Overview

Historically, the analysis of oscillator circuits involved the selection of a particular topology and then finding symbolic equations for that topology. Once the symbolic equations were found, evaluating which circuit element values satisfied the oscillation criteria required little computational effort. Abundant technical literature exists with symbolic equations for various oscillator structures. This technique was appropriate in a day when numeric tools were the slide rule and paper and pencil. Unfortunately, each time the engineer wishes to investigate a new oscillator topology the symbolic equations must be found. The symbolic approach is efficient for designing oscillators of one type but oppresses exploration of alternative and therefore perhaps more optimum structures.

The advent of economic numeric power in digital desktop computers offers another approach. This approach liberates the engineer by allowing rapid exploration of alternative designs and critical evaluation of new ideas before committed to hardware. The primary tool for this approach is the general purpose circuit simulator which frees the engineer from all numeric process tedium and which requires only a description of the proposed design to the simulator. This description may be modified as easily as editing a short file or editing a schematic. Element values are tuned or even optimized while the user observes circuit responses on the computer display in real-time.