Course on

Electronic Circuit Analysis

Dr. Jetti Chandrasekhar Rao, M.Tech., Ph.D.

Associate Professor,
Dept. of ECE
Bapatla Engineering College, Bapatla

Source: Integrated Electronics: Analog and Digital Circuits and Systems, Jacob Millman and
Christos C Halkias, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, 2003.
 UNIT – IV
1. Barkhausen criterion for sinusoidal oscillators

 An oscillator is an electronic device which generates sinusoidal waves when excited by a

DC input supply voltage.
 Barkhausen's criterion applies to linear circuits with a feedback loop. It needs to
have positive feedback and the loop gain is unity (i.e. -βA=1 or |βA|=1).
 It states that if A is the gain of the amplifying element in the circuit and β is the transfer
function (feedback factor) of the feedback path, so βA is the loop gain around
the feedback loop of the circuit, the circuit will sustain steady-state oscillations only at
frequencies for which:
i. The loop gain is equal to unity, that is, |βA|=1 and (or -βA=1)
ii. The total phase shift of -βAaround the loop is zero or an integer multiple of 2π.That
means the frequency of oscillation at which sinusoidal oscillator operates is the frequency
for which the total shift introduced, as the signal proceeds from the input terminals,
through the amplifier and feedback network, and back again to the input, is precisely zero
(or an integral multiple of 2π).
 Barkhausen's criterion is a necessary condition for oscillation but not
a sufficient condition: some circuits satisfy the criterion but do not oscillate.
 The feedback network introduces 1800 phase shift, the other 1800 phase shift is provided
by mixer.
 The frequency of oscillation depends mostly on few circuit parameters such as passive
elements such as resistance, inductance, and capacitance etc.
2. RC-phase shift oscillator using FET
 RC phase-shift oscillator is used to generate audio frequency sinusoidal oscillation.
 The figure shows a generalized RC phase-shift oscillator. The basic amplifier
introduces180° phase-shift, provided the loading of the phase-shift network can be
neglected.
 The additional 180° phase shift is provided by the three cascaded arrangement of
capacitorC and resistor R acting as the feedback network. The phase shift amounting to
180° is introduced by this feedback network only at some particular frequency.

Types of Phase-Shift Oscillator:

I. Phase-Shift Oscillator using FET:
 The below figure (a) shows the FET based phase shift oscillator. The basic FET
amplifier is self-biased with a source resistor RS bypassed by capacitor RS and a drain
bias resistor RD. Figure (b) shows the equivalent circuit of the FET oscillator of figure
(a).
 We know the gain of the FET amplifier is given by:

 Here we assumed the input impedance of FET is infinite. This assumption is valid in the
low frequency range of operation of phase-shift oscillator, as in this frequency the effect
of capacitive impedance can be neglected.
 From FIG (b) it is clear that the feedback network will not load the amplifier when output
impedance R’D is much smaller in comparison with R. Now to find the frequency of
oscillation let us find the feedback factor β.
 Applying Kirchhoff’s voltage law in FIG (b) we get:

 Solving above equation we get:

 Now I3R = V’j = –Vf is the feedback voltage.Therefore, the feedback factor β is given by:

 For 180° phase shift, the coefficient of j must be zero.Therefore,

or the frequency of oscillation is given by

  And at the frequency of oscillation the value of feedback factor β = + 1/29 So the
minimum value of the gain of the amplifier |Av| is 29 for sustained oscillation at
frequency 1/ (2πRC√6).
II. Phase-Shift Oscillator using BJT:
 FIG (a) shows the circuit of a phase-shift oscillator using a BJT. In this oscillator a CE
amplifier with self-biasing arrangement using resistor Re and bypass capacitor C’ is used
as basic amplifier.
 FIG (b) shows the small signal AC equivalent circuit of FIG (a), using approximate
hybrid parameter model for the transistor in the low frequency region.
 Voltage-shunt feedback is used for transistor phase-sift oscillator whereas voltage-series
feedback is used for FET phase-sift oscillator.
 In transistor phase-sift oscillator, the output R of the feedback network would be shunted
by a relatively low input resistance of the transistor.

