Free Expert Guides on Power Systems, Circuit Design & Electrical Troubleshooting

Crystal oscillators operate on the principle of inverse piezoelectric effect in which an alternating voltage applied across the crystal surfaces causes it to vibrate at its natural frequency. It is these vibrations which eventually get converted into oscillations.These oscillators are usually made of Quartz crystal, eventhough other substances like Rochelle salt and Tourmaline exhibit the piezoelectric effect because, quartz is inexpensive, naturally-available and mechanically-strong when compar

What is a Gunn Diode Ocillator?A Gunn Diode Oscillator (also known as a Gunn oscillators or transferred electron device oscillator) are a cheap source of microwave power and comprise of Gunn diode or transferred electron device (TED) as their major component. They perform a similiar funciton as Reflex Klystron Oscillators. In Gunn oscillators, the Gunn diode will be placed in a resonant cavity. A Gunn oscillator is comprised of two major components: (i) A DC bias and (ii) A tuning circuit.How a

What is a Wien Bridge Oscillator?A Wien-Bridge Oscillator is a type of phase-shift oscillator which is based upon a Wien-Bridge network (Figure 1a) comprising of four arms connected in a bridge fashion. Here two arms are purely resistive while the other two arms are a combination of resistors and capacitors.In particular, one arm has resistor and capacitor connected in series (R1 and C1) while the other has them in parallel (R2 and C2).This indicates that these two arms of the network behave ide

What is a Colpitts Oscillator?A Colpitts Oscillator is a type of LC oscillator. Colpitts oscillators were invented by American engineer Edwin H. Colpitts in 1918. Like other LC oscillators, Colpitts oscillators use a combination of inductors (L) and capacitors (C) to produce an oscillation at a certain frequency. The distinguishing feature of the Colpitts oscillator is that the feedback for the active device is taken from a voltage divider made of two capacitors in series across the inductor.Tha

What is a Hartley Oscillator?A Hartley Oscillator (or RF oscillator) is a type of harmonic oscillator. The oscillation frequency for a Hartley Oscillator is determined by an LC oscillator (i.e. a circuit consisting of capacitors and inductors). Hartley oscillators are typically tuned to produce waves in the radiofrequency band (which is why they are also known as RF oscillators).Hartley Oscillators were invented in 1915 by American engineer Ralph Hartley.The distinguishing feature of a Hartley o

What is an Oscillator?An oscillator is a circuit which produces a continuous, repeated, alternating waveform without any input. Oscillators basically convert unidirectional current flow from a DC source into an alternating waveform which is of the desired frequency, as decided by its circuit components.The basic principle behind the working of oscillators can be understood by analyzing the behavior of an LC tank circuit shown in Figure 1 below, which employs an inductor L and a completely pre-ch

What is a Signal Generator?Signal generators are electronic devices that generate electronic signals and waveform. These electronic signals are either repeating or non-repeating as per the requirements and field of applications. There are different types of signal generators with different level of capability and functionality. All the signal generators have different designs, different dimensions, and parameters. So, the variety of generators serves different purposes and covers a range of appl

Before we go into the topic of tuned collector oscillator, we must first understand what is an oscillator is and what it does. An oscillator is an electronic circuit that generates an oscillating or periodic signal, like a sine wave or a square wave. The main purpose of an oscillator is to convert a DC signal to an AC signal. Oscillators have numerous usages like in TV, clocks, radio, computers etc. Almost all electronic devices use some oscillators to generate an oscillating signal.One of the s

RC phase-shift oscillators use resistor-capacitor (RC) network (Figure 1) to provide the phase-shift required by the feedback signal. They have excellent frequency stability and can yield a pure sine wave for a wide range of loads.Ideally a simple RC network is expected to have an output which leads the input by 90o.However, in reality, the phase-difference will be less than this as the capacitor used in the circuit cannot be ideal. Mathematically the phase angle of the RC network is expressed a

What is a Clapp Oscillator?A Clapp oscillator (also known as a Gouriet oscillator) is an LC electronic oscillator that uses a particular combination of an inductor and three capacitors to set the oscillator’s frequency (see circuit diagram below). LC oscillators use a transistor (or vacuum tube or other gain element) and a positive feedback network.A Clapp oscillator is a variation of a Colpitts oscillator where an additional capacitor (C3) is added into the tank circuit to be in series with the