RC Phase Shift Oscillator

Aim : To study about the RC Phase Shift Oscillator.

Broad Goal of the experiment:

●​ To analyze the output waveform of the RC Phase Shift Oscillator.

●​ To verify theoretical and practical value of frequency of oscillation of RC
Phase Shift Oscillator.
●​ To design the RC Phase Shift Oscillator and verify the design.

Theory:

An amplifier circuit simply increases the signal strength. But while amplifying,
it just increases the strength of its input signal whether it contains information
or some noise along with information. This noise or some disturbance is
introduced in the amplifiers because of their strong tendency to introduce hum
due to sudden temperature changes or stray electric and magnetic fields.
Therefore, every high gain amplifier tends to give noise along with signal in its
output, which is very undesirable.

The noise level in the amplifier circuits can be considerably reduced by using
negative feedback done by injecting a fraction of output in phase opposition to
the input signal.

What is a Feedback Amplifier?

The feedback-amplifier can be defined as an amplifier which has a feedback

lane that exists between o/p to input. In this type of amplifier, feedback is the
limitation which calculates the sum of feedback given in the following amplifier.
The feedback factor is the ratio of the feedback signal and the input signal.
Types of Feedback Amplifiers:

1. Positive Feedback Amplifier:

The positive feedback can be defined as when the feedback current otherwise
voltage is applied for increasing the i/p voltage, then it is named as positive
feedback. Direct feedback is another name of this positive feedback. Because
positive feedback generates unnecessary distortion; it is not often used in
amplifiers. But, it amplifies the original signal power and can be used in
oscillator circuits.

2. Negative Feedback Amplifier:

The negative feedback can be defined as if the feedback current otherwise

voltage can be applied for reducing the amplifier i/p, then it is called as
negative feedback. Inverse feedback is another name of this negative
feedback. This kind of feedback is regularly used in amplifier circuits.

What is an Oscillator?

An Oscillator is basically an Amplifier with “Positive Feedback”, or

regenerative feedback (in-phase) and without any external input signal that
generates an output waveform of a desired frequency.

An oscillator is basically a waveform generator which generates an output

waveform, which oscillates with constant amplitude & constant desired
frequency.

Barkhausen criterion:

The frequency of oscillation at which sinusoidal oscillator operates is the

frequency for which the total shift introduced, as the signal proceeds from the
input terminals, through the amplifier and feedback network, and back again to
the input, is precisely zero (or an integral multiple of 2*Π).
 (OR)

Stated simply the condition A*β = -1 at ω= ωo, i.e. the magnitude of loop gain
should be one and phase of loop gain should be unity (the feedback network
introduces 1800 phase shift, the other 1800 phase shift is provided by Amplifier)
is called Barkhausen criterion.

A closed loop system with negative feedback can be represented by a transfer

function = A/(1+A*β). Often a feedback network consists of only resistive
elements and is independent of frequency but amplifier gain is a function of
frequency. Hence the loop gain A*β is a function of frequency. There may exist
a frequency ωo at which its magnitude is one and phase is 1800 i.e. A*β = -1
(Barkhausen criterion).

In an RC Oscillator circuit the input is shifted 1800 through the feedback

circuit returning the signal out-of-phase and 1800 again through an inverting
amplifier stage to produce the required positive feedback. This then gives us
“1800 + 1800 = 3600” of phase shift which is effectively the same as 00, thereby
giving us the required positive feedback . In other words, the total phase shift
of the feedback loop should be “0” or any multiple of 3600 to obtain the same
effect.

In a Resistance-Capacitance Oscillator or simply known as an RC Oscillator,

we can make use of the fact that a phase shift occurs between the input to a
RC network and the output from the same network by using interconnected
RC elements in the feedback branch, for example.

RC Phase-Shift Network:

The circuit on the left shows a single resistor-capacitor network whose output
voltage “leads” the input voltage by some angle less than 900.

In a pure or ideal single-pole RC network. it would produce a maximum phase

shift of exactly 900, and because 1800 of phase shift is required for oscillation,
at least two single-poles networks must be used within an RC oscillator
design.

However in reality it is difficult to obtain exactly 900 of phase shift for each RC
stage so we must therefore use more RC stages cascaded together to obtain
the required value at the oscillation frequency. The amount of actual phase
shift in the circuit depends upon the values of the resistor (R) and the capacitor
(C), at the chosen frequency of oscillations with the phase angle ( φ ) being
given as:

RC Phase Angle:
Where: Xc is the Capacitive Reactance of the capacitor, R is the Resistance of
the resistor, and ƒ is the Frequency.

