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Astable, monostable and bistable circuits, Schmitt triggers and multivibrators, using tubes, transistors and
integrated circuits.
Although both the IEEE Standard Dictionary of Electrical and Electronic Terms and the Cambridge
Dictionary of Science and Technology have entries for "Eccles-Jordan," the name has vanished from most
modern texts on electronics and digital design, though the circuit it describes is the fundamental circuit of
computers, now known as the "flip-flop." Any state machine, and a computer is simply a huge state
machine, can be built from Eccles-Jordan circuits and logic gates. The circuit was discovered in 1919
[Radio Review, 1, 143] as a development of the multivibrator, described the year before by H. Abraham
and E. Bloch in Publication 27 of the French Ministère de la Guerre, and in Annales de Physique 12, 252
(1919). [These men are not the more famous M. Abraham and L. Bloch.] This was in the early days of the
three-element amplifying thermionic lampe-valve, before there was any application for a "memory"
circuit. Before discussing the Eccles-Jordan circuit, it is appropriate to study the multivibrator from which
it was derived.
When the circuit is first turned on, imagine that both tubes are conducting equally, and nodes "c" and "d"
are at some low voltage, with a small charge on C and the grids at ground potential. If the right-hand
triode happens to conduct slightly less, then node "d" rises in voltage, and the rise is immediately
conducted to the grid of the left-hand triode. This triode then conducts even more heavily, so node "c"
drops in voltage. Again, this is communicated to the grid of the right-hand triode, which consequently
conducts even less. This is an unstable situation, and the right-hand triode is soon cut off, so that node "c"
rises towards Vbb, charging the left-hand capacitor C to a considerable voltage.
Now the left-hand triode is conducting heavily, while the right-hand triode is cut off. Let's call this State
1. The right-hand capacitor C soon charges, allowing the grid of the right-hand triode to approach ground.
As soon as this triode conducts, node "d" falls in voltage. The left-hand C is fully charged, so this fall is
communicated to the grid, and node "c" rises, reinforcing the positive swing of the grid on the right-hand
triode. Node "d" soon sinks near ground, taking the left-hand grid to a large negative voltage. At this
point, the left-hand triode is cut off, while the right-hand triode is conducting heavily. We call this State
2.
Now the left-hand capacitor C discharges through its R2. Eventually, the grid approaches ground and
conduction begins again. As before, the condition is unstable because of the interaction of the two triodes,
and soon State 2 has become State 1 again. The other capacitor C makes the other grid very negative, and
again the charge on this C leaks off to ground. The two capacitors C take turn in charging when their plate
nodes go high, and discharging when their plate nodes go low. Do not be frustrated if the action is not
clear to you at this point; it is remarkably difficult to keep things straight. Experiment is a great help in
this--simply probe any point with the scope to discover how it behaves.
A practical multivibrator circuit is shown at the right. The 6N7 dual triode
is probably not ideal for this service, but I chose it because it is a rugged
tube, and I expected to make mistakes. The 6SN7 or 12AU7 dual triodes
were classically used for multivibrators, and they would work well here as
well. This circuit, in which R1 << R2, gives the characteristic square-wave
output at the plates, with a sharp negative spike at the leading edge of the
negative phase. When, on the other hand, R1 >> R2, the waveform at the
plates is a series of decreasing and increasing exponential ramps of large
amplitude.
Study the plate waveforms using different values of R1 and R2. Note that the amplitude of the main plate
swing (ignoring the negative spike) is proportional to R1, which can have values between 4.7k and 47k
(10k seems a good value). R2 can be anything between 10k and 1M, and has the principal effect on the
period of oscillation. Also look at the grid waveforms, which are a series of exponential decays (tube off)
and constant values near zero (tube on).
Now the capacitor discharges, and the grid of the right-hand tube becomes more positive, eventually
causing this tube to begin to conduct. This raises the cathode potential, so the left-hand tube conducts
less. This cooperative process continues until the left-hand triode is cut off, and the right-hand triode is
conducting, its grid pulled high as the voltage at the plate of the other triode increases. This is State 1. The
capacitor now charges as the grid draws a little current, and eventually the drop in cathode current turns
on the left-hand triode, whose grid has remained at a fixed potential.
The waveform at the output, the plate of the right-hand triode, is shown at the
right. It is much closer to a square wave than in the case of the Abraham and
Bloch circuit, but there is still a negative overshoot. The circuit is now "free wheeling" or running at its
natural frequency. It is possible to synchronize the oscillations with an external sine wave by applying the
external sine wave at the grid of the left-hand triode, coupled through a capacitor. If you do this (not using
the differentiating RC circuit), trigger the scope on the signal from the signal generator and observe both
the synchronizing and output signals. The frequency can be varied over a considerable range around 2
kHz, and the multivibrator will be phase locked to the synchronizing signal. Synchronization can also be
obtained at multiples of the multivibrator's natural frequency, as well as with a string of pulses instead of
a sine wave. Note the phase relations as the frequency of the synchronizing signal is varied. It is like a
phase-locked loop in effect, but the operation is quite different.
