INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CIRCUIT THEORY AND APPLICATIONS

Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:127134

Published online 3 August 2009 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/cta.621
Using modal series to analyze the transient response of oscillators
Mahmood Khatibi
1
and Hasan Modir Shanechi
2, ,
1
ECE Department, Imamreza University, Mashhad, Iran
2
ECE Department, IIT Chicago, IL 60616 U.S.A.
SUMMARY
In this paper, a new form of Modal series is used to obtain the transient time-domain response of
oscillators. It is applicable to n-dimensional systems and is not dependent on the existence of a small
parameter in circuits model. In addition, it provides an approximate analytical expression for the transient
response instead of numerical solutions. It is valuable since the transient response of oscillators is not
frequency stationary and therefore the FFT of numerical methods may not be so useful. The Colpitts
oscillator is selected as a case study and a closed-form expression for its transient response is derived
which approximates the real response up to the steady state. Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Received 6 September 2008; Revised 8 June 2009; Accepted 9 June 2009
KEY WORDS: Colpitts oscillator; modal series; nonlinear circuits; oscillator; transient response
1. INTRODUCTION
In many elds of science such as biology, mechanics, optics, and especially in electronic circuits,
nonlinear oscillators play an essential role. Linear analysis does not yield much helpful insight
about the behavior of these systems. In fact, a large group of oscillators including the L-C sinusoidal
oscillators usually demonstrate nonhyperbolic conditions at their operating point [1]. Often, a
pair of complex conjugate eigenvalues loses its real part and this leads to a Hopf bifurcation
at the oscillation condition [2]. Therefore, in contrast to the hyperbolic systems, the operating
point of these systems possesses a ow different from its linearized form [3]. In other words,
the qualitative behavior of the oscillator usually is not the same as the behavior of its linearized
model. Consequently, analyzing this kind of circuits becomes possible only if nonlinearity effects
(higher-order terms) are taken into consideration.
In general, Volterra series analysis, a common method for analyzing nonlinear circuits, cannot
be used to analyze oscillators as it provides the response of the system to an input assuming
zero initial conditions [4], but oscillators do not have input nodes and the response is only due
to the initial conditions.
Although various methods have been presented to predict the frequency and the amplitude of
the oscillators response in the steady state [57], there are only few papers that have studied the
transient behavior of oscillators. Some [811] authors have used numerical methods to simulate
the transient response of oscillators but they have not provided a closed-form expression for it.
These methods basically change the ODE of the system to another set of ODE that is solvable by
well-established numerical methods. However, the transient response of oscillators is not frequency
stationary, i.e. the harmonic content of the transient response changes with time and, therefore,

Correspondence to: Hasan Modir Shanechi, ECE Department, IIT Chicago, IL 60616, U.S.A.

E-mail: shanechi@iit.edu
Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
128 M. KHATIBI AND H. M. SHANECHI
the FFT of the numerical responses is not so useful. Another group of papers provide analytical
expressions for the transient response using perturbation methods [1214], but these methods have
limitations such as the need for the existence of a small parameter in the circuits model and as to
the dimension of ODEs describing the circuit.
The foundation of our approach is to obtain the Modal series coefcients of the oscillators
response step by step and then ignore relatively insignicant terms. This approach has strong
mathematical basis and is not restricted to circuits having a small parameter in their models.
Moreover, it applies in general to n-dimensional systems and the resulting solution is in analytic
form which demonstrates how the natural frequencies of the oscillator interact with each other
during the transient and up to the steady state. This is valuable as harmonics and intermodulation
products depend on the higher-order derivatives of the drain (or the collector) current of transistors
and these higher-order derivatives are often poorly modeled in the transistor models available in
the SPICE-like circuit simulators [15, 16]. However, this method has its own limitations:
(a) The proposed method provides a series approximation to the solution and not the exact
solution.
(b) It is based on the Taylor series and consequently its slow convergence makes it suitable only
for nearly sinusoidal oscillators.
(c) The approximations to the solution do not hold for the whole duration of the transient and
steady states. They are good only in the transient state.
We have selected the Colpitts oscillator, with the aim of providing some general deductions
about the behavior of this type of sinusoidal oscillators. However, the method is applicable to
other oscillator types. The reason behind this selection is its large practical application. The paper
is organized as follows: Section 2 provides a brief review of the Colpitts oscillator and our model
for it. Section 3 introduces the new version of Modal series which is used in this paper. Section 4
describes the steps of the algorithm to calculate the oscillators transient response. Finally, Section 5
shows the results of applying the algorithm to the Colpitts oscillator.
2. COLPITTS OSCILLATOR
Figure 1(a) shows the classical conguration of the Colpitts oscillator. Assuming the following
simplications:
(A) Passive and reactive elements are linear and ideal.
(B) The transistor is modeled as shown in Figure 1(b) and the V-I characteristic of R
E
is modeled
by the following exponential function:
I
E
=I
S
_
exp
_
V
BE
V
T
_
1
_
I
S
_
exp
_
V
BE
V
T
__
if V
BE
V
T
(1)
where I
S
is the inverse saturation current and V
T
26mV at room temperature.
(C) The base current has been neglected (
f
=1).
It has been shown that it can be modeled as [17, 18]:
C
1
dV
C
1
dt
= I
L
I
s
e
V
C
2
/V
T
C
2
dV
C
2
dt
= I
L
I
o
L
dI
L
dt
= V
CC
V
C
1
V
C
2
RI
L
(2)
Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:127134
DOI: 10.1002/cta
TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF OSCILLATORS 129
T
I
o
L
R
C
1
VOut
(a)
RE
(b)
VCC
C E
B
+
v
BE
-
I
C
IB
IE

