Module 5
Feedback and Oscillator Circuits:- Feedback concepts, Feedback
connection types, effects of negative feedback, practical feedback
circuits: - FET based voltage series Feedback, BJT based current series,
and FET based voltage shunt feedback.
Oscillator operation: -Barkhaunsen’s criteria, Tuned oscillator Circuits:
BJT based Colpitts, Hartley and Crystal oscillator. Unijunction transistor
oscillator
• Feedback Concepts:
• Feedback has been mentioned previously. Depending on the relative
polarity of the signal being fed back into a circuit, one may have negative
or positive feedback.
• Negative feedback results in decreased voltage gain, for which a number of
circuit features are improved, as summarized below.
• Positive feedback drives a circuit into oscillation as in various types of
oscillator circuits.
• A typical feedback connection is shown in Fig. 14.1 .
• The input signal Vs is applied to a mixer network, where it is combined with
a feedback signal Vf .
• The difference of these signals Vi is then the input voltage to the amplifier.
• A portion of the amplifier output Vo is connected to the feedback network
(β), which provides a reduced portion of the output as feedback signal to
the input mixer network.
• If the feedback signal is of opposite polarity to the input signal, as shown in
Fig. 14.1 , negative feedback results.
• Although negative feedback results in reduced overall voltage gain, a
number of improvements are obtained, among them being:
1. Higher input impedance.
2. Better stabilized voltage gain.
3. Improved frequency response.
4. Lower output impedance.
5. Reduced noise.
6. More linear operation.
• FEEDBACK CONNECTION TYPES
• There are four basic ways of connecting the feedback signal.
• Both voltage and current can be fed back to the input either in
series or parallel. Specifically, there can be:
• Voltage-series feedback ( Fig. 14.2 a).
• Voltage-shunt feedback ( Fig. 14.2 b).
• Current-series feedback ( Fig. 14.2 c).
• Current-shunt feedback ( Fig. 14.2 d).
• In the list above, voltage refers to connecting the output voltage as
input to the feedback network; current refers to tapping off some
output current through the feedback network.
• Series refers to connecting the feedback signal in series with the
input signal voltage; shunt refers to connecting the feedback signal
in shunt (parallel) with an input current source.
• Series feedback connections tend to increase the input resistance, whereas
shunt feedback connections tend to decrease the input resistance.
• Voltage feedback tends to decrease the output impedance, whereas
current feedback tends to increase the output impedance.
• Typically, higher input and lower output impedances are desired for most
cascade amplifiers.
• Both of these are provided using the voltage-series feedback connection.
• We shall therefore concentrate first on this amplifier connection.
• Gain with Feedback
• In this section we examine the gain of each of the feedback circuit
connections of Fig. 14.2 .
• The gain without feedback, A , is that of the amplifier stage.
• With feedback β, the overall gain of the circuit is reduced by a factor
(1+βA), as detailed below.
• A summary of the gain, feedback factor, and gain with feedback of Fig. 14.2
is provided for reference in Table 14.1 .
• The input impedance with series feedback is seen to be the value of the
input impedance without feedback multiplied by the factor (1 +β A ), and
applies to both voltage-series ( Fig. 14.2 a) and current-series ( Fig. 14.2 c)
configurations.
• This reduced input impedance
applies to the voltage-shunt
connection and the current-shunt
connection.
• Effect of Negative Feedback on Gain and Bandwidth
• In Eq. (14.2), the overall gain with negative feedback is shown to be
• As long as βA>>1, the overall gain is approximately 1/β.
• For a practical amplifier (for single low- and high-frequency breakpoints)
the open-loop gain drops off at high frequencies due to the active device
and circuit capacitances.
• Gain may also drop off at low frequencies for capacitively coupled amplifier
stages.
• Once the open-loop gain A drops low enough and the factor b A is no
longer much larger than 1, the conclusion of Eq. (14.2) that Af 1/β no
longer holds true.
• Figure 14.6 shows that the amplifier with negative feedback has more
bandwidth ( Bf ) than the amplifier without feedback ( B ).
• The feedback amplifier has a higher upper 3-dB frequency and smaller
lower 3-dB frequency.
• It is interesting to note that the use of feedback, although resulting in a
lowering of voltage gain, has provided an increase in B and in the upper 3-
dB frequency particularly.
• In fact, the product of gain and frequency remains the same, so that the
gain–bandwidth product of the basic amplifier is the same value for the
feedback amplifier.
• However, since the feedback amplifier has lower gain, the net operation
was to trade gain for bandwidth (we use bandwidth for the upper 3-dB
frequency since typically f2 >> f1).
• PRACTICAL FEEDBACK CIRCUITS
• Voltage-Series Feedback
• Figure 14.7 shows an FET amplifier stage with voltage-series feedback.
• A part of the output signal (Vo) is obtained using a feedback network of
resistors R1 and R2 .
• The feedback voltage Vf is connected in series with the source signal Vs ,
their difference being the input signal Vi .
• Without feedback the amplifier gain is
• Current-Series Feedback
• Another feedback technique is to sample the output current Io and return
a proportional voltage in series with the input.
• Although it stabilizes the amplifier gain, the current-series feedback
connection increases input resistance.
• Figure 14.10 shows a single transistor amplifier stage.
• Since the emitter of this stage has an unbypassed emitter, it effectively has
current-series feedback.
• The current through resistor RE results in a feedback voltage that opposes
the source signal applied, so that the output voltage Vo is reduced.
• To remove the current-series feedback, the emitter resistor must be either
removed or bypassed by a capacitor (as is usually done).
