The NE602 could very well become the RF experimenter’s “555” chip. Learn about this fascinating and versatile device for your next RF project. very now and then a chip ‘comes along tht strikes the public Imagination, so it gets sed in alot of projects. he 741 oper- ional ompitfer was tke that in the ‘early 1970s. Also reaching ahigh pitch ‘of popularity was the 555 IC timer hip. Both of those chips reached uch helghts because they were both \seful and well-behaved (Le. they did what they cid with litle muss of fs). The radio frequency (RF) hobbyist, however only recently found a chip that meets those requirements: the NE602 ftom Signetics. _ The NE602 device is a monolithic Integrated circuit containing a dou- ble-bolanced mixer (D8M) and an in- femnal oscillator circuit, The DEM has boloniced inputs (pins 4 and 2), bal- ‘enced oulputs (pins 4.and§),andean ‘operate ctup to S00 MHz. The intemal oscillator clrcult provides on emitter connection and a bose connection to the outside world. Figure 1-0 shows the block diagrarn, ond Fig. ‘+b the [pinouts for the NE6O2 device, The NE602 Is meant fo be used as the tecelver front-end. in VHF portable telephones, buta lt ofamateurradio ‘ond electronics enthusiasts have used thechipforawider variety of applica- tons, some of which we'll talk about here. The NE602's astiong candidate, whenever you wont fo build a fe- quency converter oF translator, or ‘even @ signai-generator circuit. We can do that with oscillator circults ‘consisting of incuctor-copacitor (L-C) variable frequency oscillators, of piezoelechic crystals in either vott- ‘age-tuned or swept-frequency ar- rangements, We'te going to explore ‘some of the various configurations of cckcuits for the NE6O2 device, includ- ing the DC-power-supply connec- tions, the RF-input configurations, the Iocal-oscillator circuits, and the out put circuits, The NE6O2 version of the device op- erates overatemperature range of 0- 40 +70°C, while the related $4-602 device operates over an extended temperature ronge of —40- to +85°C, The most common form of the NE602, and most useful for the hobbyist ond experimenter, is the NE6O2N, which isin on elght-pin mini- OP packoge. An eight-lead surfoce- mount package (NE6020) Is also available. Heart of the NEGO2, Becouse the NE602 contains both a DBM and a local oscillator 0}, it con be used as the entire front-end of a radio re- celver Figure 2 shows a partial view of the Internal circuit of the heart of the Ne602: the double-bolanced mixst sfage, That contiguration is known os {a Gibbet transconductance cell. It ‘Consists of &-poiir of cross-coupled if- {ferential ompifiers. One feature of the design is that it offers a very good USING THE NE602 noise figure, which is typically 6 0B ot 45 MHz, The third-order Intercept point is —15-dam referenced to a matched input. Unfortunately the dy- ‘nomic fangs is not what it could be, 40.0 .906d Kled is to be sure that the Input signal levels donot exceed = 25 ‘dam (=3.16 ml}, Thot signal level is sinailario about 12.6 mVintoa50-ohm oad, or 68 mV into the 4.500-ohm in- ut Impedance of the NE6O2. The NE602 is capable of providing 02-uV sensitivity without the need for exder- nal RF amplification. Although the srolght NE602 sutfers from dynamic range problems, the improved NE602A fk sald to solve that problem. DOUBLE-BALANCED ‘MOKER Fig. 1. The NE602 contains a double- balanced mixer and local oscillator. Here are its block diagram (A) and pinouts (B).Electronics Now, February 1997 " Into Fig. 2. The heart of the NE602: a Gilbert transconductance cell used for the double- balanced mixer. Frequency Translation. The pro- 285 of frequency translation or con: version is called heterodyning. When two frequencies (Ft and F2 in Fig. 3) re mixed together in a noniinear cir- cuit, a collection of different freauen: cies will appear at the output. Those frequencies are characterized as mF1+ /-nF2m, where n and m are in- tegersorzero (0, 1,2,3.. J. For the sake of simplicity, we normally consider only the cases where m and n are either 0 or 50 the output frequencies ore FA, F2, F1—-F2 (difference), and F1+F2 (sum). To make a super- heterodyne receiver (the most comn- ‘mon modern form), select either the sum (F1+F2) or difference (F1 ~F2) fre- quency as the receiver's intermediate frequency (IF. The NE602 contains a double-balanced mixer, so when itis property impedance matched, it sup- presses the two input frequencies (F1 ‘and F2) at the output, and only pro- duces the sum