I HCMOS OSCILLATORS

by J. Ruffell

HCMOS integrated circuits were originally intended for the design

of fast, low-power-consumption digital circuits. In practice, these
devices have proved to be suitable for a number of other
applications as weil. This article describes how they may be used
in the design of simple, yet reliable, Re and crystal oscillators.

HCMOS integrated circuits are devices be assumed that the potential at A and B is gins to operate, is in hertz.
that work fast, are economical in power low and that at C is high. Capacitor C is
consumption, operate without any prob- charged via resistor R until the voltage ar External influences
lems from a range of supply voltages, and B reaches the switching level of the in-
verter, VST. The potential at C then be- For Type 74HC/HCU circuits, the manu-
have a threshold voltage that is pretty sta-
comes low and that at A high. facturers state that VST is typically half the
ble over a wide range of operating temper-
Since the level at the outpur varies supply voltage, Vcc. Since VD = 0.7 V, a
atures. These parameters make them emi-
rapidly, the level of the potential at B quick calculation shows that the frequency
nently suitable for designing stable, reli-
should become VST + VCC. However, the drift varies from +9% to -2.5% if the 5 V
able oscillators. In practice, these oscilla-
input of the inverter is protected by a supply voltage varies from 3 V to 6 V. The
tors are normally of the RC type; if very
diode, so that the voltage at B can not ex- inequality of the positive and negative
stable and precisely defined frequencies
ceed Vcc + VD, in which VD is the poten- drift is caused by the constancy of the po-
are needed, the Re network must be re-
tial drop across the diode. Conversely, the tential drop across the diode, irrespective
placed by a crystal.
maximum level of the negative voltage in of the level of the supply voltage. This
Because HCMOS gates possess a very
the circuit can not exceed 0 - VD, and this constancy is important in the calculation
high input impedance, capacitors with a
oecurs when the output of inverter 2 be- of 'rl, because the term in brackets in for-
wide range of values may be used in the
comes low. The voltage at B rises from rnula [I] will vary when the supply volt-
Re network. Even more important is per-
that level to VST; only when that level is age varies in spite of VST being a fixed
haps that capacitors of very low value may
reached, does the output of inverter 1 be- percentage of the supply voltage. The fre-
be used, so that little energy is lost during
come low again. The time constant, t = quency vs supply voltage characteristic is
operation.
RC, determines the charging and discharg- given in Fig. 2.
ing periods of the capacitor: Although the manufacturers state that
Basic circuit the threshold voltage is typically 0.5 vcc,
The basic circuit of an oscillator designed 11 =-RC In{VST/(VCC+ VD)l; [I] in practice it appears that its value lies be-
from two inverters and the waveforms tween 0.3 and 0.7 in case of the HC family
12 = -RC In {(VCC-VST)/(VCC + VD)); [2] and between 0.2 and 0.8 in case of the
that occur in the circuit are shown in
HCU family. This means that the fre-
Fig. 1. Because of the inversion in the two
J = 1/(11 + 12). {3] quency drift of HC oscillators is not
gates, it is certain that the polarity of the-
greater than 9.5%, but that of HCU oscil-
voltages at A and B is opposite to that of
The values of t are in seconds and that of lators may be as high as 2\.5%.
the potential at C.
J, the
frequency at which the oscillator be- The frequency vs threshold voltage
To keep the description simple, it will

~~------------~------'

, .se 410 4.80 5.4Il &.00

,.", _1'·IZ 9OOO11·IJ

Fig. 1. Basic circuit of an Re oscillator designed Fig.2. Oscillatorfrequency vs supply voltage. Fig. 3. Variationsof the threshold voltage affect
the oscillator frequency.
from two digital inverters.
ELEKTORELECTRONICSJANUARY1990
 around 75%. The asymmetrie behaviour
here is eaused by the threshold voltage not T =-RCln[
HCMOS OSCILLATORS

