Oscillators and Mixers


Posted on Feb 7, 2014

With the advent of modern radio and radar systems came the need to provide stable harmonic oscillations at particular carrier frequencies to establish the required modulation and mixing conditions. While the carrier frequencies in the early days mostly reached into the low to mid MHz range, today`s RF systems easily surpass the 1 GHz point. This h


Oscillators and Mixers
Click here to download the full size of the above Circuit.

as resulted in the need for specialized oscillator circuits capable of providing stable and pure sinusoidal signals. What makes the design of oscillators such a difficult task is that we exploit an inherently nonlinear circuit behavior that can only be described incompletely with linear system tools. Specifically, the small-signal linear circuit models utilized to represent the active device afford limited capabilities to handle the complicated feedback mechanism. Moreover, since an oscillator has to provide power to subsequent circuits, frequency-dependent output loading often plays an important role. For these reasons, the design process for oscillators remains more of an art than an exact engineering design task. This holds particularly true for the high-frequency regime, where parasitic component influences can significantly impact the overall system performance. Affected in part by the additional resonance effects of the passive circuit elements, it is possible that the oscillator operates not only at the intended frequency, but also at lower or higher harmonics. Certain system realizations may even cease to oscillate completely. In the first part of this chapter, we concentrate on the negative resistance and feedback harmonic oscillators. Once the fundamental idea of how to generate oscillations is mastered, we investigate the basic Colpitts and Hartley oscillators before moving to the modern RF circuit design...




Leave Comment

characters left:

Related Circuits

  • New Circuits

    .

     


    Popular Circuits

    Tin Can Waveguide WiFi Antenna
    Pulse-position-modulator
    Dc Motor-Speed Control
    hobby power supply circuit
    mobile phone battery charger circuit
    Smoke detector using 555 timer circuit
    monostable multivibrator 555 timer
    Musical keyboard as a signal generator
    Giving a false speed reading
    Connecting the PICAXE-08 Microcontrller to other Components



    Top