EC410 Electronic Measurements

Lecture 4: RC Phase Shift and Twin-T

Oscillators

Lecturer: Azza Kamal

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 RC Phase Shift :Definition
• RC Phase Shift Oscillator basically
consists of an amplifier and a
feedback network consisting of
resistors and capacitors arranged in
ladder fashion. Hence such an
oscillator is also called ladder-type
RC Phase Shift Oscillator.

• However, the phase angle by which

the output leads the input relies on
the values of R and C component.

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Operation of the Feedback Network

• To understand the operation of this oscillator let us study RC

circuit first, which is used in the feedback network of this
oscillator

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• The capacitor C and resistance R are in
series. Now 𝑋𝑐 is the capacitive reactance
in ohms given by,

The total impedance of the circuit is,

• The r.m.s. value of the input voltage applied is

say 𝑉𝑖 volts. Hence the current is given by,

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• From the expression of current, it can be seen that current I leads input voltage
𝑉𝑖 by angle Ø .The output voltage 𝑉𝑜 is the drop in resistance R given by,

• The voltage across the capacitor is,

• The drop across the resistance is in

phase with current I while the drop
across the capacitance lags current I
by 90 degrees.
• The network is also called the
ladder network. All the resistance
values and all the capacitance
values are the same so that for a
particular frequency, each section
of R and C produces a phase shift of
60°.
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The expression for the frequency of
oscillations is given as

N is the total number of stages

Thus for 3 stages, the frequency of oscillations

will be

Derive the expression for attenuation provided by the

RC phase shift network.

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Consider the figure below:

Here, Va and Vb are the voltage at the two nodes, while I0, I1 and I2 denote the current that
is flowing through the 3 capacitors.

At node Vb, The overall voltage will be equal to the sum of output voltage Vo and drop across
the capacitor. Thus we have

Since
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 Therefore,

On applying KCL,

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Further,

On solving we get

Now applying KCL at Va

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 Now,

On equating the imaginary part, we get…………? Why??

BECAUSE THE TOTAL SHIFT MUST EQUAL TO 0

Therefore, on transposing and further solving we will get

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And on equating the real part we get

Hence

Thus we can say that the network is providing attenuation -1/29.

Here, the negative sign indicates that there exists a phase shift of 180⁰. Usually, in RC phase shift
oscillator, the value of R is kept constant and only C is kept variable, so as to have the desired
frequency of oscillation.
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Application
• These oscillators are used over the audio frequency range i.e.
about 20 Hz up to 100 kHz.

Advantages
The circuit is simple to design.
Can produce output over the audio frequency range.
Produces sinusoidal output waveform.
It is a fixed-frequency oscillator.

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Disadvantages

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Twin-T Oscillator: Circuit diagram

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Response of Twin-T Network
• Twin-T is basically a frequency selective
network.
• The amplitude and response of a twin –T
network shows that the phase shift
introduced by this network is zero at
particular frequency.

• The Twin-T network acts as the phase lead-

lag network.

• It introduces a phase shift that varies

between +90 to -90 degrees.

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Operation
• The circuit consists of an OP-AMP operating as non-inverting amplifier
i.e introducing 0 phase shift.
• The resistor R1 and R2 introduce a positive feedback.
• The Twin-T network introduces 0 phase shift and its output voltage is
minimum at f = fr.
• Therefore only at this frequency the positive feedback in the amplifier
becomes effective and oscillations

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Frequency of Oscillation

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 To sum up..
• The op amp circuit is unstable due to positive feedback. However, the twin T
network provides negative feedback except at 𝜔𝑟 , which stabilizes the circuit at
other frequencies.
• At 𝜔𝑟 , the op amp circuit is unstable due to positive feedback, and oscillates at that
frequency.
• The oscillator frequency cannot be varied. It is a single frequency oscillator.
• The variable resistance R2 in the OP-AMP circuit adjust the positive feedback and
the variable resistance R/2 in the Twin –T network ensures that the oscillations take
place at f = fr.
• As a result, the circuit will not oscillate at frequencies above or below the tuned
frequency due to the negative feedback through the twin-T RC network. Therefore
at the null frequency, the voltage at the non-inverting input of the op-amp is in
phase with its output voltage, giving rise to continuous oscillations at the desired
frequency.
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Disadvantages
• The twin-t oscillator is suited only for a fixed frequency of operation
as the adjustment of its frequency simultaneously requires variation
in several component values

Advantages: The Twin-T oscillator works very well at

one frequency.

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Stability: Frequency

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