RC oscillator

Linear electronic oscillator circuits, which generate a sinusoidal output signal, are composed of an amplifier
and a frequency selective element, a filter. A linear oscillator circuit which uses an RC network, a combination
of resistors and capacitors, for its frequency selective part is called an RC oscillator.

Contents
Description
Phase-shift oscillator
Twin-T oscillator
Quadrature oscillator
Low distortion oscillators
Wien bridge oscillator
References
External links

Description
RC oscillators are a type of feedback oscillator; they consist of an amplifying device, a transistor, vacuum tube,
or op-amp, with some of its output energy fed back into its input through a network of resistors and capacitors,
an RC network, to achieve positive feedback, causing it to generate an oscillating sinusoidal voltage.[1][2][3]
They are used to produce lower frequencies, mostly audio frequencies, in such applications as audio signal
generators and electronic musical instruments.[4][5] At radio frequencies, another type of feedback oscillator,
the LC oscillator is used, but at frequencies below 100 kHz the size of the inductors and capacitors needed for
the LC oscillator become cumbersome, and RC oscillators are used instead.[6] Their lack of bulky inductors
also makes them easier to integrate into microelectronic devices. Since the oscillator's frequency is determined
by the value of resistors and capacitors, which vary with temperature, RC oscillators do not have as good
frequency stability as crystal oscillators.

The frequency of oscillation is determined by the Barkhausen criterion, which says that the circuit will only
oscillate at frequencies for which the phase shift around the feedback loop is equal to 360° (2π radians) or a
multiple of 360°, and the loop gain (the amplification around the feedback loop) is equal to one.[7][1] The
purpose of the feedback RC network is to provide the correct phase shift at the desired oscillating frequency so
the loop has 360° phase shift, so the sine wave, after passing through the loop will be in phase with the sine
wave at the beginning and reinforce it, resulting in positive feedback.[6] The amplifier provides gain to
compensate for the energy lost as the signal passes through the feedback network, to create sustained
oscillations. As long as the gain of the amplifier is high enough that the total gain around the loop is unity or
higher, the circuit will generally oscillate.

In RC oscillator circuits which use a single inverting amplifying device, such as a transistor, tube, or an op amp
with the feedback applied to the inverting input, the amplifier provides 180° of the phase shift, so the RC
network must provide the other 180°.[6] Since each capacitor can provide a maximum of 90° of phase shift,
RC oscillators require at least two frequency-determining capacitors in the circuit (two poles), and most have
three or more,[1] with a comparable number of resistors.
This makes tuning the circuit to different frequencies more difficult than in other types such as the LC
oscillator, in which the frequency is determined by a single LC circuit so only one element must be varied.
Although the frequency can be varied over a small range by adjusting a single circuit element, to tune an RC
oscillator over a wide range two or more resistors or capacitors must be varied in unison, requiring them to be
ganged together mechanically on the same shaft.[2][8] The oscillation frequency is proportional to the inverse
of the capacitance or resistance, whereas in an LC oscillator the frequency is proportional to inverse square
root of the capacitance or inductance.[9] So a much wider frequency range can be covered by a given variable
capacitor in an RC oscillator. For example, a variable capacitor that could be varied over a 9:1 capacitance
range will give an RC oscillator a 9:1 frequency range, but in an LC oscillator it will give only a 3:1 range.

Some examples of common RC oscillator circuits are listed below:

Phase-shift oscillator

In the phase-shift oscillator the feedback network is three identical

cascaded RC sections.[10] In the simplest design the capacitors and
resistors in each section have the same value and
. Then at the oscillation frequency each RC section
contributes 60° phase shift for a total of 180°. The oscillation
frequency is

A phase-shift oscillator

The feedback network has an attenuation of 1/29, so the op-amp

must have a gain of 29 to give a loop gain of one for the circuit to oscillate

Twin-T oscillator

Another common design is the "Twin-T" oscillator as it uses two "T"

RC circuits operated in parallel. One circuit is an R-C-R "T" which
acts as a low-pass filter. The second circuit is a C-R-C "T" which
operates as a high-pass filter. Together, these circuits form a bridge
which is tuned at the desired frequency of oscillation. The signal in
the C-R-C branch of the Twin-T filter is advanced, in the R-C-R -
A twin-T oscillator
delayed, so they may cancel one another for frequency
if ; if it is connected as a negative feedback to an amplifier, and
x>2, the amplifier becomes an oscillator. (Note: .)

Quadrature oscillator

The quadrature oscillator uses two cascaded op-amp integrators in a feedback loop, one with the signal applied
to the inverting input or two integrators and an invertor. The advantage of this circuit is that the sinusoidal
outputs of the two op-amps are 90° out of phase (in quadrature). This is useful in some communication
circuits.
It is possible to stabilize a quadrature oscillator by squaring the sine and cosine outputs, adding them together,
(Pythagorean trigonometric identity) subtracting a constant, and applying the difference to a multiplier that
adjusts the loop gain around an inverter. Such circuits have a near-instant amplitude response to the constant
input and extremely low distortion.

Low distortion oscillators

The Barkhausen criterion mentioned above does not determine the amplitude of oscillation. An oscillator
circuit with only linear components is unstable with respect to amplitude. As long as the loop gain is exactly
one, the amplitude of the sine wave would be constant, but the slightest increase in gain, due to a drift in the
value of components will cause the amplitude to increase exponentially without limit. Similarly, the slightest
decrease will cause the sine wave to die out exponentially to zero. Therefore, all practical oscillators must have
a nonlinear component in the feedback loop, to reduce the gain as the amplitude increases, leading to stable
operation at the amplitude where the loop gain is unity.

