SHORT PAPER

International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering ,Vol 1, No. 3, May 2009

CCII-based single-element controlled quadrature

oscillators employing grounded passive
components
Nigar Minhaj
Electronics Engg. Section, Faculty of Engg. & Tech., Aligarh Muslim University, India, 202002
Email: harun_ash@yahoo.com

Abstract-- A single resistance-controlled two-phase

quadrature oscillator using plus-type second generation
current conveyors CCIIs(+) as the active devices is realized
by using a simple technique. The basic building blocks for
this technique are a first- order all-pass filter section and an
ideal integrator. The quadrature oscillator is then
transformed into a four-phase quadrature oscillator by
replacing the two CCII(+) by two dual-output current
conveyors (DO-CCIIs) with two grounded resistors. Both
the realized circuits enjoy attractive features such as use of
grounded passive components, independent frequency
control, outputs of equal magnitude and low sensitivity
figures. The use of grounded passive components make the
circuit suitable for monolithic implementation. The
proposed circuits are designed and verified using Pspice
simulation.

II. CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION

The circuit for the realization of a two phase quadrature
oscillator is shown in Fig. 1(a). The basic building blocks
of the circuit are first order all-pass filter section and a
non-inverting ideal integrator, which are indicated within
the dotted lines. The all-pass section is realized using two
CCIIs(+), two grounded capacitor and two grounded
resistors. The voltage transfer function of the all-pass
section is given,
1
s
R C
V
1 1
4 = T (s) =
1
1
V
s+
1
R C
2 2

The non-inverting integrator consists of a CCII(+), a

grounded capacitor and a grounded resistor. The voltage
transfer function of it is given.
V
1
(2)
2 = T (s) =

Index Terms- CCIIs; oscillators; active networks.

I.

INTRODUCTION

conveyors have been found useful in many

C URRENT
applications [1]-[10]. In recent years, their

V
4

sC R
3 3

The loop-gain is expressed by

applications and advantages in synthesis of sinusoidal

oscillators have received considerable attention [8]-[10].
The quadrature oscillators are used in telecommunication
for qudrature mixes and single-side band generators.
Therefore, quadrature oscillators constitute important
units in many communication and instrumentation
systems. As a result, a number of quadrature oscillator
circuits have been presented in technical literature [11][15].
In this paper, two/four-phase quadrature oscillators
using CCIIs and grounded passive components are
realized using a simple technique. Both the realized
quadrature oscillators possess the attractive features such
as
1. Independent frequency control by a single
resistor .
2. Two-phase quadrature oscillator is converted
into four-phase quadrature oscillators using only
two additional grounded resistors.
3. All the four voltage outputs are almost equal in
magnitude and equal in phase.
4. Low sensitivity figures.
5. Used grounded passive components, which
make the circuit suitable for implementation in
IC technologies.

V
2 = T (s)T (s)
1
2
V
1

1
1
R 1C1
=

1
sC 3 R 3
s+
R 2C 2
s

(3)

For sinusoidal oscillations, loop-gain (V2 / V1)=1, for s =

jo i.e.,
1
R C
1 1 1
=1
1
sC R
s+
3 3
R C
2 2
s = j
s

or

1
1
1
+
s 2 + s
=0

R C R R CC
R C
3 3
1 3 1 3
2 2

(4)

(5)

This results in the condition of oscillations as (for C2 =

C3 = C)
R2 R3
(6)
and the frequency of oscillations as
o =

12

R1R 3C1C3

(7)

Equations (6) and (7) show that R1 can independently

control the frequency of oscillations without affecting the
294

2009 ACADEMY PUBLISHER

(1)

SHORT PAPER
International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering ,Vol 1, No. 3, May 2009
ALL-PASS FILTER SECTION

V1

y
Z

CCII(+)A
x

CCII(+)B
x
C1

R1

V6

IDEAL-INTEGRATOR

CCII(+)C
x

V4

V2

900

V2

V7
C2

R2

C3

R3

(a)