and difference fre. quencies. In order to pfovide frequency trans- lation by heterodyning, itis necessary to provide an LO circuit, The LO circuit inside the NE602 consisis ofa transistor Mixer i Fig. 3. Ina basic mixer circuit, the sum (F1+F2) and difference (F1~F2) of two input frequencies appear at the oulpul. with its base and emitter elements cvailable fo the outside world. Os- illators using that circuit will operate up to 200 Miz, Any form of oscillator can be built, as long as the circuit does not need a connection fo the collector of the oscillator transistor. Be- cause of that restiction, both L-C and crystal variants of the Colpitts, Clapp, Hartley, Butler and other oscillator cir- cuits can be built, while the Pierce and Miller circuits are not possible. ve asav o 1 Pade por 4 El ia : The power is applied fo the NE6O2 ‘between pins 3 (ground) and 8 (V+). The DC power supply voltage range is +45- to +8-volts DC, with a current drain ranging from 2.4 to 28 mA. The DC power supply terminal (pin 8) must be decoupled with a 0.01- to ‘1-uF capacitor (0.1 uF is most com- mon). The bypass capacitor must be mounted os close as possible to the body of the NE602, and must be ca- pable of good performance at RF tre- quencies (some capacitors act like complex RIC networks at RF) Figure 4 shows several possible DC power-supply configurations for the NE602. In Fig. 4-0, the DC power sup- ply vollage is between +4.5and +8- volts DC, which is the normal operat- ingrange of the device. Aresistor, usu- ally 10010 180 ohms, isplaced in series with the V+ line fo the NE602. If the circuit is operated fram a 9-volt DC power supply (e.g. a 9-volt DC tran- sstor-radio battery), then the resistor should be increased to value be- ‘tween 1,000 and 1,500 ohms, asin Fig. 4, if the DC power supply voltage is either unstable, or at a value higher than 9-volts DC, you might want to use some form of voltage regulation. In ve oniey 3 Rt ug 7 or 1K-1.5K KF Soy ve sue Fig. 4. There are several ways to power the NE602. A resistor should be placed in series between the power supply and the NE602 (a and b). A Zener diode (c) or a voltage regulator (d) can also be used.oF oF : nur 1 nruro ae a 3 weur oh 2 ct Lon ok Tes # 2 co az con MAIN TUNE. or Po os vasdcren | + oh (Gee Tox — ae oo Towne nur vourASE «= INPUT " 2 : i Fig. 5. A few of the many ways to input a signal into the NE6O2. Simple untuned (a ‘and b) methods are acceptable. If you need to tune 10 a specific frequency, you can use dn L-C resonant circuit with ungrounded trimmer capacitors (c and d) or with F ‘grounded variable capacitors (e). You can even use a tuning voltage in connection with ‘@ varactor (p. ot w G2, (use emer ourPun ee , “ opty. F alociir ye ° « [=] . te ° 6 4 avon ef I Re our 5 s wr 8 c 1 ok ae l Re Ie ourrur ct ° ow e F a on. Fa te ci LL Tf ovreur nr re 39K a ‘0 Fig. 6. The various output circuits shown here demonstrate how to either pass all the Srequencies from the NE602, or allow only the sum or difference frequencies through, depending on which circuit is used. {oct, thats highly recommended. Fig- Ure 4-¢ shows the use of a Zener di- ode, rated at 6.8-volts DC, which keeps the supply voltage seen ty the NE602 at that level even though the source power supply voltage might vary trom 9 to 18 volts, or so. ‘The use of a three-terminal voltage regulator is shown in Fig. 4-d. Those devices provide a constant output voltage for a wide range of DC input voltages. A typical voltage regulator can accept input voltages from a minimum of about 25-volts higher than its rated output voltage, up to. a maximum of about 30 tc 38 volts. Al- most any positive voltage regulator ‘can be usedin the citcuitoffig.4-difit WON soworHeNS 2661 AvengeyElectronics Now, February 1997 AMPUFIER a eur 7 ‘OUTPUT Fig. 12. If we add input and output tuning to the basic block diagram of Fig. 1-a, we ‘can use the NE602 as a frequency translator. os MAIN TUNE Re INPUT O- “3h Fig. 13. This basic frequency translatoriconverter circuit is based on the block diagram of Fig. 12: It is useful as a demodulator in radio receivers cand the primary of Tt as before, but the tank circuits connected to either in 4 or 5 and the OC-power-suppiy line, Another variation is shown in Fig, 6-2. There, impedance matching is provided between a higher imped- ‘ance transformer primary and the ‘output of the NE602 by using ¢ top on the transformer. Capacitor C1 (0.047-uF) is used to provide DC isola- tion between the output and the coll