Dept.

of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Minnesota
EE3115 Sprint 2006
Discussion Problem #11

Assigned: April 6-7, 2006

Due: Monday April 10, 2006

Use Pspice to answer the questions posed below for the Wien Bridge oscillator shown below
which utilizes a uA741 oop amp. Use ±15V supplies for the op amp in the circuit.
D1

R2 D2

R3
R1

- +
uA741 +
C Vo
R
-

R C

1. Provide graphs of the output waveform vo (t) for the cases listed below. Set the nominal
frequency of oscillation at 1 kHz. If an initial “kick” is needed to get the circuit started
oscillating, put an initial condition of 0.1 V on the capacitor which is connected to ground.

a. Loop gain at oscillation frequency = 0.95

b. Loop gain at oscillation frequency = 1.05
2. Keeping the loop gain at 1.05, find the highest frequency at which the circuit will
produce a reasonable output. This can be done varying the two capacitors simultaneously
and at each value finding vo (t). The term reasonable is elastic, but use some justifiable criteria.
Record the frequency of the simulation waveform, the peak-to-peak amplitude, and the
theoretical value of the oscillation frequency at each value of capacitance used. Start at 1 KHz
and increase the frequency by a factor of 2 each time, i.e. 1 KHz, 2 KHz, 4 KHz, 8 KHz etc.
The information collected in this step will be used to manually construct the plots called for in
the following steps

3. Construct a plot (manually) of oscillation frequency as determined from

PSPICE versus the theoretical value based on the RC value in the feedback network.

4. Plot the peak-to-peak magnitude of the output voltage versus frequency. Compare the slope of
the curve with the published slew rate (about 0.5 V/µsec) of the 741.
 Discussion Problem #10 Solutions

EE3115 Fall 2005

Oscillator circuit set for oscillation frequency of 1 kHz and loop gain of 1.05. For a loop gain of
0.95, set R4 = 500 ohms.
1. Output waveforms for different loop gains.

Output for loop gain = 0.95

Output for loop gain = 1.05

2. Frequency of Oscillation versus capacitance value. Loop gain at 1.05 at low frequency.

Capacitance Frequency Frequency Vout

(Theory) (Simulation) Volts p-p
160 nF 1 kHz 1 kHz 17.8
80 nF 2 kHz 2 kHz 18
40 nF 4 kHz 4 kHz 17.9
20 nF 8 kHz 7.5 kHz 17.7
10 nF 16 kHz 13.7 kHz 12.6
5 nF 32 kHz 25 kHz 8
2.5 nF 64 kHz 45 kHz 4
1.5 nF 109 kHz 73 kHz 1.2
1.25 nF 128 kHz none damped

Output waveform for C = 1.25 nF

Highest frequency of oscillation approximately 70 kHz.

3. Simulation frequency versus theoretical frequency. See plot below. Note the increasing
deviation at higher frequencies. If simulation matched theory, the curve should be a straignt line
with a slope of unity.
4. Output voltage versus frequency showing effect of op amp slew rate.

From above semilog plot, the voltage appears inversely proportional to frequency. That is:

Vo = constant/frequency.

If vo(t) = Vosin(ωt) then |dvo(t)/dt| = ωVo = SR = slew rate.

From graph Vo = 18 v p-p at 8 kHz. ωVo = (2π)(8x103)(18) = 9x105 V/sec

At 73 kHz, SR = (2π)(7.3x104(1.2) = 5.5x105 V/sec.

Both values are in reasonable agreement with the 5x105 V/sec given in a 741 spec sheet.