V4

V2

(b)
Fig. 2(a). Four-phase quadrature oscillator, and (b) Phasor diagram

900

III. SENSITIVITY STUDY

The passive sensitivities of the oscillator are as follows:
V4

1
S o
=
R ,R ,C ,C
2
1 3 1 3

(b)

Fig 1(a)

Two-phase quadrature oscillator, and (b) Phasor diagram

condition of oscillation. If we select C1 = C3 = C and R1 =

R3 = R, the frequency of oscillations is given by
o = 1
(8)
RC

The DO-CCII is simulated using 0.35 m CMOS DOCCII model, derived from [16], as shown in Fig.3. The
W/L parameters of CMOS transistors are given in Table1, where MNxx and xx is the index of the different
transistors. The supply voltages and bias currents were
VDD = Vss = 2.5V and IB = 100A.
Initially, the circuit of Fig. 1(a) is designed for an
oscillating frequency f0 = 1MHz. Using (6) and (7) the
designed values are found as R1 = R2 = R3 = 10 K and C1
= C2 = C3 = 0.0159 nF.

1
V4
sC3R 3
s = j

VDD
M5

R5
-

DO-CCII(A)
+
x

V7

C1

C2

R2

R3

M13

M1

M17

M18

M21

M2

Y
IBIAS

X
M3

M8

M9

Z+

M4

M10

M14

M15

VSS

V6

Fig. 3. CMOS model of DO-CCII.

V2

TABLE 2
CMOS MODEL PARAMETERS

C3

Device Name
M1, M2
M3, M4
MPxx(in PMOS current mirrors)
MNxx (in NMOS current mirrors)

295

M20

M16
M19

(a)

2009 ACADEMY PUBLISHER

M11

R4
Z

DO-CCII(C)
+
Z
x

V4

CCII(+)B
x

R1

M6

M12

M7

(11)

IV. DESIGN AND VERIFICATIONS

V2 = jkV4
(9)
where k= 1/oC3R3
Thus, the results in two quadrature outputs is as shown in
Fig. 1(b)
The circuit of two phase quadrature oscillator of figure
1(a) is now transformed into four-phase quadrature
oscillator by replacing the CCII+(A) and CCII+(C) by
DO-CCII(A) and DO-CCII(C) respectively with two
grounded additional resistors R4 and R5. With R4=R5=R,
from Fig. 2(a) the phase relationship between V2 , V4 , V6
and V7 at oscillating frequency, o, is given by
V7 = V2
and
V6 = V4
(10)
From (10), V7 is the inversion of V2 and V6 is the
inversion of V4.
Thus, the oscillator of Fig.2(a) generates a four-phase
quadrature outputs, as shown in Fig. 2(b).

=0

Thus, it is clear from (11) that the realized oscillator

exhibit low sensitivity properties, i.e., less than unity in
magnitude.

The phase relationship between V2 and V4, at oscillating

frequency o, can be obtained as,
V2 =

S o
R C
2 2

and

Aspect ratio W/L(m)

