MULTIPHASE VCO USING CCCIIs

Iqbal A. Khan1, Mohd. S. Ansari2

Department of Electronics Engineering, Z. H. College of Engineering & Technology,
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh-202002, India.
1
Tel: +91-571-2421178, E-mail: iqbalakhan19@rediffmail.com
2
Tel: +91-9927014450, E-mail: mdsamar@gmail.com

Abstract
Among the different versions of current conveyors, the
second-generation current controlled conveyor (CCCII) has
proved to be a functionally flexible and versatile building
block for the realization of analog functions. The major
attractions include higher signal bandwidth, independence
of closed-loop gain, high slew rate capability, greater
linearity, wide dynamic range and simpler circuits. As a
result many filters and oscillators using CCCII are reported
in technical literature. However, not much work is reported
on voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO) using CCCII,
though it has the capability. This paper presents a
multiphase sinusoidal voltage-controlled oscillator
(MPSVCO) using CCCIIs. The proposed circuit was
simulated using SPICE and the results obtained agree with
the theoretical predictions.
Keywords:
Oscillator, current conveyor, voltage controlled oscillator,
multiphase sinusoidal waveform
II. Voltage – control for the CCCII
The proposed scheme to incorporate voltage control in a
CCCII is presented in figure – 1. The generation of the
control current (IB) for the CCCII is done through the
arrangement shown. The voltage VC is the control voltage
and this control voltage along with the resistance RC controls
the collector current for transistor Q. Assuming high value of
the base current amplification factor (β) for transistor Q, the
emitter current can be made almost equal to the collector
current. This emitter current of the transistor Q can be used
as the biasing current (IB) for the CCCII. Therefore, the
control current can be written as
VC
IB  (1)
RC
An important point to note here is that one can change the
control voltage (VC) to achieve a value of the bias current
that suits the requirements.

I. Introduction Y Z+
CCCII
Over the last decade or so, several filter and oscillator X Z-
structures have been proposed using the second generation
current-controlled conveyor (CCCII) [1-3]. However, all of
IB
these provide electronic tunability, if any, by the bias current.
The use of a voltage to control the characteristics of a circuit
based on CCCIIs has not been exploited to the fullest extent.
The CCCII has an inherent current – control mechanism Q
wherein the bias current (IB) to the device governs the serial
parasitic resistance presented at port X of the device. A
scheme to tweak the current – control to yield an
arrangement wherein the control of RX can be done by an
external voltage (the control voltage, V C) would mean that
the entire repertoire of the CCCII based circuits can be RC
transformed to work as voltage – controlled circuits.
This paper is organized as follows. Section – II presents the VC
proposed scheme to provide voltage – control to the CCCII.
Figure 1 - A scheme to generate the control current (IB) of
Section – III deals with the design of a multiphase sinusoidal
the CCCII using a control voltage (VC)
oscillator using CCCII and the application of the technique
developed in section – II to the circuit thereby producing a This scheme can be easily extended to provide bias currents
multiphase sinusoidal voltage – controlled oscillator to any number of CCCIIs at the same time by using
(MPSVCO) using CCCIIs. Section – IV presents the results additional BJTs and connecting their collectors and bases
of SPICE simulation of the circuit developed in the previous together. The individual emitter currents generated for each
section. Some conclusive remarks appear in section – V. transistor can be used as the biasing current for one CCCII.
III. Multiphase Sinusoidal VCO  a 
n

Loop Gain   (5)

This section presents the design of the proposed multiphase  s  b 
sinusoidal voltage – controlled oscillator (MPSVCO). The
basic building block for the MPSVCO is the inverting first – Now, to achieve sinusoidal oscillations, Barkhausen
order low – pass section of figure – 2. Each of these sections criterion must be satisfied. This yields
is realized using two CCCII blocks and a single capacitor. n
 a 
 s  b  1 (6)
s  j

Equation (6) can be rearranged to obtain the characteristic

equation for the n-phase sinusoidal oscillator.

