fall time decreases. And obtained output as sawtooth wave.

Components for wiring this circuit

Op-amp ic - 741C
R1 - 1K
R2 - 180 Ω
R3 - 12K
R - 47K
C - 0.1μF
 PART II
COMPARATORS
Comparators: (Open Loop Configuration )

The basic comparator circuit is an op-amp arranged in the open-loop configuration as

shown on the circuit of Figure 1. The op-amp is characterized by an open-loop gain A
and let’s assume that the output voltage Vo can go all the way to VDD and VEE. The
output voltage is given by

Vo = A (V + − V− ) (1.1)
Where V+ and V− correspond to the voltages at the non-inverting and the inverting
terminals respectively.
OPERATION:
 Characteristics
The important characteristic of comparator are
Speed of operation
Accuracy
Compatibility of output
1. Speed of operation
The output of comparator must switch rapidly between the saturation level (+vsat or -
Vsat) and also respond instantly to any change of condition at its input .it says that
bandwidth of op-amp should be very high because wider bandwidth ,higher is the
speed of operation .
2. Accuracy
It is smallest amount of difference voltage required at the inputs of comparator to
make the output change its state .It is measured in mv. The accuracy depends on
voltage gain ,common -mode rejection ratio (CMRR), input offset voltage and
thermal drifts .
3. Compatibility of output
The comparator is a form of analog to digital converter ,its output must swing
between two logic levels suitable for a certain logic family such as transistors -
transistor logic (TTL).
Zero Crossing Detector (ZCD): Comparator circuit using 741 op amp
Working of zero crossing detector circuit
Working of ZCD can be easily understood if you know
the working of a basic opamp comparator.
In ZCD, we are setting one of the inputs as zero i.e. zero
reference voltage.
The output is driven into –Vsat when the input signal
passes through zero to positive direction.
Conversely, when input signal passes through zero to
negative direction, the output switches to +Vsat.
Zero crossing detector applications
ZCD circuit can be used to check whether the op-amp is
in good condition. Zero crossing detectors can be used
as frequency counters and for switching purposes in
power electronics circuits.ZCD is a basic op amp circuit.