12/0.35
36/0.35
18/0.35
6/0.35

SHORT PAPER
International Journal of Recent Trends in Engineering ,Vol 1, No. 3, May 2009
3. low sensitivities.
4. quadrature outputs of almost equal magnitude.
The simulation results of two-phase and four- phase
quadrature oscillators verify the theory with good results.
V. REFERENCES
[1] S.I. Liu and J.L. Lee, Voltage-mode universal filters using two
CCIIs, Int. J. Electronics, vol. 82 , pp. 145-149, 1997.
[2] A. Toker and S. Ozoguz, Insensitive current-mode universal filter
using dual output current conveyors, Int. J. Electronics, vol. 87 ,
pp. 667-674, 2000.
[3] J.-W. Horng, High input impedance voltage-mode universal
biquadratic filters using three plus type CCIIs, IEEE Trans. Circuit
Sys. Vol. 48 , pp. 996-997, 2001.
[4] J.-W. Horng, Inverting and/or non-inverting biquad circuit using
second generation current conveyors, Int. J. Electronics, vol. 86,
pp. 297-303,1999.
[5] I.A. Awad and A.M. Soliman, Inverting second generation current
conveyor, the missing building block, CMOS realization, Int. J.
Electronics, vol. 86, pp. 413-432, 1999.
[6] J.A. Svoboda, Transfer function synthesis using current
conveyors, Int. J. Electronics, vol. 76, pp. 61-67, 1994.
[7] S.B.Salem, M.Fakhfakh, D.S.Masmoudi, M.Loulou, P.Loumeau,
N.M.Masmoudi, A high performance CMOS CCII and high
frequency applications, Analog Integr Circ Sig Process, vol. 49,
pp. 71-78, 2006.
[8] P.A. Martinez, J. Sabadell, and S. Celma, Variable frequency
sinusoidal oscillator based on CCII+, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst.
Vol. 46, pp. 1386-1390, 1999.
[9] A.A. Khan, S. Bimal, K.K. Dey, and S.S. Roy, Novel RC
sinusoidal oscillator using second generation current conveyors,
IEEE Trans. On Instrumentation and Measurement, vol. 54, pp.
2402-2406, 2005.
[10] C.-L. Hou and B. Shen, Second-generation current conveyorbased multi-phase sinusoidal oscillators, Int. J. Electronics, vol.
78, pp. 317-324, 1995.
[11] M.T. Ahmed, I.A. Khan and N. Minhaj, On transconductance-C
quadrature oscillators, Int. J. Electronics, vol. 83, pp. 201-207,
1997.
[12] S. Banlue, Fully balanced current tunable sinusoidal quadrature
oscillator, Int. J. Electronics,vol. 87, pp. 547-556, 2000.
[13] I.A. Khan, M.T. Ahmed and N. Minhaj, A tunable quadrature
oscillator with only transconductance elements and grounded
capacitors, Active and Passive Elect. Comp. vol. 25, pp. 321-325,
2002.
[14] J.-W. Horng, C.-L. Hou, C.-M. Chang, W.-U. Chung, H.-W. Tang
and Y.-H. Wen, Quadrature oscillators using CCIIs, Int. J.
Electronics vol. 92, pp. 21-31, 2005.
[15] N. Minhaj, Current conveyor-based voltage mode two-phase and
four-phase quadrature oscillators, Int. J. Electronics, vol. 94, pp.
663-669, 2007.
[16] M. Fakhfakh, M. Loulou and N Masmoudi, An Improved
Algorithm-Driven Methodology To Optimize Switched Current
Memory Cells by Transistor Sizing The IEEE Inter. Conf. on
Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering (ICEEC04)
September 5-7, Cairo, Egypt , 2004.

Fig. 4. Simulation results of two-phase quadrature oscillator of Fig. 1 (a)

Fig. 5. Simulation results of four-phase quadrature oscillator of Fig. 2

(a)
100

Theoritical results
Experimental results

Frequency (kHz)

80

60

40

20

0
0

20

40
60
80
Resistance (k Ohm)

100

Fig. 6. Frequency tuning of two-phase and four-phase quadrature

oscillators with resistance R

For four-phase quadrature oscillator of Fig.2(a) R4 = R5 =

10 K and remaining components are of the same values
as used in Fig. 1(a).
The output waveforms obtained through Pspice
simulation are given in Fig. 4 and 5 respectively. The
Oscillators are then tuned by varying the resistance, R,
and the variation of frequency with R is shown in Fig. 6,
which illustrates the independent frequency control.
IV. CONCLUSION

VI.

A simple technique is used to realize two-phase and

four-phase quadrature oscillators by using a first order
all-pass filter section and an ideal integrator. The realized
oscillators enjoy the following features:
1. Use of grounded passive components, which is an
attractive
feature
for
integrated
circuits
implementation.
2. independent control of frequency of oscillations
through a single resistor.

Nigar Minhaj received her B.E. in Electrical Engineering

in 1987, M.E and PhD in Electronics Engineering in 1989
and 1994 respectively from Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh, India. Currently she is Associate Professor at
University Womens Polytechnic, Aligarh Muslim
University, Aligarh, India. She had contributed a number
of research papers in reputed International journals. Her
current topic of interest is active networks.

296
2009 ACADEMY PUBLISHER

BIOGRAPHY