( j  b) n  (1) n1 a n  0 (7)

For the purpose of verification of the proposed theory, third

order sinusoidal oscillator was chosen. Voltage-control of
the bias current was also incorporated, as discussed in
section-I, thereby resulting in the voltage – controlled
sinusoidal oscillator of figure – 4.

Figure 2 – The inverting first-order lowpass section For the third order oscillator, the three constituent first –
order lowpass sections are taken to be similar, i.e.
The transfer gain [4] of the circuit of figure – 2 is given by
a1  a2  a3  a
a
TLPF  (2) b1  b2  b3  b
sb
and hence equation (7) reduces to
where
( j  b) 3  a 3  0 (8)
1
a (3) Using equations (3) and (4) in equation (8) yields the
CR X 1 following.
and
Frequency of oscillation:  b 3 (9)
1
b (4) Condition of oscillation: a  2b (10)
CR X 2
For the circuit shown in figure – 4, equation (9) reduces to
Using the basic building block of figure – 2, an n-phase
sinusoidal oscillator can be obtained by cascading n such 3
fo  VC (11)
blocks as shown in figure – 3. CVT RC 2
where VT is the thermal voltage and RX2 is the series
parasitic resistance that presents itself at port X of the second
CCCII of figure – 2. The resistance RX is related to the bias
current (IB) and thus to the control voltage (VC).
I B1 VC
RX 1   (12)
2VT 2VT RC1
I B2 VC
RX 2   (13)
Figure 3 – Basic scheme for n-phase sinusoidal oscillator 2VT 2VT RC 2
Finally, equation (10) gives the condition of oscillation as

For the purpose of analysis, loop gain between the points RC 2  2RC1 (14)
marked ‘X’ and ‘Y’ in figure – 3 is considered. For an It is evident from equations (11) and (12) that the frequency
n-phase oscillator topology of figure – 3, the loop gain can of oscillation can independently be controlled through the
be expressed as DC voltage VC.
 Y Z- Y Z- Y Z- Y Z- Y Z- Y Z-
CCCII C1
CCCII CCCII C2
CCCII CCCII C3
CCCII
X X X X X X

IB1 IB2 IB1 IB2 IB1 IB2

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6

RC2
RC1

VC

Figure 4 – Three-phase voltage controlled sinusoidal oscillator using CCCIIs

IV. Simulation Results

The proposed circuit of figure – 4 was simulated using

SPICE for C1 = C2 = C3 = 100nF, RC1 = 5K and RC2 = 10K.
The control voltage was varied from 0V to 4V in steps of 1V.
The simulated output waveforms for different values of the
control voltages are shown in figure – 6. It is evident from
the figure that the frequency of the output waveform
increases linearly as the control voltage is increased.
A comparison of the theoretically predicted and the
simulated results is shown in figure – 5. As can be seen from
the figure, the theoretical and simulated results are in close
conformity. The three-phase output waveforms obtained
after SPICE simulations are presented in figure – 7. Three
separate plots are provided for VC = 1V, 2V and 4V. Figure 5 – Comparison of theoretical and simulated results
40mV

20mV

0V

-20mV

-40mV
15.80ms 15.82ms 15.84ms 15.86ms 15.88ms 15.90ms 15.92ms 15.94ms 15.96ms 15.98ms 16.00ms
V(4)
Time

Figure 6 – Voltage control of the oscillation frequency of the proposed MPSVCO

 (a) – Three phase outputs for VC=1V

(b) – Three phase outputs for VC=2V

(c) – Three phase outputs for VC=4V

Figure 7 – Simulated waveforms for the proposed MPSVCO for different values of control voltage (V C)
V. Conclusion
A novel scheme to incorporate voltage – control in the
CCCII is presented and utilized to design a multiphase
sinusoidal voltage controlled oscillator. The MPSVCO thus
obtained exhibits linear variation of frequency with the
control voltage. The MPSVCO was realized and simulated
using SPICE and the results are found to verify the theory.
References
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