• Voltage-Shunt Feedback
• Oscillator operation: -Barkhaunsen’s criteria
• The use of positive feedback that results in a feedback amplifier having closed-
loop gain
• |Af| greater than 1 and satisfies the phase conditions will result in operation as
an oscillator circuit.
• An oscillator circuit then provides a varying output signal.
• If the output signal varies sinusoidally, the circuit is referred to as a sinusoidal
oscillator.
• If the output voltage rises quickly to one voltage level and later drops quickly to
another voltage level, the circuit is generally referred to as a pulse or square-
wave oscillator.
• To understand how a feedback circuit performs as an oscillator, consider the
feedback circuit of Fig. 14.18 .
• When the switch at the amplifier input is open, no oscillation occurs.
• Consider that we have a fictitious voltage at the amplifier input Vi .
• This results in an output voltage Vo = AVi after the amplifier stage and in a
voltage Vf = β(AVi) after the feedback stage.
• Thus, we have a feedback voltage Vf = βAVi, where βA is referred to as the
loop gain.
• If the circuits of the base amplifier and feedback network provide βA of a
correct magnitude and phase, Vf can be made equal to Vi .
• Then, when the switch is closed and the fictitious voltage Vi is removed,
the circuit will continue operating since the feedback voltage is sufficient to
drive the amplifier and feedback circuits, resulting in a proper input voltage
to sustain the loop operation.
• The output waveform will still exist after the switch is closed if the
condition
• is met. This is known as the Barkhausen criterion for oscillation.
• In reality, no input signal is needed to start the oscillator going.
• Only the condition βA = 1 must be satisfied for self-sustained oscillations to
result.
• In practice, βA is made greater than 1 and the system is started oscillating
by amplifying noise voltage, which is always present.
• Saturation factors in the practical circuit provide an “average” value of βA
of 1.
• The resulting waveforms are never exactly sinusoidal.
• However, the closer the value βA is to exactly 1, the more nearly sinusoidal
is the waveform.
• Figure 14.19 shows how the noise signal results in a buildup of a steady-
state oscillation condition.
• Another way of seeing how the feedback circuit provides operation as an
oscillator is obtained by noting the denominator in the basic feedback
equation (14.2), Af = A/(1 + βA).
• When βA = -1 or magnitude 1 at a phase angle of 180°, the denominator
becomes 0 and the gain with feedback Af becomes infinite.
• Thus, an infinitesimal signal (noise voltage) can provide a measurable
output voltage, and the circuit acts as an oscillator even without an input
signal.
• TUNED OSCILLATOR CIRCUIT
• Tuned-Input, Tuned-Output Oscillator Circuits
• A variety of circuits can be built using that shown in Fig. 14.25 by providing
tuning in both the input and output sections of the circuit.
• Analysis of the circuit of Fig. 14.25 reveals that the following types of
oscillators are obtained when the reactance elements are as designated:
• CRYSTAL OSCILLATOR
• A crystal oscillator is basically a tuned-
circuit oscillator using a piezoelectric
crystal as a resonant tank circuit.
• The crystal (usually quartz) has a
greater stability in holding constant at
whatever frequency the crystal is
originally cut to operate.
• Crystal oscillators are used whenever
great stability is required, such as in
communication transmitters and
receivers.
• In the figure shown, the resistors R1 , R2 , and RE provide a voltage-divider
stabilized dc bias circuit.
• Capacitor CE provides ac bypass of the emitter resistor, and the RFC coil
provides for dc bias while decoupling any ac signal on the power lines from
affecting the output signal.
• The voltage feedback from collector to base is a maximum when the crystal
impedance is minimum (in series-resonant mode).
• The coupling capacitor CC has negligible impedance at the circuit operating
frequency but blocks any dc between collector and base.
• The resulting circuit frequency of oscillation is set, then, by the series-
resonant frequency of the crystal.
• Changes in supply voltage, transistor device parameters, and so on, have
no effect on the circuit operating frequency, which is held stabilized by the
crystal.
• The circuit frequency stability is set by the crystal frequency stability, which
is good.
• UNIJUNCTION OSCILLATOR
• A particular device, the unijunction transistor, can be used in a single-stage
oscillator circuit to provide a pulse signal suitable for digital-circuit
applications.
• The unijunction transistor can be used in what is called a relaxation
oscillator as shown by the basic circuit of Fig. 14.37 .
• Resistor RT and capacitor CT are the timing components that set the circuit
oscillating rate.
• The oscillating frequency may be calculated using Eq. (14.48), which
includes the unijunction transistor intrinsic stand-off ratio h as a factor (in
addition to RT and CT ) in the oscillator operating frequency:
• Typically, a unijunction transistor has a stand-off ratio from 0.4 to 0.6.
Using a value of h = 0.5, we get
• Capacitor CT is charged through resistor R T toward supply voltage V BB . As
long as the capacitor voltage V E is below a stand-off voltage (VP) set by the
voltage across B1-B 2 and the transistor stand-off ratio ƞ,
• the unijunction emitter lead appears as an open circuit.
• When the emitter voltage across capacitor CT exceeds this value (VP), the
unijunction circuit fires, discharging the capacitor, after which a new
charge cycle begins.
• When the unijunction fires, a voltage rise is developed across R1 and a
voltage drop is developed across R2 as shown in Fig. 14.38 .
• The signal at the emitter is a sawtooth voltage waveform that at base 1 is a
positive-going pulse and at base 2 is a negative-going pulse.
• A few circuit variations of the unijunction oscillator are provided in Fig.
14.39 .