That capacitor is needed because the coil is grounded. stil another vari- ation (not shown) connects the ca- acitor fo the fop of 11, rather than a top. That would be a grounded ver sion of Fig. 6-4, Sill another single-ended output Configuration is shown in Fig. 6-£ The inductor (U1) is connected across the bolanced outputs, pins 4 and 5, but the pin 5 end is bypassed to ground through capacitor C'. The inductor is resonated by the series combination C2/C3, which also serves as a capaci- tor voltage divider for impedance transformation, The outputnetworkin Fig.6-gisan- C low-pass fier circuit, That co Uration will select the difference IF tre quency (Ft -F2) if he —3-d8 point of the fiter is set correctly if you want 10 select the sum IF frequency (Ft+F2), then use @ high-pass L-C fit. That Is done by replacing C2 and C3 with inductors, and with acapacitor. The values of those components can be found.using the normalized methodin The ARRL Raaio Amateurs Handbook {ony recent edition), or by using the software FilterMaker for Windows {0vailable frorn the author ot FO. Box 1099, Fas Church, VA, 22041 for $20. WAresidents should add appropriate soles tox) The network in Fig. 6-N's for use with fxedt-requency fiters such 08.2 crys- fal, ceramic, or mechanical types. Such fiters ore used 0 provide the iF- bandpass charactetistic in receivers, cand are available with characteristics from sorta decent’ fora few bucks, to teal good for $100 and up. The center frequency of the filer is set to either the sum or difference land its band- with is set according to application (@.g, 500 He for CW, 28 KH for 58, or 5 0.6 KH for AM). An output circu for a direct-conversion receiver is shown in fig. 6:1. A drect-conversion receiver is similar Yo.a superheterodyne, except that the LO and BF frequencies are very close to each other, so that the difference isthe recovered aucio. For ‘example, to receive $88, set the LO 2.8-kdiz from the RE oF to receive CW set It 400- to 1,000-Hz (depending on the tone you'd lke to hear), To receive ‘an AM signal, set the LO to exactly the same frequency as the RE Transformer Thin Fig. 6+ is an audio transformer, It can be @ 1,000:1,000-chm frans- former if the next stage has @ high impedance Input, or it can be a 4,000:8-ohm audio-output trans- former. ‘There are two general methods for controlling the frequency of the LO in ‘any oscillator circuit: inductor-capac- itor (LC) resonant tank circuits, and piezoelectic-crysta! resonators. We'll ‘talk about both methods, starting with the crystal oscillator. Figure 7-a shows a basic Colpitts crystal oscillator. It will operate with fundamental-mode crystals on fre- quencies up to about 20 MHz. The feedback network consists of a co- Pacitor voltage divider (C1/C2). The volues of those capacitors are critical ‘and should be approximately: C1=100/yFOMFR (C2= 1000/F(MH2) ‘he values predicted by these for- Tulas are approximate, but work well Under circumstances where external stray capacitance does not domi- nate the total. However, the practical truth is that capacitors come in stan= dard values and those may not be excotly the values calculated. When the capacitor values are correct, 03- cillation will be consistent. if you pull the crystal out, and then reinsert the oscilator wil restart immediately. Al fernatively if the power is turned off and then backon again, the oscillator willalwoys restart. tthe capacitor va es are incorrect, then the oscillator wil either foil 0 run at al, or will oper- ate intermittently. Generally. an in crease in the capacitances willsutice to make operation consistent Aproblem with the circuit of Fig. 7-0 Isthat the crystal frequency isnot con- trolloble except by replacing the crys- tal. The actual operating frequency of ‘any crystal. depends, in part, on the circuit capacitance seen by the crys- tal. Most crystals are designed for load capacitances of 20 or 32 pF butthat can be specified if crystals ore being ordered directly from a man- Ufacturer. In Fig. 7-b, a variable, or “immer” capacitor isplaced in series with the crystal in order to set the fre- quency, The trimmer capacitor can bbe adjusted to set the oscillator fo the desired frequency. The two previous crystal oscillators ‘operate in the fundamental mode of crystal oscillation. The resonant fre- quency in the fundamental mode is set by the dimensions of the slab of quartz used forthe crystat the thinner the slab, the higher the frequency. Fundamental mode crystals work