basic rc oscillator circuits

8/13/2019 Basic RC Oscillator Circuits

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5B5BBasic RC Oscillator Circuit

The RC Oscillatorwhich is also called a Phase Shift Oscillator, produces a sine wave output

signal using regenerative feedback from the resistor-capacitor combination. This regenerative

feedback from the RC network is due to the ability of the capacitor to store an electric charge,

(similar to the LC tank circuit). This resistor-capacitor feedback network can be connected as

shown above to produce a leading phase shift (phase advance network) or interchanged to

produce a lagging phase shift (phase retard network) the outcome is still the same as the sinewave oscillations only occur at the frequency at which the overall phase-shift is 360 o. By varying

one or more of the resistors or capacitors in the phase-shift network, the frequency can be varied

and generally this is done using a 3-ganged variable capacitor.

If all the resistors, R and the capacitors, C in the phase shift network are equal in value, then the

frequency of oscillations produced by the RC oscillator is given as:

Where: is the Output Frequency in Hertz R is the Resistance in Ohms C is the Capacitance in Farads N is the number of RC stages. (in our example N = 3)

Since the resistor-capacitor combination in the RC Oscillatorcircuit also acts as an attenuator

producing an attenuation of -1/29th (Vo/Vi = ) per stage, the gain of the amplifier must be

sufficient to overcome the losses and in our three mesh network above the amplifier gain must be

greater than 29. The loading effect of the amplifier on the feedback network has an effect on thefrequency of oscillations and can cause the oscillator frequency to be up to 25% higher than

calculated. Then the feedback network should be driven from a high impedance output source


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and fed into a low impedance load such as a common emitter transistor amplifier but better still

is to use an HHUUOperational AmplifierUUHH as it satisfies these conditions perfectly.

0B0BThe Op-amp RC Oscillator

When used as RC oscillators, Operational Amplifier RC Oscillatorsare more common than

their bipolar transistors counterparts. The oscillator circuit consists of a negative-gain operational

amplifier and a three section RC network that produces the 180ophase shift. The phase shift

network is connected from the op-amps output back to its "non-inverting" input as shown below.

6B6BOp-amp RC Oscillator Circuit

As the feedback is connected to the non-inverting input, the operational amplifier is thereforeconnected in its "inverting amplifier" configuration which produces the required 180ophase shift

while the RC network produces the other 180ophase shift at the required frequency (180o+

180o). Although it is possible to cascade together only two RC stages to provide the required

180oof phase shift (90o+ 90o), the stability of the oscillator at low frequencies is poor.

One of the most important features of an RC Oscillatoris its frequency stability which is its

ability too provide a constant frequency output under varying load conditions. By cascading

three or even four RC stages together (4 x 45o), the stability of the oscillator can be greatly

improved.RC Oscillatorswith four stages are generally used because commonly available

operational amplifiers come in quad IC packages so designing a 4-stage oscillator with 45 oof

phase shift relative to each other is relatively easy.

RC Oscillatorsare stable and provide a well-shaped sine wave output with the frequency being

proportional to 1/RC and therefore, a wider frequency range is possible when using a variable

capacitor. However, RC Oscillators are restricted to frequency applications because of their

bandwidth limitations to produce the desired phase shift at high frequencies.

1B1BExample No1

Determine the frequency of oscillations of a RC Oscillatorcircuit having 3-stages each with a

resistor and capacitor of equal values. R = 10kand C = 500pF

The frequency of oscillations for a RC Oscillator is given as:


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The circuit is a 3-stage oscillator which consists of three 10kresistors and three 500pF

capacitors therefore the frequency of oscillation is given as:

Op-amp implementation

A simple example of a phase-shift oscillator

One of the simplest implementations for this type of oscillator uses an HHUUoperational amplifierUUHH

(op-amp), three HHUUcapacitorsUUHHand four HHUUresistorsUUHH, as shown in the diagram.

The mathematics for calculating the oscillation frequency and oscillation criterion for this circuit

are surprisingly complex, due to each R-C stage loading the previous ones. The calculations are

greatly simplified by setting all the resistors (except the HHUUnegative feedbackUUHHresistor) and all the

capacitors to the same values. In the diagram, if R1 = R2 = R3 = R, and C1 = C2 = C3 = C, then:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rc_phase_shift_oscillator.gif


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and the oscillation criterion is:

Rfeedback= 29(R)

Without the simplification of all the resistors and capacitors having the same values, the calculations

become more complex:

Oscillation criterion:

A version of this circuit can be made by putting an op-amp buffer between each R-C stage which

simplifies the calculations. he voltage gain of the inverting channel is always unity.

When the oscillation frequency is high enough to be near the amplifier's HHUUcutoff frequencyUUHH, the

amplifier will contribute significant phase shift itself, which will add to the phase shift of the

feedback network. Therefore the circuit will oscillate at a frequency at which the phase shift of the

feedback filter is less than 180 degrees.


