WORLD UNIVERSITY OF BANGLADESH

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Course Name: Electronics II Lab

EXPERIMENT # 7: TO STUDY THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PHASE

SHIFT OSCILLATORS

OBJECTIVE
To study the characteristics of RC oscillators or Phase shift oscillators.

EQUIPMENTS

Dual Power supply

Oscilloscope
Operational amplifier
Transistors
Resistors and capacitors

THEORY

The oscillator is an amplifier with positive feedback that generates a number of waveforms usually used
in instrumentation and test equipments. An oscillator that generates a sinusoidal output is called a
harmonic oscillator; the transistor is usually acts in the active region. The output of the relaxation
oscillator is not sinusoidal depending on the transient rise and decay of voltage in RC or RL circuits.

Phase shift oscillators in which the output of an amplifier must be 180 o out of phase with input. A
general circuit diagram of a phase shift oscillator is shown in Fig. (l), where the amplifier is an ideal one.
A phase shift network (usually a resistor-capacitor network) is used to produce an additional phase shift of
180 at one particular frequency to develop the required positive feedback. From the mesh network
equations of the feedback network, we find the feedback factor as,
At this frequency = 1/29 and it is required that (A) must be at least 29 to satisfy oscillation condition as
shown in Fig.(1).

The phase shift oscillator is used to the range of frequencies for several hertz to several kilohertz and so
includes the range of audio frequencies. The frequency depends on the impedance elements in the phase
shift network. The phase shift oscillator circuit is not very suitable for generating variable frequency
because the resistors and capacitors must be simultaneously changed to obtain the required frequency
control over a wide range therefore it is used mostly in fixed frequency applications.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

Fig. 1: Phase Shift Oscillator

PROCEDURE

1. Build the Phase Shift Oscillator circuit shown in Fig. 1 with the component values given in Preliminary
Study section.

2. Observe the output and check that the circuit is oscillating (If it is not, change the power supply voltage
slightly until you catch a clear sinusoidal output). Observe the voltages at node numbers 1, 2, 3 and
comment on the results.

3. Measure and record the amplitude and the frequency of the output waveform.

4. Determine the frequency of the oscillations. Record the peak amplitude of the oscillations. Note any
distortion in the output sine wave. Write a short explanation for the results.

REPORT

l. What are the general oscillation conditions in feedback amplifiers?

2. Drive an expression for the frequency of oscillation in phase shift oscillators.

3. What is phase shift oscillators? What is the frequency response for a phase shift oscillators?
4. what are the advantages of phase shift oscillators over the other oscillator?
5. Write down the applications of phase shift oscillators.