Chapter 2: Radio-Frequency Circuits

TRUE/FALSE 1. In general, components behave the same at 20 MHz as they do at 1 kHz. ANS: F 2. Stray capacitance is important in high-frequency amplifiers. ANS: T 3. Microwave-frequency circuits look much different from circuits designed for 1 MHz. ANS: T 4. All electronic devices have both capacitive and inductive properties. ANS: T 5. As frequency increases, capacitive effects decrease. ANS: F 6. At some frequency, a capacitor will self-resonate with the inductance of its leads. ANS: T 7. An "unstable" amplifier is one that oscillates, or is close to oscillating. ANS: T 8. Base-to-emitter capacitance can cause a common-emitter amplifier to oscillate. ANS: F 9. "Distributed Constants" refers to a mathematical operation to calculate gain. ANS: F 10. "Shielding" prevents RF signals from coupling between components in a system. ANS: T 11. A "ground-plane" is a type of shielding. ANS: T 12. A "gimmick" is a type of shielding. ANS: F

13. Removing any RF signals off the VCC lines is an example of "decoupling". ANS: T 14. Decoupling usually involves a "bypass" capacitor. ANS: T 15. Basically, radio-frequency amplifiers can not be distinguished from other amplifiers. ANS: F 16. Resonant circuits are common in RF amplifiers. ANS: T 17. Increasing the load on a tuned amplifier increases its Q. ANS: F 18. In a common-emitter amplifier, the collector-base capacitance "looks" bigger than it is. ANS: T 19. The Miller Effect only occurs in common-base amplifiers. ANS: F 20. The Miller Effect can reduce the bandwidth of an amplifier. ANS: T 21. The Miller Effect can be reduced using neutralization. ANS: T 22. A piezoelectric crystal behaves like a very low-Q tuned circuit. ANS: F 23. The frequency of a crystal oscillator is much more stable than an LC oscillator. ANS: T 24. Mixers must be nonlinear in order to work. ANS: T 25. A mixer will produce "sum and difference" frequencies.

ANS: T MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. The time it takes a charge carrier to cross from the emitter to the collector is called: a base time c charge time . . b transit time d Miller time . .

ANS: B 2. A real capacitor actually contains: a capacitance and resistance only . b capacitance and inductance only . c . d . capacitance, inductance, and resistance reactance only

ANS: C 3. Bypass capacitors are used to: a remove RF from non-RF circuits . b couple RF around an amplifier . c . d . neutralize amplifiers reduce the Miller effect

ANS: A 4. A resonant circuit is: a a simple form of bandpass filter . b used in narrowband RF amplifiers . c . d . both a and b none of the above

ANS: C 5. Loading down a tuned-circuit amplifier will: a raise the Q of the tuned circuit . b lower the Q of the tuned circuit . c . d . "multiply" the Q have no effect on Q

ANS: B 6. The "Miller Effect" can: a cause an amplifier to oscillate . c . reduce the bandwidth of an amplifier

b cause an amplifier to lose gain .

d .

all of the above

ANS: D 7. The Miller Effect can be avoided by: a using a common-emitter amplifier . b using a common-base amplifier . c . d . increasing the Q of the tuned circuit it cannot be avoided

ANS: B 8. In a BJT, the Miller Effect is due to: a inductance of collector lead . b collector-to-emitter capacitance . c . d . base-to-emitter capacitance base-to-collector capacitance

ANS: D 9. In RF amplifiers, impedance matching is usually done with: a RC coupling c direct coupling . . b transformer coupling d lumped reactance . .

ANS: B 10. Neutralization cancels unwanted feedback by: a adding feedback out of phase with the unwanted feedback . b bypassing the feedback to the "neutral" or ground plane . c decoupling it . d none of the above .

ANS: A 11. For a "frequency multiplier" to work, it requires: a a nonlinear circuit . b a linear amplifier . c a signal containing harmonics

. d an input signal that is an integer multiple of the desired frequency .

ANS: A 12. A sinusoidal oscillation from an amplifier requires: a loop gain equal to unity . b phase shift around loop equal to 0 degrees . c both a and b, but at just one frequency . d none of the above .

ANS: C 13. The conditions for sinusoidal oscillation from an amplifier are called: a the loop-gain criteria c the Bode criteria . . b the Hartley criteria d the Barkhausen criteria . .