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2B2BThe Wien Bridge Oscillator

In the previous HHUURC OscillatorUUHH tutorial we saw that a number of resistors and capacitors can be

connected together with an inverting amplifier to produce an oscillating circuit. One of the

simplest sine wave oscillators which uses a RC network in place of the conventional LC tuned

tank circuit to produce a sinusoidal output waveform, is the Wien Bridge Oscillator.

The Wien Bridge Oscillatoris so called because the circuit is based on a frequency-selective

form of the Whetstone bridge circuit. The Wien Bridge oscillator is a two-stage RC coupled

amplifier circuit that has good stability at its resonant frequency, low distortion and is very easy

to tune making it a popular circuit as an audio frequency oscillator but the phase shift of the

output signal is considerably different from the previous phase shift RC Oscillator.

The Wien Bridge Oscillatoruses a feedback circuit consisting of a series RC circuit connected

with a parallel RC of the same component values producing a phase delay or phase advance

circuit depending upon the frequency. At the resonant frequency r the phase shift is 0o.

Consider the circuit below.

7B7BRC Phase Shift Network

The above RC network consists of a series RC circuit connected to a parallel RC forming

basically a HHUUHigh Pass FilterUUHHconnected to a HHUULow Pass FilterUUHHproducing a very selective second

order frequency dependant HHUUBand Pass Filter

-

UUHHwith a high Q factor at the selected frequency, r.

At low frequencies the reactance of the series capacitor (C1) is very high so acts like an opencircuit and blocks any input signal at Vin. Therefore there is no output signal, Vout. At high

frequencies, the reactance of the parallel capacitor, (C2) is very low so this parallel connected

capacitor acts like a short circuit on the output so again there is no output signal. However,

between these two extremes the output voltage reaches a maximum value with the frequency at

which this happens being called theResonant Frequency, (r).

At this resonant frequency, the circuits reactance equals its resistance as Xc = R so the phase

shift between the input and output equals zero degrees. The magnitude of the output voltage is

therefore at its maximum and is equal to one third (1/3) of the input voltage as shown.


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8B8BOutput Gain and Phase Shift

It can be seen that at very low frequencies the phase angle between the input and output signals

is "Positive" (Phase Advanced), while at very high frequencies the phase angle becomes

"Negative" (Phase Delay). In the middle of these two points the circuit is at its resonant

frequency, (r) with the two signals being "in-phase" or 0o. We can therefore define this resonant

frequency point with the following expression.

9B9BResonant Frequency

Where: r is the Resonant Frequency in Hertz R is the Resistance in Ohms C is the Capacitance in Farads

Then this frequency selective RC network forms the basis of the Wien Bridge Oscillatorcircuit.

If we now place this RC network across a non-inverting amplifier which has a gain of 1+R1/R2

the following oscillator circuit is produced.


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10B10BWien Bridge Oscillator

The output of the operational amplifier is fed back to both the inputs of the amplifier. One part of

the feedback signal is connected to the inverting input terminal (negative feedback) via the

resistor divider network of R1 and R2 which allows the amplifiers voltage gain to be adjusted

within narrow limits. The other part is fed back to the non-inverting input terminal (positive

feedback) via the RC Wien Bridge network.

The RC network is connected in the positive feedback path of the amplifier and has zero phase

shift a just one frequency. Then at the selected resonant frequency, ( r ) the voltages applied tothe inverting and non-inverting inputs will be equal and "in-phase" so the positive feedback will

cancel out the negative feedback signal causing the circuit to oscillate.

Also the voltage gain of the amplifier circuit MUST be equal to three "Gain = 3" for oscillations

to start. This value is set by the feedback resistor network, R1 and R2 for an inverting amplifier

and is given as the ratio -R1/R2. Also, due to the open-loop gain limitations of operational

amplifiers, frequencies above 1MHz are unachievable without the use of special high frequency

op-amps.

3B3B

Wien Bridge Oscillator SummaryThen for oscillations to occur in a Wien Bridge Oscillatorcircuit the following conditions must

apply.

1.With no input signal the Wien Bridge Oscillator produces output oscillations. 2.The Wien Bridge Oscillator can produce a large range of frequencies. 3.The Voltage gain of the amplifier must be at least 3. 4.The network can be used with a Non-inverting amplifier.


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5.The input resistance of the amplifier must be high compared to R so that the RCnetwork is not overloaded and alter the required conditions.

6.The output resistance of the amplifier must be low so that the effect of external loading

is minimised.

7.Some method of stabilizing the amplitude of the oscillations must be provided because

if the voltage gain of the amplifier is too small the desired oscillation will decay and stop

and if it is too large the output amplitude rises to the value of the supply rails, which

saturates the op-amp and causes the output waveform to become distorted.

8.With amplitude stabilisation in the form of feedback diodes, oscillations from the

oscillator can go on indefinitely.

4B4BExample No1

Determine the maximum and minimum frequency of oscillations of a Wien Bridge Oscillatorcircuit having a resistor of 10kand a variable capacitor of 1nF to 1000nF.

The frequency of oscillations for a Wien Bridge Oscillator is given as:

11B11BLowest Frequency

12B12BHighest Frequency ?

basic rc oscillator circuits

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