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What Is Voltage Controlled Oscillator

A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is an oscillator whose output frequency can be varied by input voltage. The output frequency ranges from hertz to gigahertz as the input voltage is adjusted. There are two main types of VCOs: harmonic oscillators that output a sinusoidal waveform, and relaxation oscillators that output sawtooth or triangular waves over a wide frequency range. Key requirements for VCO design include the tuning range, tuning gain measured in volts per hertz, ensuring the V/f curve is monotonic, and sufficient phase noise performance, especially for frequency synthesizer applications.

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114 views2 pages

What Is Voltage Controlled Oscillator

A voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is an oscillator whose output frequency can be varied by input voltage. The output frequency ranges from hertz to gigahertz as the input voltage is adjusted. There are two main types of VCOs: harmonic oscillators that output a sinusoidal waveform, and relaxation oscillators that output sawtooth or triangular waves over a wide frequency range. Key requirements for VCO design include the tuning range, tuning gain measured in volts per hertz, ensuring the V/f curve is monotonic, and sufficient phase noise performance, especially for frequency synthesizer applications.

Uploaded by

kurupati rakesh
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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What is Voltage Controlled Oscillator?

A Voltage controlled oscillator is an oscillator with an output signal whose output can
be varied over a range, which is controlled by the input DC voltage. It is an oscillator
whose output frequency is directly related to the voltage at its input. The oscillation
frequency varies from few hertz to hundreds of GHz. By varying the input DC
voltage, the output frequency of the signal produced is adjusted.
Types of Voltage Controlled Oscillators
 Harmonic Oscillators: The output is a signal with sinusoidal waveform. Examples are crystal
oscillators and tank oscillators
 Relaxation Oscillators: The output is a signal with saw tooth or triangular waveform and
provides a wide range of operational frequencies. The output frequency depends on the time of
charging and discharging of the capacitor.

VCO requirements
Just like any other circuit, with a VCO there are a number of design requirements that need to be
known from the beginning of the design process. These basic requirements for the VCO will
govern many of the decisions concerning the circuit topology and other fundamental aspects of
the circuit. Some of the basic requirements are:

 VCO tuning range:   It is obvious that the voltage controlled oscillator must be able to
tune over the range that the loop is expected to operate over. This requirement is not
always easy to meet and may require the VCO or resonant circuit to be switched in some
extreme circumstances.
 VCO tuning gain:   The gain of the voltage controlled oscillator is important. It is
measured in terms of volts per Hz (or V/MHz, etc). As implied by the units it is the tuning
shift for a given change in voltage. The voltage controlled oscillator gain affects some of
the overall loop design considerations and calculations. 

Voltage controlled oscillator V/f curves

The VCO response curves can be seen to be relatively straight at lower frequencies.
However they normally flatten out at higher voltages where the changes in capacitance
from the varactor diodes reduce.
 VCO V/f slope:   It is a key requirement for any voltage controlled oscillator used in a
phase locked loop that the voltage to frequency curve is monotonic, i.e. it always
changes in the same sense, typically increasing frequency for increasing voltage. If it
changes, as can happen in some instances normally as a result of spurious resonances,
etc, this can cause the loop to become unstable. Accordingly, this must be prevented if
the phase locked loop is to operate satisfactorily.

Voltage controlled oscillator V/f curves

This curve shows a small dip and would result in the phase locked loop becoming
unstable.

 Phase noise performance:   The phase noise performance of the voltage controlled
oscillator is of particular importance in some PLL applications - particularly where they
are used in frequency synthesizers. Here the phase noise performance of the VCO
determines many of the overall phase noise performance characteristics of the overall
loop and the overall synthesizer if used in one.

Applications of VCO
 Electronic jamming equipment.
 Function generator.
 Production of electronic music, for production of different types of noise.
 Phase locked loop.
 Frequency synthesizers, used in communication circuits.

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