ANS: D 14. The Hartley oscillator uses: a a tapped inductor . b a two-capacitor divider . c . d . an RC time constant a piezoelectric crystal

ANS: A 15. The Colpitts VFO uses: a a tapped inductor . b a two-capacitor divider . c . d . an RC time constant a piezoelectric crystal

ANS: B 16. The Clapp oscillator is: a a modified Hartley oscillator . b a modified Colpitts oscillator . c . d . a type of crystal-controlled oscillator only built with FETs

ANS: B 17. A varactor is: a a voltage-controlled capacitor . b a diode . c . d . used in tuner circuits all of the above

ANS: D 18. Crystal-Controlled oscillators are: a used for a precise frequency . b used for very low frequency drift (parts per million) . c made by grinding quartz to exact dimensions . d all of the above .

ANS: D 19. If two signals, Va = sin(at) and Vb = sin(bt), are fed to a mixer, the output: a will contain 1 = a + b and 2 = a b . b will contain 1 = a / b and 2 = b / a . c will contain = (a + b ) / 2 . d none of the above .

ANS: A 20. In a balanced mixer, the output: a contains equal (balanced) amounts of all input frequencies . b contains the input frequencies . c does not contain the input frequencies . d is a linear mixture of the input signals .

ANS: C

21. "VFO" stands for: a Voltage-Fed Oscillator . b Variable-Frequency Oscillator .

c . d .

Varactor-Frequency Oscillator Voltage-Feedback Oscillator

ANS: B 22. A "frequency synthesizer" is: a a VCO phase-locked to a reference frequency . b a VFO with selectable crystals to change frequency . c a fixed-frequency RF generator . d same as a mixer .

ANS: A COMPLETION 1. Generally, conductor lengths in RF circuits should be ____________________. ANS: short 2. At UHF frequencies and above, elements must be considered as ____________________ instead of as being "lumped". ANS: distributed 3. When one side of a double-sided pc board is used for ground, it is called a ____________________. ANS: ground-plane 4. Interactions between parts of an RF circuit can be reduced by using ____________________ between them. ANS: shielding 5. In high-frequency RF circuits, the placement of wires and ____________________ can be critical. ANS: components 6. A ____________________ circuit is used to remove RF from the DC voltage bus. ANS: decoupling

7. A ____________________ capacitor is used to short unwanted RF to ground. ANS: bypass 8. The bandwidth of a tuned-circuit amplifier depends on the ____________________ of the tuned circuit. ANS: Q 9. A value of ____________________ or more for Q is required for the approximate tuned circuit equations to be valid. ANS: 10 10. In a class C RF amplifier, the ____________________ extracts one frequency from all the harmonics contained in the device current (e.g. collector current). ANS: tuned circuit 11. Using additional feedback to compensate for "stray" feedback is called ____________________. ANS: neutralization 12. A Colpitts oscillator uses a ____________________ voltage divider to provide feedback. ANS: capacitive 13. Electrically, a piezoelectric crystal has both a ____________________ and a ____________________ resonant frequency. ANS: series, parallel 14. To produce sum and difference frequencies, a mixer must be a non-____________________ circuit. ANS: linear 15. At some bias point, a diode or a transistor can act as a ____________________-law mixer. ANS: square SHORT ANSWER 1. What inductance would you use with a 47-pF capacitor to make a tuned circuit for 10 MHz? ANS: 5.4 H 2. What value of Q is required for a 10-MHz tuned circuit to have a bandwidth of 100 kHz? ANS:

100 3. A tuned-circuit amplifier with a gain of 10 is being used to make an oscillator. What should be the value of the feedback ratio to satisfy the Barkhausen criteria? ANS: 0.1 4. What is the advantage of a Clapp oscillator compared to a Colpitts oscillator? ANS: It is more stable because it "swamps" the device capacitance with large value capacitors in the feedback divider. 5. If a varactor has a capacitance of 90 pF at zero volts, what will be the capacitance at 4 volts? ANS: 30 pF 6. An oscillator has a frequency of 100 MHz at 20C, and a tempco of +10 ppm per degree Celsius. What will be the shift in frequency at 70C? What percentage is that? ANS: 50 kHz, 0.05% 7. Two sinusoidal signals, V1 and V2, are fed into an ideal balanced mixer. V1 is a 20-MHz signal; V2 is a 5-MHz signal. What frequencies would you expect at the output of the mixer? ANS: 15 MHz and 25 MHz 8. Suppose the phase-locked-loop frequency synthesizer of Figure 2.39 has a reference frequency of 1 MHz and a fixed-modulus divider of 10. What should be the value of the programmable divider to get an output frequency of 120 MHz? ANS: 12