14/10/2017 Wein Bridge Oscillator

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Wein Bridge Oscillator

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Contents [hide]

1 Wien Bridge Oscillator

2 Wien Bridge Oscillator Using Op-amp
2.1 Example Problem on Wien Bridge Oscillator
3 Transistorized Wien Bridge Oscillator
4 Automatic Gain Control in Wien Bridge
5 Advantages
6 Disadvantages
7 Related Articles

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Due to the advantages like good frequency stability, very low distortion and ease of tuning, a
Wien bridge oscillator becomes the most popular audio frequency range signal generator
circuit. This type of oscillator uses RC feedback network so it can also be considered as RC
oscillator.

The main di erence between the general oscillator and Wien bridge oscillator is that in an
oscillator, ampli er stage introduces 180 degrees phase shift and additional 180 degrees
phase shift is introduced by feedback network so as to obtain the 360 degrees or zero phase
shift around the loop to satisfy the Barkhausen criteria.

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But, in case of the Wien bridge oscillator, a non inverting ampli er used in ampli er stage does
not introduce any phase shift. Hence there is no need of phase shift through feedback network
is required in order to satisfy the Barkhausen criteria. Let us discuss in brief about Wien bridge
oscillator.

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Wien Bridge Oscillator

A Wien bridge oscillator produces sine waves which uses RC network as the frequency
determining portion of the circuit. A basic circuit of Wien bridge oscillator with ampli er stage
is shown in below gure.

The output of the ampli er is applied between the terminals 1 and 3 while the input to the
ampli er stage is supplied from terminals 2 and 4 hence the ampli er output becomes input
voltage of the bridge whilst the output of the bridge becomes the input voltage of the
ampli er.

When the bridge is balanced the input voltage to the ampli er becomes zero, so in order to
produce the sustained oscillations input to the ampli er must be non-vanishing. Therefore the
bridge is unbalanced by adjusting the proper values of the resistors.

As we mentioned above the RC network is responsible for determining the frequency of the
oscillator. This RC network consists of two frequency sensitive arms namely series R1C1 and
parallel R2, C2. This network is also called as lead-lag circuit.

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The output voltage across the capacitor lags behind the input voltage by an angle between 0
to 90 degrees in the lag circuit. In the lead circuit, the output voltage across the resistor
leads the input voltage by an angle between 0 and 90 degrees.

At very low frequencies the output voltage becomes zero since the series capacitor behaves
as an open circuited and also there is no output at very high frequencies since the parallel
capacitor acts as shorted circuited path to the input voltage. Therefore in-between these two
extreme conditions, the output voltage reach to the maximum value.

The resonant frequency is the frequency at which the output voltage is maximum. At this
frequency, feedback fraction K reaches to a maximum value of 1/3.

The feedback will be maximum when Xc = R and hence the resonant frequency is given by

f = 1 / 2RC

The above gure indicates the output voltage at resonant frequency. At the resonant

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frequency the phase shift through the circuit is zero and the attenuation V1/V0 is 1/3.
Therefore, in order to maintain oscillations, the ampli er must have a gain greater than 3.

The di erent frequency ranges can be provided by the Wien bridge oscillator by mounting the
two capacitors on the shaft and by varying their values simultaneously.

Wien Bridge Oscillator Using Op-amp

The gure below shows a widely used type of Wien bridge oscillator. The operational ampli er
is used in a non inverting con guration and feedback form a voltage divider network. The
resistances R1 and Rf forms the part of the feedback path which determines or facilitates to
adjust the ampli er gain.

The output of op-amp is connected as input to the bridge at points a and c while the output of
the bridge at points b and d are connected to the input of op-amp.

A portion of the ampli er output is feedback through the voltage divider network (a series
combination of resistor and capacitor) to the positive or non-inverting terminal of the ampli er.

Also, second portion of the ampli er is feedback to the inverting or negative terminal of the
ampli er through the impedance of magnitude 2R.

If the feedback network elements are chosen properly, the phase shift of the signal input to
the ampli er is zero at certain frequency. Since the ampli er is non-inverting which introduce
zero phase shift plus the feedback network zero phase shift, the total phase shift becomes
zero around the loop hence the required condition of oscillations.

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Therefore the Wien bridge oscillator works as a sine wave generator whose frequency of
oscillations is determined by R and C components.

The gain of the operational ampli er is expressed as

A = 1 + (Rf / R1)

As we discussed above that the gain of non-inverting ampli er must be of minimum 3 to

satisfy Barkhausen criterion.

