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MICROWAVE TRANSISTOR
OSCILLATORS: AN ANALYTIC
APPROACH TO SIMPLIFY
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
M
icrowave oscillator design generally equivalent circuit elements and its static
represents a complex problem. De- characteristics.4
pending on the technical require- A conventional analytic approach to derive
ments of the oscillator, it is necessary to define explicit expressions for the optimum values of
the configuration of the oscillation system and an oscillator circuit first was applied to a bipo-
transistor type, evaluate and measure small- lar transistor oscillator using an ideal trans-
and large-signal parameters of the transistor former for feedback.5 Later, an analytic ap-
equivalent circuit and use an appropriate non- proach was used with a GaAs FET oscillator
linear simulator to calculate the oscillator using a simplified transistor model where the
electrical and spectral characteristics. influence of internal feedback from the gate-
When a transistor is used, representing the drain capacitance had not been taken into ac-
circuit as a two-port network is the most suit- count.6 Such an approach involves a two-step
able approach for computer-aided design of procedure. First, the optimum combination of
free-running microwave oscillators. In this feedback elements required to realize a small-
case, the basic parameters of the equivalent signal maximum negative resistance to permit
circuit either can be directly measured or ap- oscillations at the largest amplitude is defined.
proximated on the basis of experimental data Then, taking into account the large-signal
with sufficient accuracy over a wide frequency nonlinearity of the transistor equivalent circuit
range.1–3 In large-signal operation, it is neces- elements, the realized small-signal negative
sary to define the appropriate parameters of resistance is characterized to determine the
the active two-port network as well as the pa- optimum load impedance when maximum
rameters of the oscillator circuit’s external ele- output power is generated for a given oscilla-
ments. Initially, the values of the external cir- tor circuit configuration.
cuit elements are unknown. In addition, it is
difficult to directly choose the values for a giv- A GENERAL ANALYTIC APPROACH
en microwave oscillator with a required oscil- In general, the purpose of the microwave
lation frequency without any preliminary cal- bipolar oscillator design procedure is to define
culation. This process can be sufficiently time- the optimum bias conditions and the values of
consuming and, in a typical case, calls for feedback elements and load that correspond
much simulation. Therefore, it is convenient to the maximum power at a given frequency in
to use an analytic method of optimizing mi-
crowave oscillator design that incorporates ex- ANDREY V. GREBENNIKOV
plicit expressions for feedback elements and Institute of Microelectronics
load impedance in terms of the transistor Singapore
TECHNICAL FEATURE
According to the optimization analytic procedure pre-
Cco
sented previously,4 the optimum values of X1 and X2 at
which the negative value of Rout is maximal are deter-
+ Vµ − mined by solving
Lb rb rµ rc Lc ∂Rout ∂Rout
b
= 0 and =0 (3)
+ Cci rce
∂X 1 ∂X 2
rπ
Cπ Cs
Vπ The optimal values of X01, X02 and X0out depend on the im-
− pedance parameters of the active two-port network such
Z1 ZL that
Re gmFVπ − gmRVµ, τ
R 21 – R12 R12 + R 21 X + X 21
X 01 = – R11 – R1 – X 11 + 12
X 21 – X 12 2 2
Le
e
X 02 =
(2R 2 + R12 + R 21 )(R 21 – R12 ) – X 12 + X 21
Z2 Zout
2( X 21 – X 12 ) 2
Zout = Z 22 + Z 2 –
(Z12 + Z 2 )(Z 21 + Z 2 ) X 22 = X 11 –
a ω
2
(2) (5)
Z11 + Z 2 + Z1 ωC c ω T
TECHNICAL FEATURE
I1 LARGE-SIGNAL
SIMULATION
V1
OSCILLATOR
One of the most 20 nH 8 pF
Yload P1
CIRCUIT popular approaches 35 Ω 50 nH
to nonlinear free-
Yosc Y1 running oscillator FREQ
analysis is to use the SINGLE TONE
▲ Fig. 3 The principle of nonlinear
harmonic balance +
0.8 pF 1.2 nH
+
circuit simulation. nHarm: 5
− BIAS BIAS −
equations devel- Freq: ?3.5GHz 4.5GHz?
oped for the circuit V = −2 V=9
TABLE I and consider the os-
TRANSISTOR EQUIVALENT cillation frequency
CIRCUIT PARAMETERS as an additional op-
Cco (pF) 0.35
timization variable.1 ▲ Fig. 4 The simulated series-feedback bipolar transistor oscillator
equivalent circuit.
Such an algorithm is
Cci (Vµ = 0) (pF) 0.34 used in the new ver- Fig. 5 The simulated starting
Cπ (Vπ = 0) (pF) 2 sion of Microwave Harmonica as a oscillation conditions. ▼
part of the Serenade 7.5 circuit sim- 20
Le (nH) 0.3
ulator.8 The basic idea in this method
Lb (nH) 0.3 can be explained starting from the os- 0
cillation conditions when an oscillator
Y1 (mA)
Lc (nH) 0.5 −20
circuit is considered as a one-port cir-
re (Ω) 0.3 −40
cuit. To determine the resonant fre-
rb (Ω) 4 quency, the program computes the −60
rc (Ω) 1.75 circuit loop gain by imposing a small
test voltage source on the circuit, as −80
τ (ps) 10 shown in Figure 3. The fundamental
3.4 3.6 3.8 4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6
FREQUENCY (GHz)
source current I1 = Re(I1) + jIm(I1) is
where a function of zero phase peak voltage
FREQUENCY (GHz)
V1 and frequency f. If f is the circuit
1 4.05 25
=
Pout (dBm)
a self-resonant frequency, then the 4.00 20
2
ω phase of the current I1 is zero and 3.95 15
1+ Im(I1) = 0 for a nonzero Re(I1). For a 3.90 10
ωT nonzero voltage V 1 and a small 3.85 5
ω T = 2πf T Im(I 1), the steady-state oscillation 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
conditions are present for Re(I1) = 0 Re (Ω)
Substituting the expressions for real when the circuit feedback loop gain is
and imaginary parts of the Z parame- equal to unity. Starting oscillation ▲ Fig. 6 Output power and oscillation
ters from Equation 5 into Equation 4, frequency vs. emitter bias resistance.
conditions are found at Re(I 1) < 0
the optimum values of imaginary and Im(I1) = 0.
parts of the feedback elements X10, X20 To verify the accuracy of the ana- ▼ Fig. 7 Output power vs. load resistance.
and X0out expressed through the para- lytic approach used to determine the
22
meters of the bipolar transistor equiv- oscillator external feedback parame-
Pout (dBm)
21
alent circuit are given by ters, a medium power microwave
20
bipolar transistor was chosen. To de-
1 ω termine the value of output resis- 19
X 01 = – r b1 0 18
2ωC c ωT tance R out for the chosen value of
17
load resistance RL, the amplitude bal-
ω 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
X 02 = –
1
2ωC c
( )
– rb 2 + re
ωT
ance equation R out + rc + RL = 0 must
0
be used. For the preliminary chosen
RL (Ω)