 The resistor R3 in the last stage of RC feedback network is chosen equal to R3=R-
Ri where Ri ≃ hie is the input resistance of the transistor.
 RC phase shift oscillator or simply RC oscillator is a type of oscillator where a simple RC
network (resistor-capacitor) network is used for giving the required phase shift to the
feedback signal.
 The main feature of an RC phase shift oscillator is the excellent frequency stability. The
RC oscillator can output a pure sine wave on a wide range of loads.
 RC phase shift network is a simple resistor capacitor network that can be used to give a
desired phase shift to a signal.
 Phase shift of a practical RC network depends on the value of the capacitor, resistor and
the operating frequency.
  Just by making an RC network with phase shift equal to 60° and cascading three of them
together the desired phase shift of 180° can be attained. This 180° phase shift by the RC
network plus the 180° phase shift made by the transistor gives a total phase shift of 360°
between the input and output which is the necessary condition for maintaining sustained
oscillations. The circuit diagram of a three stage RC network producing a phase shift of
180° is shown in the figure below.

 The frequency of the transistor RC phase shift oscillator can be expressed by the
equation:

 Where F is the frequency, R is the resistance, C is the capacitance and N is the number of
RC phase shift stages. The RC phase shift oscillator can be made variable by making
the resistors or capacitors variable.

3. Hartley oscillator:

 The Hartley oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit in which the oscillation

frequency is determined by a tuned circuit consisting of capacitors and inductors, that
is, an LC oscillator.
 The distinguishing feature of the Hartley oscillator is that the tuned circuit consists
of a single capacitor in parallel with two inductors in series (or a single tapped
 inductor), and the feedback signal needed for oscillation is taken from the center
connection of the two inductors.
 The Hartley oscillator is Suitable for oscillations in RF (Radio-frequency) range, up
to 30MHz.
 The frequency of oscillation is approximately the resonant frequency of the tank
circuit. If the capacitance of the tank capacitor is C and the total inductance of the
tapped coil is L then

 If two uncoupled coils of inductance L1 and L2 are used then

 Advantages of the Hartley oscillator:

i. The frequency may be adjusted using a single variable capacitor, one side of
which can be earthed.
ii. The output amplitude remains constant over the frequency range
 Disadvantages:
i. Harmonic-rich output if taken from the amplifier and not directly from the LC
circuit (unless amplitude-stabilisation circuitry is employed).

4. Colpitts oscillator:

 A Colpitts oscillator, is one of a number of designs for LC oscillators, electronic

oscillators that use a combination of inductors (L) and capacitors (C) to produce an
oscillation at a certain frequency.
 The distinguishing feature of the Colpitts oscillator is that the feedback for the active
device is taken from a voltage divider made of two capacitors in series across the
inductor.
  A Colpitts oscillator is the electrical dual of a Hartley oscillator, where the feedback
signal is taken from an “inductive” voltage divider consisting of two coils in series (or
a tapped coil).
 L and the series combination of C1 and C2 form the parallel resonant tank circuit, which
determines the frequency of the oscillator.
 The frequency of oscillation is approximately the resonant frequency of the LC circuit,
which is the series combination of the two capacitors in parallel with the inductor:

Where

 Colpitts oscillator is generally used in RF applications and the typical operating range
is 20KHz to 300MHz.
 Main advantage of Colpitts oscillator over Hartley oscillator is the improved
performance in the high frequency region. This is because the capacitors provide a low
reactance path for the high frequency signals and thus the output signals in the high
frequency domain will be more sinusoidal.
 Due to the excellent performance in the high frequency region, the Colpitts oscillator
can be even used in microwave applications.

5. Wien bridgeoscillator
6. The Crystal oscillator
 A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a
vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a
precise frequency.
 A variety of crystal-oscillator circuits are possible. A 1-MHz crystal oscillator consisting
of a crystal, a tuned LC combination and capacitance Cdg between drain and gate is
shown in below figure.
 The crystal reactance as well as that of the LC network must be inductive.
 For the loop gain to be greater than unity. Hence the circuit will oscillate at a frequency
which lies between ws and wp but close to the parallel-resonance value.
 Since ws=wp, the oscillator frequency is essentially determined by the crystal and not by
the rest of the circuit.