In most ordinary oscillators, the nonlinearity is simply the saturation (clipping) of the amplifier as the amplitude
of the sine wave approaches the power supply rails. The oscillator is designed to have a small-signal loop gain
greater than one. The higher gain allows an oscillator to start by exponentially amplifying some ever-present
noise.[11]

As the peaks of the sine wave approach the supply rails, the saturation of the amplifier device flattens (clips)
the peaks, reducing the gain. For example, the oscillator might have a loop gain of 3 for small signals, but that
loop gain instaneously drops to zero when the output reaches one of the power supply rails.[12] The net effect
is the oscillator amplitude will stabilize when average gain over a cycle is one. If the average loop gain is
greater than one, the output amplitude increases until the nonlinearity reduces the average gain to one; if the
average loop gain is less than one, then the output amplitude decreases until the average gain is one. The
nonlinearity that reduces the gain may also be more subtle than running into a power supply rail.[13]

The result of this gain averaging is some harmonic distortion in the output signal. If the small-signal gain is just
a little bit more than one, then only a small amount of gain compression is needed, so there won't be much
harmonic distortion. If the small-signal gain is much more than one, then significant distortion will be
present.[14] However the oscillator must have gain significantly above one to start reliably.

So in oscillators that must produce a very low-distortion sine wave, a system that keeps the gain roughly
constant during the entire cycle is used. A common design uses an incandescent lamp or a thermistor in the
feedback circuit.[15][16] These oscillators exploit the resistance of a tungsten filament of the lamp increases in
proportion to its temperature (a thermistor works in a similar fashion). The lamp both measures the output
amplitude and controls the oscillator gain at the same time. The oscillator's signal level heats the filament. If the
level is too high, then the filament temperature gradually increases, the resistance increases, and the loop gain
falls (thus decreasing the oscillator's output level). If the level is too low, the lamp cools down and increases
the gain. The 1939 HP200A oscillator uses this technique. Modern variations may use explicit level detectors
and gain-controlled amplifiers.

Wien bridge oscillator

One of the most common gain-stabilized circuits is the Wien bridge oscillator.[17] In this circuit, two RC
circuits are used, one with the RC components in series and one with the RC components in parallel. The
Wien Bridge is often used in audio signal generators because it can be easily tuned using a two-section
variable capacitor or a two section variable potentiometer (which is more easily obtained than a variable
capacitor suitable for generation at low frequencies). The archetypical HP200A audio oscillator is a Wien
Bridge oscillator.
 Wien bridge oscillator with automatic
gain control. Rb is a small
incandescent lamp. Usually, R1 = R2
= R and C1 = C2 = C. In normal
operation, Rb self heats to the point
where its resistance is Rf/2.

References
1. Mancini, Ron; Palmer, Richard (March 2001). "Application Report SLOA060: Sine-Wave
Oscillator" (http://www.ti.com/lit/an/sloa060/sloa060.pdf) (PDF). Texas Instruments Inc.
Retrieved August 12, 2015.
2. Gottlieb, Irving (1997). Practical Oscillator Handbook (https://books.google.com/books?id=e_oZ
69GAuxAC). Elsevier. pp. 49–53. ISBN 0080539386.
3. Coates, Eric (2015). "Oscillators Module 1 - Oscillator Basics" (http://www.learnabout-electronic
s.org/Oscillators/osc10.php). Learn About Electronics. Eric Coates. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
4. Coates, Eric (2015). "Oscillators Module 3 - AF Sine Wave Oscillators" (http://www.learnabout-
electronics.org/Downloads/Oscillators-module-03.pdf) (PDF). Learn About Electronics. Eric
Coates. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
5. Chattopadhyay, D. (2006). Electronics (fundamentals And Applications) (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=n0rf9_2ckeYC&q=%22negative+resistance%22&pg=PA224). New Age
International. pp. 224–225. ISBN 81-224-1780-9.
6. "RC Feedback Oscillators" (http://www.daenotes.com/electronics/digital-electronics/rc-feedbac
k-oscillators). Electronics tutorial. DAEnotes. 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
7. Rao, B.; Rajeswari, K.; Pantulu, P. (2012). Electronic Circuit Analysis (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=yooVw9u8GMwC&pg=SA8-PA11). India: Pearson Education India. pp. 8.2–8.6,
8.11. ISBN 978-8131754283.
8. Eric Coates, 2015, AF Sine Wave Oscillators, p. 10 (http://www.learnabout-electronics.org/Dow
nloads/Oscillators-module-03.pdf)
9. Groszkowski, Janusz (2013). Frequency of Self-Oscillations (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=H_ZFBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA). Elsevier. pp. 397–398. ISBN 978-1483280301.
10. Department of the Army (1962) [1959], Basic Theory and Application of Transistors, Technical
Manuals, Dover, pp. 178–179, TM 11-690
11. Strauss, Leonard (1970), "Almost Sinusoidal Oscillations — the linear approximation", Wave
Generation and Shaping (second ed.), McGraw-Hill, pp. 663–720 at page 661, "It follows that if
Aβ > 1 in the small-signal region, the amplitude will build up until the limiter stabilizes the
system...."
12. Strauss 1970, p. 694, "As the signal amplitude increases, the active device will switch from
active operation to the zero-gain regions of cutoff and saturation."
13. Strauss 1970, pp. 703–706, Exponential limiting—bipolar transistor.
14. Strauss 1970, p. 664, "If gross nonlinear operation is permitted, the limiter will distort the signal
and the output will be far from sinusoidal."
15. Strauss 1970, p. 664, "Alternatively, an amplitude-controlled resistor or other passive nonlinear
element may be included as part of the amplifier or in the frequency-determining network."
16. Strauss 1970, pp. 706–713, Amplitude of Oscillation—Part II, Automatic Gain Control.
17. Department of the Army 1962, pp. 179–180

External links
Media related to RC oscillators at Wikimedia Commons

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