ECE323 Lecture 10 A Complete VCXO

Last lecture we completed our high performance reference crystal oscillator design. The next step is
to build it, using the parts on hand. Here is the schematic with the actual component values used:
9v
variation in output frequency with changes in Ct 51W
crystal spec 24.045 MHz @ 20pF 100nF
6t trifilar
Ct 3.9k FT-23-43
10t T25-6
6pF 24.05549 MHz 10k
10nF 400nH
Q2
16pF 24.04705 MHz 220pF 33W Q1 out 24.05549 MHz
51W
20.7pF 24.04520 MHz 10k 120pF
10uF 120pF
22W
Ct 6pF
510W Q1, Q2 2N3904
220pF 4.7v

The circuit board is from a

prior project. The crystal is
from the EPL, from Bomar,
and marked 24.045 MHz.

The resistors are 1/8th watt

leaded, because they were
available. The PC board
was laid our for quarter watt
leaded resistors. All of the
components are visible in
this photograph except for
the 6pF capacitor in series
with the metal can crystal. It
is an 0603 chip capacitor on
the back of the PC board.

The schematic and photo

should be enough for you to
reverse engineer this layout
if you are so inclined.

The Oscillator was built and tested, and the only change made to the Lecture 9 design is the inductor
in the Low Pass filter, which was optimized for output power. This small change is expected because
the output circuit is non-linear and the design values were based on a linear model.
Adding a Varactor Diode to Vary the Frequency

You have done simulations in Lab 2 that show how you can make small variations in the frequency of
a quartz crystal in an oscillator by adding a variable capacitor in series. We can make the frequency
voltage variable by using a varactor diode such as a BBY40. But those are in my office...
I found some MV2105 varactor diodes in my spare parts drawer and tried using one of those. It
has only about half the capacitance of a BBY40 (half the die area, from ECE321). I used two of the
MV2015 diodes in parallel to obtain more capacitance variation. First I used the basic circuit shown
below. The parts to the right of the dotted line are on the circuit board, and to the left are just hanging
off in space.

2 parallel
MV2015
5.1k 24.045 MHz
VCO
voltage
680pF 6pF

10k

The 10k resistor in parallel with the 6pF capacitor is needed so the end of the varactor diode pair next
to the crystal is at dc ground. The 680pF capacitor to ground from the other end of the diode pair is
to provide an ac ground at that point. The effective capacitance from the crystal to ground is 6pF plus
the variable varactor diode capacitance.

I varied the VCO voltage between 0.0 and 5.7 volts in 0.1v steps, and obtained a total frequency shift
of about 3kHz, from 24.040 at 0.0v to 24.043 at 5.7v. I stopped at 5.7v because I ran out of space to
record numbers on my notebook page. Those are the black numbers on my notebook page photo.

3 kHz variation from 0 to 6v is enough to build a Phase Locked Loop, but I wanted more tuning range,
so I added an inductor in series with the diodes. I did not calculate the inductance, I just picked one
that was already wound in the junk drawer that I had used in the past to extend the tuning range of a
VXO. I confirmed that the oscillator still worked with the inductor in series, and took a new set of data
on the same page. I hadn’t anticipated crowding the page with all those numbers, so to make it a
little easier to read, I recorded the new data in green pen.

added 1.80uH
inductor
VCO
voltage

Adding the inductor shifted the frequency lower, and increased the range to more than 8kHz, from
24.0279 MHz at 0.0v to 24.0367MHz at 5.7v. Those are the green numbers on the notebook page.
A Good Enough Voltage Controlled Crystal Oscillator

Last Fall I did some experiments with other varactor diode networks connected to a Quartz crystal,
and a promising one includes a capactor to ground from the varactor side of the inductor. I added
4.7pF there...and the oscillator quit. I tried 2.7pF, and it now works from 0.5v on up. If I had my
LTspice simulator at home I’d explore that and discover why, but for now, it works, and is pretty good.

Note that our starting frequency on the

first page of this lecture, with just the
VCO
6pF capacitor to ground from one end
voltage
of the crystal was 24.05549 MHz. With
all the extra circuitry to the left, we are
able to pull the crystal down to a much
2.7pF
lower frequency: 24.02712 MHz. This
added
frequency shift of more than 1kHz per
capacitor
MHz is typical of VXO circuitry.

Since it quits oscillating below about 0.4v on the VCO voltage input, I started this data set at 0.5v and
went up to 5.7v. This time I recorded the numbers in red pen, to keep track of everything. The added
capacitor shifted the frequency still lower, and now I have a tuning range from 24.0271 at 0.5v up to
24.0352 at 5.7v. This is more than 8kHz, and pretty good. For reasons we studied in ECE321 it is a
good idea to limit our varactor diode reverse voltage to something above 1v anyway, particularly when
using the varactor diode on a circuit node in a crystal oscillator where there is some ac voltage swing
in addition to the dc reverse bias.

The varactors and a few other components were quickly tack soldered onto the end of the little PC
board to convert the high-stability reference oscillator into a VCXO. It looked neater when it was just
the varactor pair, 680pF capacitor to ground, and 5.1k resistor to feed in the varactor reverse bias
voltage. Then the inductor was added and the green data taken in the notebook, and the 2.7pF cap
added and the red data taken. Before any further experiments, the construction will be tidied up a bit.
OK, that notebook page is filled...time to move on...

If you’ve figured out that my hardware VCXO just kind of grew like a plant in the garden without an
awful lot of serious design math, that’s one way to look at it. The other way is to remember that I’ve
been using this circuit for decades, that little circuit board is maybe the tenth evolution of that circuit
snippet from prior commercially successful designs, and I’ve been playing with VCXO design at my
bench for a while...very much like when I step up to the mic on stage with my fiddle, with a band I’ve
never played with before, at some big bluegrass festival, play an interesting fiddle break and folks
shake their heads and say “how does he do that?” Very much like that fiddle break, I don’t want to
look at this too hard and think about what I might do differently. Good advice for a successful design
engineer is “Better is the enemy of Good.” Know when to say it’s good enough, and quit “improving.”

Here’s a photo of my bench, last night when I

had the VCXO hooked up to an ADE-1 phase
detector and had achieved Phase Lock.
That’s really cool, but will have to wait until
next week’s lectures.

For now, you need to dive into my data and

start to figure it out. From the raw data you
can figure out values of Kvco for any voltage
from 0.5 to 5.7v in the black, red, and green
data sets, and make plots of frequency vs
VCXO volts to compare the circuits, and then
obtain values of Kvco from the slope. Note
that unlike in a textbook on PLL design, Kvco
isn’t a convenient constant--it’s a variable that
we can control by selecting a circuit, different
circuit components, and even different places
on the frequency/voltage curve to operate.

Finally, in the 5th week of the quarter, you

have some real lab data to work with. Some
of you are wishing I’d used an automated test
setup so you’d at least have a list of numbers
for your software...but look at my bench...

How to read the notebook data. Only the last four frequency digits are recorded.

volts 24.030.98 24.041.58 24.033.08 24.036.21 volts 24.034.66 24.042.80