7/19/22, 8:30 AM Pulse Circuits - Blocking Oscillators

Pulse Circuits - Blocking Oscillators

An oscillator is a circuit that provides an alternating voltage or current by its own, without any
input applied. An Oscillator needs an amplifier and also a feedback from the output. The feedback
provided should be regenerative feedback which along with the portion of the output signal, contains
a component in the output signal, which is in phase with the input signal. An oscillator that uses a
regenerative feedback to generate a nonsinusoidal output is called as Relaxation Oscillator.

We have already seen UJT relaxation oscillator. Another type of relaxation oscillator is the Blocking
oscillator.

Blocking Oscillator
A blocking oscillator is a waveform generator that is used to produce narrow pulses or trigger pulses.
While having the feedback from the output signal, it blocks the feedback, after a cycle, for certain
predetermined time. This feature of blocking the output while being an oscillator, gets the name
blocking oscillator to it.

In the construction of a blocking oscillator, the transistor is used as an amplifier and the transformer
is used for feedback. The transformer used here is a Pulse transformer. The symbol of a pulse
transformer is as shown below.

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Pulse Transformer
A Pulse transformer is one which couples a source of rectangular pulses of electrical energy to the
load. Keeping the shape and other properties of pulses unchanged. They are wide band
transformers with minimum attenuation and zero or minimum phase change.

The output of the transformer depends upon the charge and discharge of the capacitor connected.

The regenerative feedback is made easy by using pulse transformer. The output can be fed back to
the input in the same phase by properly choosing the winding polarities of the pulse transformer.
Blocking oscillator is such a free-running oscillator made using a capacitor and a pulse transformer
along with a single transistor which is cut off for most of the duty cycle producing periodic pulses.

Using the blocking oscillator, Astable and Monostable operations are possible. But Bistable
operation is not possible. Let us go through them.
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Monostable Blocking Oscillator

If the blocking oscillator needs a single pulse, to change its state, it is called as a Monostable
blocking oscillator circuit. These Monostable blocking oscillators can be of two types. They are

Monostable blocking oscillator with base timing

Monostable blocking oscillator with emitter timing

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In both of these, a timing resistor R controls the gate width, which when placed in the base of
transistor becomes base timing circuit and when placed in the emitter of transistor becomes emitter
timing circuit.

To have a clear understanding, let us discuss the working of base timing Monostable Multivibrator.

Transistor Triggered Monostable blocking oscillator with Base timing

A transistor, a pulse transformer for feedback and a resistor in the base of the transistor constitute
the circuit of a transistor triggered Monostable blocking oscillator with base timing. The pulse
transformer used here has a turns ratio of n: 1 where the base circuit has n turns for every turn on
the collector circuit. A resistance R is connected in series to the base of the transistor which controls
the pulse duration.

Initially the transistor is in OFF condition. As shown in the following figure, VBB is considered zero or
too low, which is negligible.

The voltage at the collector is VCC, since the device is OFF. But when a negative trigger is applied at
the collector, the voltage gets reduced. Because of the winding polarities of the transformer, the
collector voltage goes down, while the base voltage rises.

When the base to emitter voltage becomes greater than the cut-in voltage, i.e.

VBE > Vγ

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Then, a small base current is observed. This raises the collector current which decreases the
collector voltage. This action cumulates further, which increases the collector current and decreases
the collector voltage further. With the regenerative feedback action, if the loop gain increases, the
transistor gets into saturation quickly. But this is not a stable state.

Then, a small base current is observed. This raises the collector current which decreases the
collector voltage. This action cumulates further, which increases the collector current and decreases
the collector voltage further. With the regenerative feedback action, if the loop gain increases, the
transistor gets into saturation quickly. But this is not a stable state.

When the transistor gets into saturation, the collector current increases and the base current is
constant. Now, the collector current slowly starts charging the capacitor and the voltage at the
transformer reduces. Due to the transformer winding polarities, the base voltage gets increased.
This in turn decreases the base current. This cumulative action, throws the transistor into cut off
condition, which is the stable state of the circuit.

The output waveforms are as follows −

The main disadvantage of this circuit is that the output Pulse width cannot be maintained stable. We
know that the collector current is

i c = hF E i B

As the hFE is temperature dependent and the pulse width varies linearly with this, the output pulse
width cannot be stable. Also hFE varies with the transistor used.

Anyways, this disadvantage can be eliminated if the resistor is placed in emitter, which means the
solution is the emitter timing circuit. When the above condition occurs, the transistor turns OFF in
the emitter timing circuit and so a stable output is obtained.

Astable Blocking Oscillator

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If the blocking oscillator can change its state automatically, it is called as an Astable blocking
oscillator circuit. These Astable blocking oscillators can be of two types. They are

Diode controlled Astable blocking oscillator

RC controlled Astable blocking oscillator

In diode controlled Astable blocking oscillator, a diode placed in the collector changes the state of
the blocking oscillator. While in the RC controlled Astable blocking oscillator, a timing resistor R and
capacitor C form a network in the emitter section to control the pulse timings.

To have a clear understanding, let us discuss the working of Diode controlled Astable blocking
oscillator.

Diode controlled Astable blocking oscillator

The diode controlled Astable blocking oscillator contains a pulse transformer in the collector circuit.
A capacitor is connected in between transformer secondary and the base of the transistor. The
transformer primary and the diode are connected in the collector.

An initial pulse is given at the collector of the transistor to initiate the process and from there no
pulses are required and the circuit behaves as an Astable Multivibrator. The figure below shows the
circuit of a diode controlled Astable blocking oscillator.

Initially the transistor is in OFF state. To initiate the circuit, a negative trigger pulse is applied at the
collector. The diode whose anode is connected to the collector, will be in reverse biased condition
and will be OFF by the application of this negative trigger pulse.

This pulse is applied to the pulse transformer and due to the winding polarities (as indicated in the
figure), same amount of voltage gets induced without any phase inversion. This voltage flows

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through the capacitor towards the base, contributing some base current. This base current, develops
some base to emitter voltage, which when crosses the cut-in voltage, pushes the transistor Q1 to
ON. Now, the collector current of the transistor Q1 raises and it gets applied to both the diode and
the transformer. The diode which is initially OFF gets ON now. The voltage that gets induced into the
transformer primary windings induces some voltage into the transformer secondary winding, using
which the capacitor starts charging.

As the capacitor will not deliver any current while it is getting charged, the base current iB stops
flowing. This turns the transistor Q1 OFF. Hence the state is changed.

Now, the diode which was ON, has some voltage across it, which gets applied to the transformer
primary, which is induced into the secondary. Now, the current flows through the capacitor which lets
the capacitor discharge. Hence the base current iB flows turning the transistor ON again. The output
waveforms are as shown below.

As the diode helps the transistor to change its state, this circuit is diode controlled. Also, as the
trigger pulse is applied only at the time of initiation, whereas the circuit keeps on changing its state
all by its own, this circuit is an Astable oscillator. Hence the name diode controlled Astable blocking
oscillator is given.

Another type of circuit uses R and C combination in the emitter portion of the transistor and it is
called as RC controlled Astable blocking oscillator circuit.

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