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Oscillator

An oscillator is a circuit that uses positive feedback to generate sinusoidal waveforms of fixed amplitude and frequency even without input. It converts DC power into AC power using a tank circuit of capacitor and inductor that continuously charges and discharges, producing oscillations. The frequency of oscillation depends inversely on the values of inductance and capacitance in the tank circuit. Oscillators have advantages of being economical, portable, low noise, and capable of producing a wide range of frequencies, making them suitable as AC power sources in electrical and electronic instruments.

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Hemantha Dalugama
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378 views7 pages

Oscillator

An oscillator is a circuit that uses positive feedback to generate sinusoidal waveforms of fixed amplitude and frequency even without input. It converts DC power into AC power using a tank circuit of capacitor and inductor that continuously charges and discharges, producing oscillations. The frequency of oscillation depends inversely on the values of inductance and capacitance in the tank circuit. Oscillators have advantages of being economical, portable, low noise, and capable of producing a wide range of frequencies, making them suitable as AC power sources in electrical and electronic instruments.

Uploaded by

Hemantha Dalugama
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Oscillator

Definition: Oscillator is a circuit which utilizes positive feedback amplifier to


generate sinusoidal waveforms of fixed amplitude and frequency. It is the major
source of power in electrical and electronic instruments. The amplifier provided
with the positive feedback can generate the sinusoidal signal even in the
absence of any input. These signals are termed as oscillations, and hence the
device is known as an oscillator.

The positive feedback here implies the addition of some part of the signal from
the output with the input signal voltage. This is allowed to pass through the
amplifier circuit. The amplifier passes it with the input signal coming from the
source. The amplifier does nothing other than adding the signal coming from the
feedback path and the input signal. Thus, continuous oscillations are generated,
and at a time a stage is reached when without any input signal the oscillator
circuit generates waveforms.

The oscillator does not generate the energy of its own, to generate oscillation but
uses DC source to convert the DC power into AC. Therefore it is also termed as
an inverter which is the opposite of rectifier.

The oscillators are available in wide range of frequencies. According to the


frequency of the oscillation, the oscillators are named accordingly. The range of
some of the oscillators are given in the table below.
TYPE OF OSCILLATORS APPROXIMATE RANGE

Audio-frequency Oscillators 20 Hz - 20 kHz

Radio-Frequency Oscillators 20 kHz - 30 MHz

Very low-frequency Oscillators 15 - 100 kHz

Low frequency Oscillators 100 - 500 kHz

Broadcast Oscillators 500 kHz - 1.5 MHz

Video - Frequency Oscillators 0 - 5 MHz

High - Frequency Oscillators 1.5 - 30 MHz

Very high - frequency Oscillators 30 - 300 MHz

Ultra - high frequency Oscillators 300 - 3000 MHz

Microwave Oscillators Beyond 3 GHz (3000 MHz)

Oscillatory Circuit
The circuit of the oscillator is termed as the tank circuit. It consists of the
capacitor and an inductor. The capacitor is already charged and connected to an
inductor with the switch between them. When the switch is open, nothing will
happen.
When the switch is closed the charge stored by the capacitor will start
discharging, and the electrons will start flowing in the circuit. Please note that the
direction of flow of current in the circuit will be opposite to the direction of flow of
electrons.

When the current flows in the circuit, the current will pass from inductor due to
which magnetic field is generated. The magnetic field is generated because the
current flowing in the circuit will create the flux which in result create the
magnetic field.

Due to the magnetic fields around inductor, the energy is stored in the inductor in
the form of magnetic field. When the capacitor is fully discharged the current
flowing in the circuit will begin to cease. Now the magnetic field which has been
created around the inductor will generate emf.

This is because of Lenz law which states the magnetic field created will oppose
the cause which has created it. The emf thus induced will cause current to flow
again in the LC circuit. As a result of induced emf the charge will flow and as a
consequence of this induced emf, the charge will be stored in the capacitor. The
capacitor will store the energy in the form of the electrostatic field.

This process of charging and discharging of the capacitor and inductor will
continue forever unless the process is terminated externally. In this way, the
capacitor will charge at a time, and then inductor will charge at another point of
time. Therefore, oscillations will generate continuously.

However, if you are thinking about the amplitude oscillations, so there is a twist in
that. Generally, the oscillations generated by an oscillator are damped oscillation.
Ideally, it is considered that the oscillation generated by the oscillator is
undamped and continuous sinusoidal but practically, this is not possible.

This happens because there exist some losses in the resistor and inductor due to
which the oscillation loses its energy, and therefore the amplitude starts
diminishing. The losses in a resistor are different than that of losses in the
inductor. The resistor suffers from dielectric loss while inductor suffers from
radiation and resistive loss.

Frequency of the Oscillator Circuit

The frequency of the Oscillator circuit is called as the resonant frequency. The
resonant frequency is expressed in terms of inductance and capacitance. The
resonant frequency is inversely proportional to capacitance as well as
inductance.
Principle of Oscillator and Barkhausen Criterion
The principle of the oscillator is that when the feedback factor or the loop gain is
one, then the overall gain of the oscillator circuit will be infinite.

This implies that even when there is no input then also the oscillator will continue
to generate the output.
This is the essential condition for the amplifier to acts as the feedback. To
summarize the condition, we can say that an amplifier which uses positive
feedback and which possess infinite overall gain is termed as the oscillator
circuit.

Advantages of Oscillator Circuit

1. Economical: The oscillators are cheap in cost which makes them


economical.
2. Portable: The Oscillator uses DC source to convert the unidirectional
current into the bidirectional current. Due to the usage of DC source,
it does not require any moving component to generate energy. Thus,
it makes it less bulky and more portable.
3. Low Noise: As oscillators do not use any moving part for conversion
of energy thus it makes less noise during operation.
4. Varying Frequencies: The frequency of oscillation can be modified
by the appropriate usage of DC source and its magnitude. Therefore,
the oscillators are available with wide range of frequencies.
These are some of the crucial advantages of an oscillator circuit which makes it
suitable for application as a power source in AC circuits. The oscillators can be
classified in two categories that are harmonic oscillators and relaxation
oscillators. Harmonic Oscillators generate sinusoidal waveforms while relaxation
oscillators generate non-sinusoidal waveforms.

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