Chapter2 Radio-frequency circuits

alternators Even before vacuum tubes, however, relatively high-power radio-freq signals could be
generated using specialized mechanical ac generators called _____.
Ernst Alexanderson The first practical alternator TX was designed in 1906 by General Electric engineer _____ for a
station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts.
2kW ; 100kHz Alternator generated a power of ______ at a freq of _____.
open ; short A capacitor would be considered a/an _____ ckt. for dc and a/an _____ ckt. for ac.
short ; open An inductor as a/an _____ ckt for dc and a/an _____ ckt for ac.
self-resonant freq -a point will be reached where the two reactances are equal and the capacitor becomes a
series-resonant ckt.
transit time The _____ is the time it takes a charge carrier to cross a device.
In NPN transistor, it is the time taken for electrons to cross the base.
In PNP transistor, the holes exhibit it.
It can be reduced by making devices physically small, but this causes problems w/ heat
dissipation and breakdown voltage.
thickness The dielectric strength of insulators is proportional to their _____.
*No finite number of lumps of capacitance and inductance will do.
To reduce the effect of stray capacitance and inductance:
keeping wires and traces short reduces inductance
keeping them well separated reduces capacitance between them
To reduce inductive coupling:
keeping them in close proximity at right angles to each other
To reduce stray magnetic fields:
use of toroidal cores for inductors and transformers
shielding Interactions between components in high-freq circuits can be often be avoided by the use of
bypassing ______ & ______.
shielding Coupling by way of electric fields can be reduced by _____ sensitive ckt w/ any good
conductor, such as copper or aluminum.
ground plane _____ can provide useful shielding.
gimmick -a length of solid insulated hookup wire
It provides a small capacitance to ground that is adjusted during circuit alignment by bending
the wire slightly in one direction or another.
bypassing In order to prevent RF currents from traveling from one part of the circuit to another, careful
______ is necessary.

resonant circuit The simplest form of bandpass filter is ______ & these are very common in RF amplifiers.
*The higher the impedance, the higher the gain. The gain is greatest at resonance.
Q The loaded _____ depends on the load resistance, the transformer turns ratio and the
coupling between the transformer windings.
*The more heavily loaded the amplifier, the lower its Q and the wider its BW.
Miller Effect -effect of capacitance by feeding back some of the output signal to the input w/c reduces the
gain of the circuit at high freq.
To reduce Miller effect;…
transformer-coupling
use of common-base amplifier
FET ______ are famous for their very high input impedance, FET>output impedance>bipolar
wideband/ -the amplifiers used for the baseband part of the system are usually _____.
broadband amp
50-approx500MHz An amplifier for a cable TV system might be required to amplify freq from ____ to ___.

conduction angle -the portion of the input cycle during w/c the active device conducts current
Class A Single-ended audio amplifiers are generally operated in _____, where the transistor conducts
current at all times for a conduction angle of 360deg.(linear)
______ has the least distortion but is very inefficient.
Class B -each transistor is biased at cutoff, so that each conducts for 180 of the input cycle.
Class AB Most audio power amplifiers use _____.
Class C In this class the active device conducts for less than 180 of the input cycle, the amplifier can
be single-ended or push-pull.(nonlinear)
_____ is the most efficient, but its extreme nonlinearity makes it unsuitable for many signals.

Class A B C
Conduction angle 360 180 <180
Maximum efficiency 50% 78.5% 100%
Likely practical efficiency 25% 60% 75%

neutralization Feedback that cause oscillations to take place in a transistor or tube can be cancelled by a
process called ______.
It is accomplished by deliberately feeding back a portion of the output signal to the input in
such a way that it has the same amplitude as the unwanted feedback but the opposite phase.
frequency multipliers Because _____ operate at lower efficiencies than straight-through amplifiers, they are used
at low power levels.
A _____ can be created by tuning the output circuit of a class C amplifier to a multiple of the
input freq.
doublers or triplers Most multipliers operate at the second or third harmonic of the input freq and are known as
______ or _____,respectively.

