Mechanism of start of oscillation

Mechanism of start of oscillation

The starting voltage is provided by noise, which is produced due to random motion of electrons in resistors used in the circuit. The noise voltage contains almost all the sinusoidal frequencies. This low amplitude noise voltage gets amplified and appears at the output terminals. The amplified noise drives the feedback network which is the phase shift network. Because of this the feedback voltage is maximum at a particular frequency, which in turn represents the frequency of oscillation.

LC Oscillator:

Oscillators are used in many electronic circuits and systems providing the central “clock” signal that controls that controls the sequential operation of the entire system. Oscillators convert a DC input (the supply voltage) into an AC output (the waveform), which can have a wide range of different wave shapes and frequencies that can be either complicated in nature or simple sine waves depending upon the application.

Oscillators are also used in many pieces of test equipment producing either sinusoidal sine wave, square, sawtooth or triangular shaped waveforms or just a train of pulse of a variable or constant width. LC Oscillators are commonly used in radio-frequency circuits because of their good phase noise characteristics and their ease of implementation.

An Oscillator is basically anAmplifier with “Positive Feedback”, or regenerative feedback (in-phase) and one of the many problems in electronic circuit design is stooping amplifiers from oscillating while trying to get oscillators to oscillate. Oscillators work because they overcome the losses of their feedback resonator circuit either in the form of a capacitor or both in the same circuit by applying DC energy at the required frequency into this resonator circuit.

In other words, an oscillator is a an amplifier which uses positive feedback that generates an output frequency without the use of an input signal.

It is self sustaining. Then an oscillator has a small signal feedback amplifier with an open-loop gain equal too or slightly greater than one for oscillations to start but to continue oscillations the average loop gain must return to unity. In addition to these reactive components, an amplifying device such as an Operational Amplifier or Bipolar Transistors required. Unlike an amplifier there is no external AC input required to cause the Oscillator to work as the DC supply energy is converted by the oscillator into AC energy at the required frequency.