V,,(Vcc-V,,) ]
I
being centred around half the supply volt- (V ce + V" )( 2Vce -V" )
age. In practice, it is found that tbe maxi- [6]
mum deviation of the threshold voltage, From this fonnula, it is seen that the diode
when the supply voltage is 5 V, causes a voltage no longer affects the period. [f ICs
frequeney drift of not greater than 16%. from the 74HC or 74HCU families are
used, so that VST is roughly 0.5Vcc,
...,- Improved stability
T=2.2RC. [7]
'.Q
Adding a resistor, Rs. to increase the input
impedance of inverter I, as shown in Fig. Beeause of the different value of VST in
5, makes the circuit a great deal more sta- HCT circuits (where it has a fixed value
ble. Tbe additional resistance increases the and is not a pereentage of the supply volt-
discharge period of eapaeitor C, and age), a smaJI correction is necessary and
o.lo,L_~~_~_~_~.......J eauses the threshold voltage of the protec- this makes the period:
a.2ll O..JJ 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.10 DM
ti on diode to have less influence on the
operation of the circuit. lf the value of Rs T= 2.4RC. [8]
Fig. 4. In Re oscillators designed around HC or is chosen high enough, the waveforms
HCU inverters, the duty factor is highly depen- shown in Fig. 5 will ensue. Note that the Formulas [7] and [8] are approxima-
dent on the levelof the threshold voltage. voltage at B varies around the threshold tions, but in practice they prove to be very
voltage at a value equal to Vcc. TOD low a close to the measured value. The measured
value of Rs may result in clipping of the and caIculated values are summarized in
characteristic is given in Fig. 3. It is inter- voltage peaks, while too high a value may, Table I (in whieh Rs = 2R).
esting to note that a dcviation of the in conjunction with Cll, cause spurious 05- The astable multivibrator functions
threshold voltage from its nominal value cillations. At an optimum value of the re- weil if bipolar eapaeitors with a value of
always results in a lowering of the fre- sistor, the variations of the duty factor and not less than 100 pF are used. Moreover,
queney. As shown in Fig. 4, the duty fac- the frequeney are redueed by some 30%, formulas [7] and [8] are usable only if the
tor is also affected by such a deviation; irrespeetive of whether HC, HCT or HCU parasitic capacitances may be ignored: this
only in the ideal case, that is, when the devices are used. is so when the capacitor is greater than 10
threshold voltage is equal to half the sup- It appears that [Cs in the 74HCU se- nE Resistor R may have a value of be-
ply voltage, will the duty faetor be 50%. ries, because their outputs are not buf- tween I kQ and I MQ.
In the above, [Cs from the HCT family fered, are partieularly suitable for this type
have not been considered, because their of oscillator,
Use of crystal
switching behaviour is rather more precise In general, it appears that the optimum
than that of devices in the other two farni- value of Rs is equal to 2R. At this value of If a very stable oseillator is needed, it
lies. Moreover, HCT circuits may be used Rs, the time constants are: should be eontrolled by a erystal instead of
only with supply voltages of 4.5-5.5 V, an RC network. A erystal has the further
and with these the threshold voltage varies n =-RC InIVsTj(Vcc+ VST)}; [4] advantage that it is much more suitable
relatively little.This results in a maximum than RC networks for generating high fre-
frequeney drift of not more than ±0.8% TI = -RC In I(Vcc - VST)/(2Vcc - VST)} [5] quencies. Also, if a crystal is used in an
over the specified operating range, while HCMOS eireuit, it requires very little
the duty factor remains fairly constant at while the period of oseillation, T, is: power. This explains the popularity of

,__.. _.. ':'.311······· __, , T T=2.2, T

, , (eomputed) (measured)
, c '
t-·~II·--, :
, @tfj:©::@
1 2 74HC 1000 2174 2200 2177

--
r- -

es' Rs R C Vcc = 5 V 100 217 220 218

~ VST = 2.5 V 10 21.7 22 22.6
I 2.17 2.2 2.4
® 0.1 0.217 0.22 0.3
® r-l r....
~~J>PIyYOltage)

-.J L.......J +-GNO (OV)

