Chapter 2: Radio-Frequency Circuits

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 ANS: C 3. Bypass capacitors are used to: a. remove RF from non-RF circuits b. couple RF around an amplifier ANS: A 4. A resonant circuit is: a. a simple form of bandpass filter b. used in narrowband RF amplifiers 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 ANS: B 6. The "Miller Effect" can: a. cause an amplifier to oscillate b. cause an amplifier to lose gain ANS: D 7. The Miller Effect can be avoided by: a. using a common-emitter amplifier b. using a common-base amplifier ANS: B 8. In a BJT, the Miller Effect is due to: a. inductance of collector lead b. collector-to-emitter capacitance ANS: D c. base-to-emitter capacitance d. base-to-collector capacitance c. increasing the Q of the tuned circuit d. it cannot be avoided c. reduce the bandwidth of an amplifier d. all of the above c. "multiply" the Q d. have no effect on Q c. both a and b d. none of the above c. neutralize amplifiers d. reduce the Miller effect c. capacitance, inductance, and resistance d. reactance only

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 ANS: A 15. The Colpitts VFO uses: a. a tapped inductor b. a two-capacitor divider ANS: B 16. The Clapp oscillator is: a. a modified Hartley oscillator b. a modified Colpitts oscillator ANS: B c. a type of crystal-controlled oscillator d. only built with FETs c. an RC time constant d. a piezoelectric crystal c. an RC time constant d. a piezoelectric crystal

17. A varactor is: a. a voltage-controlled capacitor b. a diode ANS: D

c. used in tuner circuits d. all of the above

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 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". c. Varactor-Frequency Oscillator d. Voltage-Feedback Oscillator

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 5MHz 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