reli- ‘ably up to about 20 Mz, butat higher frequencies the slabs become too thin for safe operation; at that point, the thinness of the slabs of fundamen- tal-mode crystal causes them to frac ture easily. An altemative is to use overtone-mode crystals. The over- tone frequency of a crystal isnot nec- essarily an exact harmonic of the fundamental mode, but is close tot. The overtones tendto be close todd integer multiples of the fundamental (rd, 5th, 7th, etc). Overtone crystals are marked with the appropriate overtone frequency, rather than the fundamental Figures 7-c and 7-d are overtone: mode crystal-oscillator circuits. The circuit in Fig. 7-¢ Is @ Butler oscillator. The overtone crystal is connected be- tween the oscillator emitter of the NE602 (pin 7) and a capacitive volt age divider that is connected be- tween the oscillator base (oin 6) and ground. There is also an incluctorin the Circuit (L1) that must resonate with C1 to the overtone frequency of crystal XIALI. Figure 7-c.can use either 3rd-or Sth-overtone crystals up fo about 80 ‘Miz. The circuit in Fig. 7-d is @ third ‘overtone crystal oscillator that works from 25 to about 50 MHz, and is sim: pler than fig. 7-c. A pair of variable-frequency os- cillator (VFO) circuits are shown in Fig, 7-€ and 7-4 The circuit in Fig. 7-2 is 0 Colpitts-oscillator version, while Fig, 7- fis.q Hartiey-oscillator version. In both XTALI Fig. 14. Here is another simple frequency translator circuit; it does not select which {frequency appears at the output. 455 kez IF | iNPUT | Mie Re, Ht po | ater mo 22K “athe: cr “AuoI0 Diy yg PS ourrur Fig. 13. After you've nned in a particular radio frequency and demodulated it, this product-detector circuit can be used for Morse code (CW) or single-side band (SSB) reception. oscilators, the resonating element is cn inductor-capacitor(1C) tuned-es- onant circuit In Fig. 7-e, however, the feedback network is a tapped-ca- pacitor voltage divider while inFig. 74 itisatap onthe resonating inductor. In both cases, « DC-blocking capacitor fo pin 6 fs needed in order to prevent the oscillator from being DC grounded through the resistance of the inductor Voltage Tuned NE6O2 Oscillator Circuits. Figure 8-a and 8: show a pair of VFO circuits in which the ca- pacitor element of the tuned circuits @ voltage-variable capacitance di- ode, oF varactor (D1 in Fig. 8-a.and 8- 'b}, Those diodes exhibit a junction ca- pacitance that varies in direct re- sponse fo the reverse-bias voltage applied across the diode. Thus, the oscillating frequency of those circuits is controlled by a tuning voitage. The version shown in Fig. 8- Is a paraliel- resonant Colpitts oscillator, while Fig, 8- is a series-tuned Clapp oscillator. Using the NE602 as a Signal Gen- erator. The NE602is normally used os receiver front-endor asc frequency converter. it can aso be used as signal generator. Figure 9 shows the bbosic configuration for providing the LOsignatt output pins 4 and; place 2 10,000-ohm resistor (Rt) between pin and ground, while bypassing pin 2-40 ground through a 0.047-yF co- actor. the output signalis token from elther pin 4 or 5 through another 0.047-nF capacitor. The output signal of Fig. 9 wil be a sinewave ot the frequency of oscilla- tion for the oscillator circuit con- ected to pins 6 and 7. That signal can be swept or frequency modu- lated by using one of the varactor 10 circuits shown in Fig, 8, To sweep the frequency, make the tuning voltage a sawtooth waveform, while to equen- ‘coy-modulaie it, use a sinewave. If you want to ampltude-modulate the sig- nal, then use G circuit such as Fig. 10. The signal source is any of the NE602 oscillators (Cin Fig. 10), while the modulator is IC2, an MC-1350P chip, That chip is also available trom the service-repair industry reploce- ment lines as the NTE-746 or ECG-746, Itis an RF-gain block with a gain-con- trol terminal (pin 5}, and that gain- Control terminal can be used for theElectronics Now, February 1997 z 1a-v0e net, co bs —COUTPUT see TEXT court 2 ORCUT see Te esos | a 2 See TEXT eeetom | OscLaTOR incur seeren Fig. 16. There is just enough circuitry on the universal project board for NE6O2 to get ‘you up and running with many different projects oN on? Fig. 17. Component placement on the universal project board leaves plenty of room {for your own circuitry. Here's the fol pattern forthe NE602 universal project board. Many stand-alone pads are included 10 hold your circuitry. ‘amplitude-modulation function. Iwo signals are applied