Max Kiley & Kaitlyn Ziska

EE 230 Design Project #2

Section A
Turned in: April 10th, 2018
Function Generator Design

For this design lab, we chose to build the function generator which would generate three
periodic signals, that being a square wave, triangle wave, and a sine wave. These three signals
signify three different outputs, which rely on each other as inputs as well. The three signals all
operate at the same frequency. The parameters of this lab include that the circuit has no inputs,
only the positive and negative DC inputs, the frequency is tunable over an indicated range
which was adjusted by a potentiometer, the square wave oscillates between +/- 5V, the triangle
wave oscillates between +/-2V, and the sine wave around +/-1V.

Circuit Design:
In designing this lab, we chose to use three op amp configurations cascaded against
one another in order to illicit our three signals. In order to get a signal output of a square wave,
we used a non-inverting comparator. In order to get a signal output of a triangle wave, we tied
the output of the comparator to the input of an inverting integrator circuit. In order to get a signal
output of a sine wave, we tied the output of the integrator to the input of a sallen-key low pass
filter with a high Q factor. We decided to use the LMC660 chip, utilizing three of its four op
amps.

When doing the calculations for the comparator, we knew that the voltage of oscillation
for the square wave would be bounded by VTH and VTL. In addition the triangle wave would be
bounded by VL+ and VL-. Knowing this allowed us to calculate the values for Ra, Rb, Rpot and C.
These calculations can bee seen from the calculations we have. Due to the frequency
specifications of 500Hz to 5000Hz, the factor of ten between these two bounds, implies that our
circuit contains a potentiometer that sweeps with about a factor of ten. We decided to use a 10k
ohms potentiometer. Due to the nature of this potentiometer, it ranges from just a few ohms to
9,600 ohms. However the potentiometer is most stable in the range of 1k ohms to 10k ohms. As
a result our function generator is tunable from 250 Hz - 5500Hz

For the low pass filter, we used a sallen-key filter with a high Q factor. Since we were filtering
the triangle wave, and the triangle wave would oscillate at a maximum frequency of about
5500Hz, I knew that it made most sense to pick a corner frequency of roughly 5000 Hz. In order
to calculate a high Q factor we adjusted the resistance values until the result was desirable.
Calculations for this filter are attached
.
The entire circuit is powered by only +/- 5 VDC.

Circuit Elements:
Comparator-
Ra = 4k ohms
Rb = 10k ohms
Integrator-
Rpot = 10k ohms
C1 = .25 µF
Filter-
R1 = 470 ohms
R2 = 2200 ohms
C3 = 10 nF
C4 = 94 nF

Oscilloscope Traces
500 Hz

5,000 Hz
Circuit Pictures
Conclusion

This project tested both of us on our fundamental understanding of comparators,

nonlinear oscillators and second order filters. Overall, this lab was not overly difficult since we
have completed labs like this in the past where output waveforms were either a square, triangle,
or sine. It was more so a matter of putting those circuit elements together in order to elicit those
three waveforms together at once while taking into account details such as our frequency
specifications and circuit element calculations. We went through a couple different variations of
circuits in order to meet the specifications and spent some time fine tuning element values.