In our simple example above, the values of R and C have been chosen so that
at the required frequency the output voltage leads the input voltage by an
angle of about 600. Then the phase angle between each successive RC
section increases by another 600 giving a phase difference between the input
and output of 1800 (3 x 600) as shown by the following vector diagram.

Vector Diagram:

So by cascading together three such RC networks in series we can produce a

total phase shift in the circuit of 1800 at the chosen frequency and this forms
the bases of a “RC Oscillator” otherwise known as a Phase Shift Oscillator as
the phase angle is shifted by an amount through each stage of the circuit.

Then the phase shift occurs in the phase difference between the individual RC
stages. Conveniently op-amp circuits are available in quad IC packages. For
example, the LM124, or the LM324, etc. so four RC stages could also be used
to produce the required 1800 of phase shift at the required oscillation
frequency.

We know that in an amplifier circuit either using a Bipolar Transistor or an

Inverting Operational Amplifier configuration, it will produce a phase-shift of
1800 between its input and output. If a three-stage RC phase-shift network is
connected as a feedback network between the output and input of an amplifier
circuit, then the total phase shift created to produce the required regenerative
feedback is: 3 x 600 + 1800 = 3600 = 00 as shown.
The three RC stages are cascaded together to obtain the required slope for a
stable oscillation frequency. The feedback loop phase shift is -1800 when the
phase shift of each stage is -600. This occurs when ω = 2*pi*ƒ = 1.732/RC as
(tan 600 = 1.732). Then to achieve the required phase shift in an RC oscillator
circuit is to use multiple RC phase-shifting networks such as the circuit below.

Basic RC Oscillator Circuit:

The basic RC Oscillator which is also known as a Phase-shift Oscillator,

produces a sine wave output signal using regenerative feedback obtained from
the resistor-capacitor (RC) ladder network. This regenerative feedback from
the RC network is due to the ability of the capacitor to store an electric charge,
(similar to the LC tank circuit).

This resistor-capacitor feedback network can be connected as shown above to

produce a leading phase shift (phase advance network) or interchanged to
produce a lagging phase shift (phase retard network) the outcome is still the
same as the sine wave oscillations only occur at the frequency at which the
overall phase-shift is 3600.

By varying one or more of the resistors or capacitors in the phase-shift

network, the frequency can be varied and generally this is done by keeping the
resistors the same and using a 3-ganged variable capacitor because
capacitive reactance (Xc) changes with a change in frequency as capacitors
are frequency-sensitive components. However, it may be required to re-adjust
the voltage gain of the amplifier for the new frequency.

If the three resistors, R are equal in value, that is R1 = R2 = R3, and the
capacitors, C in the phase shift network are also equal in value, C1 = C2 = C3,
then the frequency of oscillations produced by the RC oscillator is simply given
as:

Where:

ƒr is the oscillators output frequency in Hertz

R is the feedback resistance in Ohms

C is the feedback capacitance in Farads

N is the number of RC feedback stages

This is the frequency at which the phase shift circuit oscillates. In our simple
example above, the number of stages is given as three, so N = 3 (√2*3 = √6).
For a four stage RC network, N = 4 (√2*4 = √8), etc.

Since the resistor-capacitor combination in the RC Oscillator ladder network

also acts as an attenuator, that is the signal reduces by some amount as it
passes through each passive stage.

It could be assumed that the three phase shift sections are independent of
each other but this is not the case as the total accumulative feedback
attenuation becomes -1/29th ( Vo/Vi = β = -1/29 ) across all three stages.

Thus the voltage gain of the amplifier must be sufficiently high enough to
overcome these passive RC losses.
Clearly then in order to produce a total loop gain of -1, in our three stage RC
network above, the amplifier gain must be equal to, or greater than, 29 to
compensate for the attenuation of the RC network.

Procedure:

1.​ There are two parts in this experiment.

2.​ In Part 1, the initial values of the circuit are given in the introduction
dropdown, students just have to set the values using the controls
section.
3.​ Also,Students can use left and right arrow keys to set a particular
component value.
4.​ After setting the values, there are two buttons available: plot and clear.
5.​ Plot will check whether all the values entered are correct and Output will
be shown in the Output section.
6.​ Clear will clear the contents of input boxes and the output graph.
7.​ Students can check their calculated output with the simulator output in
the check output section.
8.​ Part 2 contains extra activity where you have to solve questions as
directed and perform the experiment for given values of Capacitors and
Inductors.

Procedure for Pre-Test:

1.​ To start the test click on the start button.

2.​ After Answering the questions, click on submit to submit the test.
3.​ After submitting the Test,you need to download your submitted
answers using download button first only then you can see the
answers otherwise you will not be able to download your submitted
answers
Observation and Graph:(Please paste the snapshot of the table and graphs
here.)

Conclusion:(Please write your conclusion here.)