Transient Stability of the Wien Bridge Oscillator

Abstract

In many Resistance-Capacitance Oscillators the oscillation amplitude is controlled by the use of a temperature-dependent resistor incorporated in the negative feedback loop. The use of thermistors and tungsten lamps is discussed and an approximate analysis is presented for the behaviour of the tungsten lamp. The result is applied in an analysis of the familiar Wien Bridge Oscillator both for the presence of a linear circuit and a cubic nonlinearity. The linear analysis leads to a highly unstable transient response which is uncommon to most oscillators. The inclusion of the slight cubic nonlinearity, however, leads to a result which is in close agreement to the observed response.