If you reduce the bias at the grid of the left-hand tube, eventually it will be negative enough to keep the
tube cut off. I found that oscillation ceased when this voltage was about 43 V. The adjustment is
somewhat sensitive. When the left-hand tube is cut off, the circuit remains in State 1, with the right-hand
triode conducting and Vo = 150 V (200 V less 5 mA x 10k). The only function of the 10k plate resistor is
to produce the output swing. If, however, the grid of the left-hand tube is momentarily positive enough to
cause the tube to conduct, the resulting instability causes the circut to pass to State 2. From State 2, it
automatically returns to State 1 after a time that depends on the component values.
The 0.01 capacitor and 1k resistor are a differentiating circuit to produce a series of alternating positive
and negative pulses from a square wave. A 9 V trigger amplitude is sufficient to produce rectangular
pulses at the plate of the right-hand triode. The width of the pulses can be adjusted somewhat by the 2.5M
potentiometer. The frequency of the trigger pulses can be varied over a wide range, while the length of
the output pulses remains constant. Such a circuit, with one stable state and one unstable state, is called a
monostable or single-shot. The original nickname for the circuit was flip-flop, but in about 1950 this term
was appropriated by the bistable circuit. The term sometimes heard as a Kipp circuit is not a name, but is
derived from the German kippen, to tilt or fall.
Waveforms for the triggered monostable are shown at the left. The grid
bias was set at 43.5 V. A square wave from the signal generator was
connected to the RC differentiating circuit to produce trigger pulses as
shown in the figure. A peak of 9 V appeared to give reliable triggering.
Note that the negative-going pulse is ineffective, since it only makes a
cutoff bias even greater. The trigger frequency can be varied over a
very wide range while the pulses remain the same length, which is
roughly the same as for the astable case. Triggering is essentially
different than synchronization. It is asynchronous, an output pulse
occurring whenever the trigger pulse arrives. The trigger is not active
during the output pulse, so this monostable is not retriggerable.
The circuit was triggered by the positive pulses produced by differentiating a square wave from the signal
generator, as above. The pulses must be high enough to overcome the bias on V1. With the values shown,
the output pulse width was 150 s. The pulse width is approximately 1.5RC. The output pulse amplitude
was 65V, with a rise time on the order of 1 s. The wave form was the same as shown in the figure above,
with an undershoot of 10V at the trailing edge. There was about a 400 ns delay from the leading edge of
the trigger pulse to the leading edge of the output pulse. The pulse width was independent of the
repetition rate, as it should be.
If you build the circuit, and watch node "b" while increasing Vi, you will note that it rises with the input
voltage at the same time that node "c" is falling, and the resulting "scissors" effect makes the transition
rapid. If then you decrease Vin, Q1 continues to conduct until the voltage at node "b" stops following the
input, and the opposite transition occurs. The output transition from low to high occurs for an input
voltage of 2 V, and the transition from high to low for an input voltage of 3 V. There is, in this case,
about 1 V of hysteresis. This circuit is well known as a Schmitt trigger
This analysis also shows us that the circuit has two stable states when Vi is biased to between 2 and 3
volts. In this range, positive and negative triggers will cause transitions between the stable states. This is
similar to the behavior of the astable circuit, which became monostable over a certain range of bias. You
might want to see if you can cause the bistable circuit to toggle by triggering it with pulses of opposite
sign, such as the differentiating circuit produces.
Finally we are ready to discuss the important circuit mentioned at the top of
this page, the Eccles-Jordan, shown at the left. In it, the capacitors of the
Abraham-Bloch multivibrator are replaced by resistors. These resistors pull
up the grids of the triodes until both conduct, and this state of unstable
equilibrium collapses into State 1 or State 2, depending on which triode
remains conducting. Both states are persistent, and do not decay into each
other. The grid resistors must be returned to a negative voltage of about -20
V for proper operation of the circuit. In this state, a negative pulse applied
to the grid of the triode that is conducting causes a transition to occur. You
can simulate such a pulse by touching a wire connected to ground to the
proper grid momentarily. Like all mechanical contacts, this will bounce,
but multiple pulses have the same effect as one. They are, in effect,
"debounced" in this circuit, which is a set-reset flip-flop in modern terminology.
Bistable circuits were originally known as triggers (a term now restricted to the pulses, or to the Schmitt
trigger), and became known inelegantly as flip-flops when used in computers after about 1950, as has
been mentioned. They exhibit the quality of "memory" since their states are maintained as long as the
power is applied. Other devices, such as magnetic cores (direction of magnetization) and capacitors
(charged or not) also exhibit memory, and can be miniaturized to a much greater extent than discrete
tubes and transistors. The capacitors forming dynamic memory are the smallest memory devices so far,
and only need to be refreshed every couple of milliseconds, which is a long time in computer life. Still,
the Eccles-Jordan bistable and its progeny are still found everywhere and are basic to computer operation.
We have merely touched a vast field of knowledge about circuits of this type, but may have explained
their principles of operation to some degree.