to the gain-con- {fol terminal as shown in Fig. 10; a DC level trom potentiometer 24, and the ‘audio signal from the moouLATON LeveL control (R5). Adjust both oc LeveL and MODWATON LEVEL Unt the output signal, ‘98 viewed on an oscilloscope, looks like Fig. 11. There should be good sym- metry and no clipping of the peaks. Using the NE6O2 in Converter Projects. The basic treauency con- verter was shown in block form back in Fig. 4-0; now itis time to expand upon that as shown in Fig. 12. The NE602 and its supporting circuitry might be used as the miner and local oscillator, The amplifier is optional cond should only be used when sen- sitvty is Poot Poor sensitivity might be Caused when insertion loss of the in put tuning network is high. The input and output tuning net ‘works are used fo segregate the sig- nals. The Input tuning selects the Gesited RFinput frequency (F1), and rejects all other frequencies. The out- put tuning network selects either F1—F2 (difference), or F1+F2 (sum) signals, Those fiters can be L-C res0- nant-tank circuits, iow-pass filters, high-pass ters, or bandpass ters as needed for the specific application Figure 13 shows 0 basic NE602 tte quency-converter circuit, The input Circuit consists ofc transformer with a secondary winding resonated by C2, C3, and C4. The LO circuits a crystal Colpitts circuit hat uses a immer ca- acitor (C9) for adjusting the oscita- tion frequency over a small range. The Output cicuitiso variant of the para- lelresonant tank circuit in which the primary of the transformer (12) is tapped to match the impedance of ‘the NE602 output fo the coil Another vatiant is shown in Fig. 14 That circuit is similar except that the Outputs not tuned. The reason forthat approach is that the frequency con- verter is used to dive the antenna input of a radio receiver, which pet forms the frequency selection (um vs difference) function. Using the NEGO2 as a Product De- tector. Figure 15 shows the circuit for @ product detector Dased on the NE602. A product detector is tre quency converter that sets the LO tre quency close enough fo the RF or IF signal so a single-sideband ($88) or CW signal is cemodulated. For exarn- ple, 0 455-KH2IF signal from a receiver can be converted fo an 800-Hz CW audio output ("beep-beep’) by using fan LO at 4558 kz or 454.2 kHz. The difference fone is found in the output. (Continued on page 79)USING THE NE602 (Continued from page 54) If the signal is an $58 signal, then the LO is set at a frequency of 25- to 28- Welz higher or lower than the IF de- pending on whether you want fo de- modulate an upper-sideband (USB) ‘or lower-sideband (LSB) signal The Input signal circuit in Fig. 15 uses | © 455-KHz IF transformer of the sort Used for transistor radios (see Digi-Key or Mouser catalogs for suitable types) The transformer that you want fo use for T1 is the type that has @ resonant secondary with a tapped induc- tance, The LO circu uses the same type of transformer as the input, but configured as.a Hartley oscillator. The output signal is at audio tre quencies, and is fitered by an RC network, The audio output is bal- ‘anced, s0 it should be fed 10 a dif- ferential audio amplifier such as on op-amp. NEGO2 “Universal” Project Board. We've included a printed cir- cuit pattern for a “universal” project board based on the NE602. The on- board circuitry fig. 16) islimitedto the OC power connection, which is regu- loted by a three-terminal IC voltage regulator. All other functions can be | sef by you to make any project that | youwant. There are alarge number of muifi-pad stand-alone connections for various components depending on the circuit that you want fo make, {8 well 05 positions for three sicpin standard shielded coils of the sort manufactured by oko and sold by Digi-Key. You can also use these same holes for mounting home-brew toroid inductors. Figute 17 shows the parts placement of the universal project board. The universal NE602 board con be bought from FAR Circuits, 18N640 Field Court, Dundee, I 60118 for $4 plus $150 shipping for every four boards ordered (ie, 1 to 4 boords shipped for $1.50), IL resicents will have to add appropriate sales tax. Now you've seer how well-be- hoved the NE602. Here is an RF chip that will function in a variety of op- plications from receivers, to convert- | 1s, to oscillators, to signal generators. | With the universal project board, the | toskof testing a new design based on | the NE602 becomes “duck soup” mon souonpera ‘Z661 Arensga 3