Building a Voltage-Controlled Oscillator (VCO)

shabaz

28 Mar 2021

Introduction
What it is?
Oscillator Design
Output Spectrum Stability
Output Filter
Circuit Diagram
Using a Printed Circuit Board (PCB)
Components
Summary

Introduction

This blog post covers the construction of a voltage-

controlled oscillator (VCO) intended to cover the range of
approximately 98 MHz to 118 MHz (you can probably
guess what use such an oscillator could have!), although
this design could be modified for different ranges from
tens of MHz to perhaps 500 MHz.

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What it is?

The name of the project is fairly self-explanatory : ) It’s an

oscillator where the frequency is determined by an input
voltage signal. The input signal could be a steady voltage
from (say) a variable potential divider, or it could be a
faster-changing signal, either digital or analog, from a
microcontroller or audio source for instance. Such a signal
would modulate the output frequency (known as  

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Oscillator Design

According to the book Oscillator Design and Computer

Simulation, a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) can be a
good choice for an oscillator in the VHF or UHF range. The
book describes an example 300 MHz oscillator using a
series inductor and capacitor (LC) circuit (L1 and C6 in the
circuit diagram below, 100nH and 3pF respectively). I used
that as a starting point, and increased the inductance to
210nH, and increased the capacitor to 9pF. The circuit had
a couple of 33pF shunt capacitors C1 and C2, I doubled
those to 68pF, but found that oscillations died off at
around 115 MHz, so I reduced those and tried various
values. I also experimented with the coupling capacitance
between the base and the collector, and the feedback loop
joining capacitance. The transistor I had chosen oscillated
at unwanted frequencies so a ferrite bead was added at
the base.

I went with the 210nH inductor for two reasons; firstly,

because I wanted it to be easy to wind, and five turns of
wire around a AAA sized cell with the turns spaced a
reasonable distance apart (6mm total length) provided
this inductance, and secondly, I could get the oscillations
to be in the correct tuning ballpark by making a slight
capacitance change in a range that would suit installing a 
varicap (also known as varactor) diode to replace C6 in the
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capacitance that changes as the reverse voltage across

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the diode is altered. The capacitance decreases with an
increase of reverse voltage, but there is a practical range
where the reverse voltage doesn’t need to be too high
(which would mean having to run the circuit off a higher
voltage than I wished).

I decided to use a dual varicap diode, BB914, and used an

online series capacitance calculator to play with the
capacitor values that would need to be installed in the
circuit in series with the diodes, to achieve the desired
range. I needed to use resistors to apply a reverse bias
voltage on the varicap diodes that would allow the
capacitance to change enough to cover the desired
frequency range.

I also tried a higher inductance of around 550nH and a

lower capacitance varicap diode, but I couldn’t get it to
maintain oscillations across the entire desired range. It
takes experimentation!

Finally, the end result was an oscillator that could be

adjusted across the desired range (I used a 10 kohm
variable resistor to act as a potential divider to control the
varicap diodes). The output looked like this:
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It can be seen that the output level drops as the frequency
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might or might not be a problem for whatever the
oscillator is attached to (an amplifier could be appended if
needed).

A spectrum analyzer helps, but an oscilloscope can

provide some insight too if a spectrum analyzer is not
available. The traces below show what the output looked
like at this point in the experimentation process.

I didn’t like that the output looked so poor at the high

frequency as if it was collapsing (which it did if tuned to a
slightly higher frequency). At the lower frequencies, the
output seemed reasonable, although the second harmonic
was larger than desired.

After tweaking the component values some more, I was

happier with the tuning range and the output at the higher
end was better, and it could be tuned to beyond 120 MHz.

Output Spectrum Stability

The screenshot below shows the zoomed-in spectrum

across a 100 kHz span, with the VCO set for a centre
frequency of about 108 MHz. (Note: the measurements in
the screenshot are 10 dB lower, because I had a 10 dB  
attenuator wired up to the spectrum analyzer; so, the
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actual power was -3.9 dBm, not -13.9 dBm). The colourful DAYS HOURS MINs SECS
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spectrogram view covers about half a minute of time. The

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output was as expected; a knock on the table would cause
the frequency to shift, due to the air core inductor
construction. But left alone, it didn’t drift much at room
temperature, for this short period of time.

Output Filter

An output filter has the disadvantage of expense since it

would require one or two inductors, but it would improve
the output enough to be worthwhile. I used free ‘Elsie’
software to compute the filter.

The software allows you to select the various parameters

of the desired filter and then it outputs a circuit diagram
(and the component values can be tweaked) and it
generates a chart and tables of the response, to be
uploaded into other software (such as Excel or Matlab).

This was the result; greatly improved:

And of course, that is therefore reflected in the ‘scope

traces too.  

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Circuit Diagram

Here’s the final circuit; the LC circuit comprises of L1 and

C7, D1, and C6 all in series. The control voltage is applied
through R6. Resistors R4 and R5 to ground cause the
diodes to be reverse biased. The output filter is L2, L3, and
C12.