74HCU 1000 2174 2200 2147
~~~+vcc Vcc = 5 V 100 217 220 214
vsr VST = 2.5 V 10 21.7 22 21.7
®
B +-- (swltching IhretlhoId voltage)
I 2.17 2.2 2.4
• GNO
~
.. VST-VCC 0.1 0.217 0.22 0.3
-'cc
© L.JL .."" 74HCT 1000
T=2.4,

@o
+-VCC+VD
fl'1put
<!f--VST
dlode voltage dlop)
Vcc = 5 V 100
2348
235
2400
240
2362
236
~
.. 900011- 15 GND - Vo
VST= 1.415 V 10 23.5 24 24.4
I 2.35 2.4 2.6
0.1 0.235 0.24 0.3
Fig.5. A second resistor makes the oscillator far
more stable. Table.1. Inpractice, the differencebetween computed and measured values is found to be small.

ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS JANUARY 1990

I COMPONENTS

HCMOS j crystal oscillators.

The electrical equivalent of a crystal is
the reason that in practical circuits part of
the load capacitance is formed by a vari-
shown in Fig. 6. lt consists of an induc- able capacitor.
tanee, a resistance and two capacitances. The Pierce oscilJator in Fig. 8 uses a XTAL
Type 74HCU04 chip (which is not buf-
fered since buffered devices can not be
J-riD
(1/6)
used here). Boffins will reeognize the cir- 74HCU04
cuit as a Colpitts oscillator in which the

LD
1 "I)
inductance has been replaeed by a erystal.
This type of oseillator

The latter characteristic

uses very little
power and offers good suppression
third hannonics.
is importanr,
because many oscillators have a tendency
to jurnp to hannonic frequencies.
of
Fig. 6. Basic eireuit of a Pieree oseillator using
only one gate. Two additional resistors ensure
that the gate operates as an amplifier. Resistor
Rf provides the De operating point of the ampli-
Although the eireuit may be used with fier.
900011·16
a supply voltage of 2 V, it is reeommended
not to use supplies below about 3 V. The paeitor whose value is equal to that of CL,
Fig. 6. Equivalent eleetrieal eireuit of a erystal. maximum supply voltage is 6 V. the total phase shift is brought back to a
Owing to the low output impedanee of value that allows the oscillator to work
The circuit has a series- as weil as a paral- the lCs, they can not be connected direet eorreetly.
lel-resonant frequency, and this must be to the crystal, and it is, therefore, neces-
borne in mind during the design of the os- sary, to add a resistance in the output to
Finolly
cillator. The crystal manufacturer always raise the impedance. Unfortunately, this
resistance may introduce a phase shift, and Crystal manufacturers cut crystals for use
indicates whether a crystal has been cut
its use above 4 MHz is, therefore, not rec- in high-frequency oscillators in a manner
for series or parallel operation. In the final
ommended. Instead, a capacitance must be that allows the crystals to osciJlate at an
instance, the position and value of capaci-
used: the value of this for use with most harmonie. Crystals for operation at 10--75
rance CL determine in which mode the
crystals is about 30 pF. Here, since CL! MHz oscillate at the third overtone. At
crystal will oseillate (see Fig. 7).
and CL2 are in series, the buffer capacitor higher frequeneies, 50--125 MHz, crystals
should have a value of about 56 pE are used that oseillate at the fifth har-
For optirnurn operation of the Pierce moruc,
oscillator, its output impedance must be Ta use these crystals. the circuit needs
equal to the impedanee of the frequency- a sm all modification as shown in Fig. 9.
determing network. This load impedance,
ZL is approximately
Rf
ZL ~ XCL'jR, [9]

in which XCL is the reactance of capacitor

CL2 and R, is the resistance of the crystaJ
at resonance: in practice, this is 75 Q.
In theory, the optimum value of RL in a
+
4 MHz oseillator is 5900 Q, whereas the
I \
/ \ resislance impedance of the output gate is only about
/ "... 40 Q. A praetical value of 5600 Q resutts
----
:'i .."'",~
in too high a phase shift: a compromise
oF=~~~~------~,--
~--~~ Fig. 9. This small modifieation ensures that the
value is found to be 2200 Q. eireuit operates satisfaetorily with erystals that
Resistor Rr sets the De operating point are intended for operation at harmonie trequen-
00
of the amplifier; its value is not critical: eies.
between I MQ and 10 MQ is fine.
! 90001\ . 17
The modification ensures suppression of
Gote deloy the fundamental frequency in two ways.
Every gate in an IC has a certain delay, tp, Capacitor es has a value that is about
Fig. 7. Dependent on the load, a erystal may whieh in fast HCUMOS gates amounts to equal to that of CL and thus presents a
jump from one mode of operation to another. At about 14 ns. This delay causes a small higher impedanee to the fundamental than
the left, the equivalent eireuit of the erystal; at phase shift, <1>, between the input and out- to the third overtone. The circuit consist-
the centre, Ihe equivalent circuit for serles-reso- put signal, which at high frequencies can ing of Land Cs oscillates at a frequency
nant operation; at the right, the equivalent cir- not be ignored. The shift is ealculated that is slightly lower than the third over-
euit for parallel-resonant operation. from: tone. Adjusting L for maximum output
voltage may cause a small change in the
<I> ~ f Ip x 3600 [10] oscillator frequeney, but this may be
Series-resonant oscillators are designed
trimmed out by CL, wh ich in practice will
to oscillat.e near the resonance frequency,
At an oseillator frequeney of 6 MHz, the consist of a fixed and a variable capacitor.
/<' of the crystal. Parallel-resonant oscilla-
tors operate at a frequency that depends on delay causes a phase shift of about 300
the capacitance of the shunt capacitoT and which, eoupled with the phase shift intro-
lies somewhere between Ir
and the so- duced by Rs, causes the Pieree oseillator
10 stop, lf the resistor is replaced by a ca-
called anti-resonance frequency,ja. This is
ELEKTOR ELECTRONICS JANUARY 1990