Therefore, 1 + (Rf / R1) 3

(Rf / R1) 2

Therefore the ratio of resistances Rf to R1 must be equal to or greater than 2. The frequency of
oscillations is given by

f = 1 / 2RC

Example Problem on Wien Bridge Oscillator

Determine the RC values of Wien bridge oscillator circuit for the operation at a frequency of 10
kHz if R = 100 K ohms and R1 = 1 K ohm.

Given that f = 10 kHz, R = 100 K ohms, R1 = 1K ohm.

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The frequency of oscillations in Wien bridge oscillator is given as

f = 1 / (2RC)

Then C = 1 /(2 100 103 10 103)

= 0.159 nF

For sustained oscillations, gain must be greater than 3, i.e., A 3

Then 1 + (Rf / R1) 3

(Rf / R1) 2

Rf 1K Ohm

Therefore R and C values are 0.159 nF and 1K Ohm respectively.

Transistorized Wien Bridge Oscillator

The gure below shows the transistorized Wien bridge oscillator which uses two stage
common emitter transistor ampli er. Each ampli er stage introduces a phase shift of 180
degrees and hence a total 360 degrees phase shift is introduced which is nothing but a zero
phase shift condition.

The feedback bridge consists of RC series elements, RC parallel elements, R3 and R4

resistances. The input to the bridge circuit is applied from the collector of transistor T2 through
a coupling capacitor.

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When the DC source is applied to the circuit, a noise signal is at the base of the transistor T1 is
generated due to the movement of charge carriers through transistor and other circuit
components. This voltage is ampli ed with gain A and produce output voltage 180 degrees
out of phase with input voltage.

This output voltage is applied as input to second transistor at base terminal of T2. This voltage
is multiplied with gain of the T2.

The ampli ed output of the transistor T2 is 180 degrees out of phase with the output of the T1.
This output is feedback to the transistor T1 through the coupling capacitor C. So the
oscillations are produced at wide range of frequencies by this positive feedback when
Barkhausen conditions are satis ed.

Generally, the Wien bridge in the feedback network incorporates the oscillations at single
desired frequency.

The bridge is get balanced at the frequency at which total phase shift is zero.

The output of the two stage transistor acts as an input to the feedback network which is
applied between the base and ground.

Feedback voltage,Vf = (Vo R4) / (R3 + R4)

Automatic Gain Control in Wien Bridge

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The gain must be of self adjusting for achieving stability for feedback oscillators. This is a form
of Automatic Gain Control (AGC). This can be achieved by simply placing a zener diode in
parallel with resistor R3 in feedback network. When the output signal reaches to the zener
breakdown voltage, zener diode conducts which in turn causes to short out resistance R3.

This decreases the ampli er gain to 3 and hence sustained oscillations produced by the result
of total loop gain 1. Although this method of automatic gain control is simple but it su ers from
the non-linearity of the zener diode so the sinusoidal wave get distorted.

Another method of controlling the gain is the use of a JFET as a voltage controlled resistance
in a negative feedback path. As compared with the zener diode method, this method of gain
control produces a stable sinusoidal waveform. A JFET operates in ohmic region with small or
zero Vos.

Therefore the drain source resistance increases with increase of gate voltage. Thus the
automatic gain control is achieved by this voltage control resistance when the JFET is placed
in negative feedback loop.

The above gure illustrates the automatic gain control of JFET stabilized Wien bridge
oscillator. In this circuit, the ampli er gain is controlled by the components Rf, R3 and Q1.
Depends on the gate voltage, the drain-source resistance is varied. This resistance is minimum
with gate zero volts. At this, the loop gain will be more than 1.

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As the output voltage increases rapidly, negative output signal forward bias the diode and
hence capacitor charges to a negative voltage. This charging voltage increases the resistance
of the JFET between the drain and source which further leads to reduce the ampli er gain.

By selecting the proper values of feedback components, the loop gain can be stabilized at
desired level.

Advantages
Because of the usage of two stage ampli er, the overall gain of this oscillator is high.
By varying the values of C1 and C2 or with use of variable resistors, the frequency of
oscillations can be varied.
It produces a very good sine wave with less distortion
The frequency stability is good
Due to the absence of inductors, no interference occurs from external magnetic elds.

Disadvantages Electronics Project Kits For Students Click Here

More number of components is needed for two stage ampli er type of Wien bridge
oscillators.
Very high frequencies cannot be generated.

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