Barkhausen criteria Any amplifier can be made to oscillate if a portion of the output is fed back to the input in
such a way that the following criteria, known as the ______ are satisfied.
1. The gain around the loop must be equal to one.
2. The phase shift around the loop must total either 0deg or some integer multiple of 360deg
at the operating freq.
AB=1
where A -amplifier gain
feedback fraction B -feedback gain ; is often called ______
Hartley oscillator This oscillator type can be recognized by its use of a tapped inductor, part of a resonant
circuit, to provide feedback.
power gain The real amplifier requirement for oscillation is ______, not a voltage gain.
Colpitts oscillator It uses a capacitive voltage divider instead of a tapped inductor to provide feedback.
Clapp oscillator It is a variation of the Colpitts circuit, designed to swap device capacitances for greater stability
slug tuning Inductors are typically tuned by moving a ferrite core into or out of the coil; this is known as
______.
varactors ______ are a more convenient substitute for variable capacitors in many applications.
______ are reverse-biased silicon diode.
VCO -circuit can be tuned simply by varying the dc voltage on the varactor
inversely proportional The capacitance is approximately _____ to the square root of the applied voltage.
5:1 In practice, a variation of about ______ in capacitance is quite practical.
crystal _____ oscillator achieve greater stability by using a small slab of quartz as a mechanical
resonator, in place of an LC tuned circuit.
quartz _____ is a piezoelectric material: deforming it mechanically causes the crystal to generate a
voltage and applying a voltage to the crystal causes it to deform.
crystal A _____ is just a slab of quartz w/ electrodes.
harmonic or It is possible to operate the crystal at a _________ of the fundamental freq.
overtone
100 000 A crystal oven can improve the temperature stability of a crystal oscillator by a factor of about
_____.
pierce circuit It uses the crystal in place of the inductor in a series-resonant circuit consisting of C1, C2 and
crystal.
VXO The freq of a this crystal oscillator can be adjusted slightly by placing a variable capacitance
in series or in parallel w/ the crystal depending on the type of circuit.
mixer A ______ is a nonlinear circuit that combines two signals in such a way as to produce the sum
and differences of the two input freq at the output.
_____ provide a way of moving a signal, complete w/ any modulation that may be present,
from one freq to another.
linear summing _____ w/c produces only the two input signal freq.
*A nonlinear device produces a signal at its output that can be represented by a power series.
intermodulation When the cross products are not wanted, they are called ______.
distortion
square-law mixer The _____ closely models the actual performance of mixers using FETs.
diode mixer _____ can use either type of nonlinearity, not used often because of their poor noise figure.
dual-gate MOSFET _____ make excellent mixers, have better dynamic range than mixer using bipolar transistor
balanced mixer _____ is one in w/c the input freq do not appear at the output.
*The only freq that are produced are the sum & difference of the input freq.
multiplier A _____ circuit, where the output amplitude is proportional to the product of two input signals,
can be used as a balanced mixer.
balanced modulator Balanced mixers are also called _____.
summer An audio mixer is actually a _____.

VFO A free running LC oscillator can be easily tuned to different freq because its operating freq is
usually determined by tuned circuits.
Phase-locked loop It is the basic of practically all modern synthesizer design.
(PLL) -actually invented in 1932
-1970 it was first produced on an IC
lock the VCO The purpose of the PLL is to ______ to the reference signal.
PLL freq synthesizer _____ can provide the stability of a crystal oscillator w/ the flexibility of a VFO.
free-running freq -the freq at w/c it operates when the control voltage is zero
When the loop starts operating, the VCO will operate at its ______.
acquisition of The phase detector will generate a control voltage, which will cause the VCO freq to change
phase lock until it is exactly that of the external input signal. This is called the _____.
capture range The range over w/c the reference freq can be varied and still achieve phase lock is called the
______.
lock range The total freq range w/in w/c lock is called the _____.
larger The lock range is almost always _____ than the capture range.
resolution The minimum freq step is called the _____ of the synthesizer.
Emitter-coupled The simplest way to get a synthesizer to work at freq beyond those at w/c programmable
logic(ECL) dividers operate is to add a fixed-modulus divider in front of the programmable one. This
divider could employ _____, a digital technology that can be used at freq above 1GHz.
bandpass filter A _____ is used to remove the difference component as well as the VCO and crystal oscillator
freq from the mixer output.
freq translation Movement of a block of freq is called _____.
narrowband amp _____ usually require off-chip bandpass filters, but the rest of the circuit can be integrated.

balanced mixer -a mixer in w/c the input freq are cancelled and are therefore not present at the output
bypassing -removal of an unwanted signal by providing a low-impedance path to ground
capture range -the total freq range over w/c a PLL can become locked to a signal
crystal -a small slab of quartz w/ attached electrodes; used as a resonant circuit
decouple -to prevent the undesired passage of signals between circuits
doubler -a freq multiplier whose output freq is twice that of the input signal
free-running freq -the freq at w/c a VCO operates when its control voltage is zero
freq multiplier -a circuit whose output freq is a small integer multiple of the input signal freq
freq synthesizer -a device that can produce a large number of output freq from a smaller number of fixed-freq
oscillators
freq translation -movement of a signal from one freq to another using a mixer-oscillator combination
gimmick -a small length of wire, connected at only one end and used as a capacitance to ground
ground plane -an artificial ground, often consisting of an area of foil left on one side of a circuit board
lock range -total range of freq over w/c a PLL, once locked, can remain locked
Miller effect In some amplifiers, the internal capacitance of the active device can cause feedback that
produces the same effect on the circuit as a much larger capacitance across the amplifier
input. This is called the _____.
mixer -a nonlinear circuit designed to generate sum and difference freq when two or more freq are
present at its input
modulus -the number by w/c a digital divider chain divides
multiplier -a circuit whose output is proportional to the product of the instantaneous amplitudes of two
input signals
neutralization -a means of avoiding instability in amplifiers by using negative feedback
phase detector -a device whose output voltage is a function of the phase difference between two input signals
PLL -a device that locks the freq of a VCO exactly to that of an input signal
piezoelectric effect -an effect that occurs w/ some materials, such as quartz and some ceramics, whereby a
voltage is produced across the material when it is deformed; the converse is also true:
applying a voltage to the material causes mechanical deformation
prescaler -a divider that precedes the main programmable divider in a freq synthesizer
resolution -in a freq synthesizer, the smallest amount by w/c the output freq can be changed
self-resonant freq -the freq at w/c a single component becomes a resonant circuit, because of the presence of
stray capacitance or inductance or both
tripler -a freq multiplier whose output freq is there times that of the input signal
varactor -a reverse-biased diode used as a voltage-variable capacitor
VCO -an oscillator whose freq can be controlled by changing an external control voltage