14 - Talking Electronics

1 364 Principles of of Sinusoidal Oscillations fromTank Feedback Amplifier of of Types of Collector s of Phase Shift Bridge of LC and of Quartz Circuit of Response of Crystal OscillatorINTRODUCTIONMany electronic devices require a source of en-ergy at a specific frequency which may rangefrom a few Hz to several MHz. This isachieved by an electronic device called an are extensively used in electronic example, in radio and television receivers, oscillatorsare used to generate high frequency wave (called carrierwave) in the tuning stages. Audio frequency and radio-frequency signals are required for the repair of radio,television and other electronic equipment.

2 Oscillatorsare also widely used in radar, electronic computers andother electronic can produce sinusoidal or non-sinusoidal( square wave) waves. In this chapter, we shallconfine our attention to sinusoidal oscillators thosewhich produce sine-wave Oscillators14 Sinusoidal oscillators Sinusoidal OscillatorAn electronic device that generates sinusoidal oscillations of desired frequency is known as a *sinu-soidal we speak of an oscillator as generating a frequency, it should be noted that it does notcreate energy, but merely acts as an energy converter. It receives energy and changes it into of desired frequency. The frequency of oscillations depends upon the constants of the may be mentioned here that although an alternator produces sinusoidal oscillations of 50Hz, itcannot be called an oscillator.

3 Firstly, an alternator is a mechanical device having rotating partswhereas an oscillator is a non-rotating electronic device. Secondly, an alternator converts mechani-cal energy into energy while an oscillator converts energy into energy. Thirdly, analternator cannot produce high frequency oscillations whereas an oscillator can produce oscillationsranging from a few Hz to several oscillations can be produced by mechanical devices ( alternators), but electronicoscillators have the following advantages :(i)An oscillator is a non-rotating device. Consequently, there is little wear and tear and hencelonger life.(ii)Due to the absence of moving parts, the operation of an oscillator is quite silent.

4 (iii)An oscillator can produce waves from small (20 Hz) to extremely high frequencies (> 100 MHz).(iv)The frequency of oscillations can be easily changed when desired.(v)It has good frequency stability frequency once set remains constant for a considerableperiod of time.(vi)It has very high Types of Sinusoidal OscillationsSinusoidal electrical oscillations can be of two types viz damped oscillations and undamped oscillations.(i) Damped electrical oscilla-tions whose amplitudegoes on decreasingwith time are calleddamped (i) showswaveform of dampedelectrical , the electri-cal system in whichthese oscillations aregenerated has lossesand some energy islost during each oscil-lation.

5 Further, no means are provided to compensate for the losses and consequently theamplitude of the generated wave decreases gradually. It may be noted that frequency ofoscillations remains unchanged since it depends upon the constants of the electrical system. *Note that oscillations are produced without any external signal source. The only input power to anoscillator is the power supply. Fig. Principles of Electronics (ii) Undamped oscillations. The electrical oscillations whose amplitude remains constant withtime are called undamped oscillations. Fig. (ii) shows waveform of undamped electrical oscil-lations. Although the electrical system in which these oscillations are being generated has also losses,but now right amount of energy is being supplied to overcome the losses.

6 Consequently, the ampli-tude of the generated wave remains constant. It should be emphasised that an oscillator is required toproduce undamped electrical oscillations for utilising in various Electronics Oscillatory CircuitA circuit which produces electrical oscillations of any desired frequency is known as an oscillatorycircuit or tank simple oscillatory circuit consists of a capacitor (C) and inductance coil (L) in parallel asshown in Fig. This electrical system can produce electrical oscillations of frequency deter-mined by the values of L and C. To understand how this comes about, suppose the capacitor ischarged from a source with a polarity as shown in Fig.

7 (i).(i)In the position shown in Fig. (i), the upper plate of capacitor has deficit of electrons andthe lower plate has excess of electrons. Therefore, there is a voltage across the capacitor and thecapacitor has electrostatic (ii)When switch S is closed as shown in Fig. (ii) , the capacitor will discharge throughinductance and the electron flow will be in the direction indicated by the arrow. This current flow setsup magnetic field around the coil. Due to the inductive effect, the current builds up slowly towards amaximum value. The circuit current will be maximum when the capacitor is fully discharged. At thisinstant, electrostatic energy is zero but because electron motion is greatest ( maximum current),the magnetic field energy around the coil is maximum.

8 This is shown in Fig. (ii). Obviously, theelectrostatic energy across the capacitor is completely converted into magnetic field energy aroundthe coil.(iii)Once the capacitor is discharged, the magnetic field will begin to collapse and produce acounter According to Lenz's law, the counter will keep the current flowing in the samedirection. The result is that the capacitor is now charged with opposite polarity, making upper plateof capacitor negative and lower plate positive as shown in Fig. (iii).(iv) After the collapsing field has recharged the capacitor, the capacitor now begins to discharge;current now flowing in the opposite direction. Fig. (iv) shows capacitor fully discharged andmaximum current sequence of charge and discharge results in alternating motion of electrons or an oscillatingcurrent.

9 The energy is alternately stored in the electric field of the capacitor (C) and the magneticfield of the inductance coil (L). This interchange of energy between L and C is repeated over andagain resulting in the production of oscillators 367 Waveform. If there were no losses in the tank circuitto consume the energy, the interchange of energy between Land C would continue indefinitely. In a practical tank cir-cuit, there are resistive and radiation losses in the coil anddielectric losses in the capacitor. During each cycle, a smallpart of the originally imparted energy is used up to over-come these losses. The result is that the amplitude of oscil-lating current decreases gradually and eventually it becomeszero when all the energy is consumed as losses.

10 Therefore,the tank circuit by itself will produce damped oscillations asshown in Fig. of oscillations. The frequency of oscilla-tions in the tank circuit is determined by the constants of thecircuit viz L and C. The actual frequency of oscillations isthe resonant frequency (or natural frequency) of the tank circuit given by :fr=12LC It is clear that frequency of oscillations in the tank circuit is inversely proportional to L and can be easily explained. If a large value of capacitor is used, it will take longer for the capacitorto charge fully and also longer to discharge. This will lengthen the period of oscillations in the tankcircuit, or equivalently lower its frequency. With a large value of inductance, the opposition to changein current flow is greater and hence the time required to complete each cycle will be longer.