What is an oscillator?
The oscillator is a mechanical or electrical apparatus that produces periodic fluctuation. Or it is a device that produces a repeated waveform.
What is oscillation?
It’s a movement back and forth. Example: Pendulum of a clock. hands of the clock.
Transistor as Oscillator
An electronic oscillator basically converts dc energy into ac energy of high frequency ranging from a few Hz to several MHz. There are two types of oscillators: one is Sinusoidal and Non-Sinusoidal.
Sinusoidal oscillators generate oscillations in the form of sine waves at constant amplitude and frequency. Whereas non-sinusoidal oscillators generate complex non-sinusoidal waveforms like a square wave, triangular wave, or Sawtooth wave.
Sinusoidal oscillation can be of two types: Damped and Undamped. If the amplitude of the electrical oscillation decreases with time due to energy loss is called Damped oscillation.
On the other hand, the amplitude of the electrical oscillation remains constant with time in undamped oscillation.
Application of Oscillator
- To generate periodic sinusoidal or non-sinusoidal waveforms.
- To generate RF carriers
- To generate audio tones
- To generate a clock signal in digital circuits
- Sweep circuits in TV sets and CRO.
