Department of Electrical Engineering

Electronic Circuit Design

Faculty Member: Dr. Abdur Rehman

Dated:

Lab Engineer: Sanan Ahmad

Lab Engineer: Waseem Abbas

Semester:

Section:

12 Multivibrator Circuits

Name

Reg: No.

Report
Marks /
10

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5

Total / 15

12.1 Introduction
This experiment will familiarize students to understand the functionality of different
Multivibrator circuits and their design and implementation using 555 timer.

12.2 Objectives
The goal of this handout is to build an intuition to design and implement A-stable, Monostable and Bi-stable Multivibrator circuits; and to generate different clock signals using 555 Timer.

12.3 Equipment
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

DMM (Digital Multi Meter)

DC Power Supply
Function Generator
Oscilloscope
Resistors: 2.2 k (1), 3.9 k (1), 1 k (1), 200 k (1)
Breadboard
NE555 IC (1)
Capacitors: 0.01 F (2), 0.1 F (1)
Diode 1N4007 (1)

12.4 Conduct of Lab

1. Students are required to perform this experiment using the equipment provided.
2. Students are required to work in a group of two.
3. In case some aspect of the lab experiment is not understood the students are advised to
seek help from the course instructor, lab engineers, assigned teaching assistants (TA) and
lab attendants.

12.5 Theory and Background

555 timer is a one of the most widely used ICs in electronics and is used in various electronic
circuits for its robust and stable properties. It works as a square-wave form generator with duty
cycle varying from 50 % to 99 %, and can also provide time delay in circuits.
The 555 timer comes as 8 pin DIP (Dual In-line Package) IC. There is also a 556 dual version
of 555 timer which consists of two complete 555 timers in 14 DIP and a 558 quad timer which is
consisting of four 555 timers in one IC and is available as a 16 pin DIP in the market. 555 timer is
shown in figure 12.1.
The 555 timer is used in many circuits, for example One-shot pulse generator in Monostable
mode; as an oscillator in A-stable Mode; or in Bistable mode to produce a flip/flop type action. It
is also used in many types of other circuit for achievement of various purposes for instance Pulse
Amplitude Modulation (PAM), Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) etc.

Figure 12.1: 555 Timer

Working of 555 Timer IC

Comparator:
The Comparator are the basic electronic component which compares the two input
voltages i.e. between the inverting () and the non-inverting (+) input and if the non-inverting
input is more than the inverting input then the output of the comparator is high. Also the input
resistance of an ideal comparator is infinite.
Voltage Divider:
As we know that the input resistance of the comparators is infinite hence the input
voltage is divided equally between the three resistors. The voltage value will be VCC/3 across each
resistor.
Flip/Flop:
Flip / flop is a memory element of Digital-electronics. The output (Q) of the flip / flop is
high if the input at S terminal is low and R is at high and the output (Q) is low when the
input at S is high and at R is low.

12.6 Procedure:
A-stable Multivibrator:

Figure 12.2: A-stable Multivibrator

1. Connect the circuit as shown in Figure 12.2.
2. Switch on the D.C power supply and set supply voltage (VCC) to 5 V.
3. Observe the o/p waveform at pin 3 using oscilloscope & also observe the waveform across
capacitor (at pin 6).
4. Measure the frequency of oscillations from the observed o/p and compare it with
theoretical value.
5. Measure the Duty Cycle (TON / (TON + T OFF)) from the observed o/p and compare it with
theoretical value.
6. Sketch the waveforms on graph sheet.

Output Waveforms

Duty Cycle
Measured

Frequency

Calculated Measured

Calculated

Table 12.1

Mono-stable Multivibrator:
Figure 12.3: Mono-stable Multivibrator

1.
2.
3.
4.

Connect the circuit as shown in Figure 12.3.

Switch on the D.C power supply and set the voltage to 5 V.
Apply trigger signal of 5 VPP square wave form at 100 Hz from the Function Generator.
Observe the o/p wave form at pin 3 using oscilloscope & also observe the waveform
across capacitor (at pin 6).
5. Measure the o/p pulse width, duty cycle and frequency using scope.
6. Sketch the waveforms on graph sheet.

Output waveform

Pulse width

Duty cycle

Frequency

Table 12.2

Bi-stable Multivibrator

Figure 12.4: Bi-stable Multivibrator

The most common 555 configurations are that of A-stable and Mono-stable Multivibrator.
This circuit diagram shows how a 555 may be used as a Bi-stable Multivibrator. It means
whenever you press the toggle button the state of output will change and will remain in this state
until toggle button is not pressed again as shown in figure 12.5.

Figure 12.5
1. Connect the circuit as shown in figure 12.4.
2. Verify the operation by pressing the toggle button.
3. Connect the scope at output terminal and examine the wave form.

12.7 Conclusion
(By students about learning from the Lab)