In order to have a stable output, a regulated supply is

needed. I decided to build that using a TL431 circuit as
shown below. I preferred that because it’s a simple low-
cost way to have an adjustable supply; the voltage can be
tweaked by changing a resistor, to optimize the signal
output. 7V seemed to provide a reasonable output in the
screenshots above. The supply input can be from 8.5V to
12V with this regulator circuit.

Using a Printed Circuit Board (PCB)

The photo here shows the prototype with some of the

main components annotated.

I’d built the circuit using adhesive copper tape, but I  

wanted to have a printed circuitReview

board laid out so that I
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can more easily build up VCOs for different frequency

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ranges in the future. The PCB layout might not need to
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change for up to (say) 500 MHz or so, just the component
values can be changed. For the final design, large surface-
mount parts are used so that the circuit can be assembled
using normal thin 0.35mm solder and tweezers hold the
parts. Others may have better recommendations, but
personally, I find this particular style of tweezer very
effective to grip surface mount components accurately.
This shape of soldering iron tip works for me:

One approach is to melt the solder onto one pad first, and
then re-heat it as the component is placed on it.
Personally, I find it quicker to just hold the component with
tweezers and the solder in one hand and bring them to the
board at the same time, as shown in the photo below.

With such a method, the solder can be fine-adjusted to sit

on the pad by just flexing the finger grip slightly, and then
bring in the soldering iron.

This style of head magnifier works great to make

everything visible! (there are lower-cost near-identical
looking clones on Amazon but I have not tried them).

The PCB files are attached to this blog post, ready for
sending to any PCB factory; it’s a low-cost 2-layer 50 x 50
mm design. I have not built the Review
circuit using the PCB yet,
 

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think it should work). The lower shaded portion of the

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board is not needed, it is a buffer that I have not tested yet
(I’ll update the blog post when I do that after the board is
made up). The rest of the PCB contains the circuit as
shown in the schematic above. Most of the parts are 0805
sized, so this should be easy to hand-solder. For the
inductor L1, the PCB has space for a hand-wound coil (it
can be made to different dimensions or turns or stretch or
squash it to change inductance), or for a ready-made
fixed-value surface-mount inductor.

After building and testing the circuit, if desired, thin metal

can be folded into a 30 x 30 mm box to solder on top to
act as a shield.

Components

All of the resistors and capacitors can be 0603 or 0805

sized; both will fit the PCB. I used NP0 capacitors where
possible. Three BLM18RK221SN1D or EXC3BB221H
ferrite beads are used (others can be used too provided
they fit; they are quite small). For the filter, suitable
inductors are two 0805 sized 120nH inductors. L1 is a
210nH inductor (is optional, an air coil can be wound  

instead) for the LC resonant circuit. Any normal

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For the semiconductors, Q1 is a BFR92P NPN transistor (it

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needs to be a high-frequency transistor, 2N2222 or
2N3904 will not work) and Q2 is a BC847 NPN transistor
and D1 is a BB914 dual varicap diode. U1 is a
TL431 integrated circuit.

For a shield (if required), it could be hand-made from a

thin metal sheet, or alternatively, a ready-made
metal frame and metal cover might fit if the fixed surface-
mount inductor is used for L1 instead of the air coil.

Summary

A simple VHF voltage-controlled oscillator can easily be

realized using large surface mount components. It does
take some experimentation to ensure the entire desired
range can be tuned and that the output is acceptable over
that range (it’s worth keeping a range of capacitors handy
for this – they are not wasted, if you desolder them
carefully then they can be stored away for future
experimentation). An output filter can help to reduce the
harmonics. The output power was around -4.5 dBm to -7.5
dBm across the range.

The printed circuit board could be useful for constructing

VCOs for different frequency ranges. If a fixed frequency is  

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air coil inductor can be stable but may need different
construction (e.g. wind around a plastic former or glue it)
in order to reduce the impact when it is knocked.

Thanks for reading!

Attachments:

export_vco_v1_0.zip

DAB over 3 years ago

Very good post.

DAB

Jan Cumps over 3 years ago

I use the "solder one pads" approach. But not one by one. i tin a number of pads. Put the
components. Then solder the other sides.

Sometimes I paste both pads, dip the component in place and reflow with the iron.

shabaz over 3 years ago in reply to Jan Cumps

Good ideas! Those would speed things up : )

genebren over 3 years ago

Very nice design! Great attention to detail (as usual) and well documented. I ditto Jan
Cumps suggested soldering technique as this is my go to approach. Typically I tin one pad of
all the active components, mount all active components, then solder all remaining pins. Then
I tin one pad on each passive component on a given side of the PCB. I then add all of
 
passives and then solder all of the unsoldered pads (touching up any of the initial pins as
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necessary). Flip the PCB and repeat (if necessary).
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shabaz over 3 years ago in reply to genebren Not Interested

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 Hi Gene,

Thanks! It is awesome hearing about the different variations when it comes to

surface-mount : ) It didn't occur to me to batch up the soldering of the pads in this
way, this is very efficient!

Engagement

Author: shabaz

Date Created: 28 Mar 2021 4:52 AM

57628 views

18 likes

5 comments

 uhf

 vco

 vhf

 voltage-control oscillators

 voltage controlled oscillator

 18

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