F
I
E
I
B
C
2
Figure 1. (a) Schematic of the Colpitts oscillator and (b) transistor model.
After the normalization of the voltages, the current, and the time with respect to: V
ref
=V
T
,
I
ref
=I
o
, and t
ref
=1/
0
and neglecting dc biases, the state equations for ac analysis will be:
x
1
=
g

Q(1k)
[x
3
n(x
2
)]
x
2
=
g

Qk
x
3
x
3
=
Qk(1k)
g

[x
1
+x
2
]
1
Q
x
3
(3)
where
x
1
=
V
C
1
V
T

V
C
1
, x
2
=
V
C
2
V
T

V
C
2
, x
3
=
I
L
I
o

I
L

V
C
1
= V
C
1
|
DC
=
V
CC
+V
T
Ln
I
o
I
s
RI
o
V
T
,

V
C
2
=V
C
2
|
DC
=Ln
I
o
I
s
,

I
L
=I
L
|
DC
=1
n(y) = e
y
1=y +
y
2
2!

y
3
3!
+ +(1)
n
y
n
n!
+
Q =

0
L
R
,
0
=
1
_
L
c
1
c
2
c
1
+c
2
, k =
c
2
c
1
+c
2
(4)
and
g

=
I
o
V
T
L
R(C
1
+C
2
)
is the open loop gain of the circuit [17]. Now, assuming y(t ) =x
2
(t ) as the output, the differential
equation for the circuits output would be:
Q
d
3
y(t )
dt
3
+
d
2
y(t )
dt
2
+Q
dy(t )
dt
=g

n(y(t )) (5)
Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:127134
DOI: 10.1002/cta
130 M. KHATIBI AND H. M. SHANECHI
This oscillator is known to have a chaotic regime; however, for sufciently large Q, the existence
of a stable limit cycle is guaranteed [18].
3. MODAL SERIES
Modal series method [19] is a new approach for modeling and analyzing nonlinear systems. It was
rst proposed for modeling large-scale power systems and analyzing their behavior under stressed
conditions [20]. It provides an approximate analytical solution, in terms of the fundamental and
the interacting modes for the nonlinear autonomous systems of the following form:

X =F(X) (6)
The solution thus obtained is a better approximation of the system response than the one obtained
through linearization, and represents with a good degree of accuracy the nonlinear properties of
the system [21].
Modal series has strong mathematical basis and expresses the response of the system to the initial
conditions, whereas Volterra series cannot provide this information [4]. Moreover, this method,
unlike the perturbation methods [14], is not limited by the need for the existence of a small
parameter in the systems model.
We can use the state-space model (3) to analyze the Colpitts oscillator, but calculating the Modal
series coefcients employing the state-space form yields matrices for the second-order response,
tensors for the third-order response and so on which becomes quite cumbersome to work with.
Therefore, we modify Modal series to a new form to be applicable directly to the ODE systems.
Theorem
Consider the following ODE:
M
D
y(t ) =N
D
f (y(t )) (7)
where
M
D
= D
n
+a
1
D
n1
+ +a
n
(8)
N
D
=b
0
D
n
+b
1
D
n1
+ +b
n
(9)
and, D denotes the derivative with respect to time and f () is an analytic function with f (0) =0.
The initial conditions of (7) are:
Y
0
=
_
y(0),
dy(t )
dt

t =0
, . . . ,
d
n1
y(t )
dt
n1

t =0
_
(10)
The response of (7) to the initial condition (10) can be expressed as follows:
y(t ) =y
1
(t )+y
2
(t )+y
3
(t )+ (11)
where the functions y
i
(t ) verify the following equation:
(D
n
+a
1
D
n1
+ +a
n
)y
1
(t ) = N
D
(ay
1
(t ))
(D
n
+a
1
D
n1
+ +a
n
)y
2
(t ) = N
D
(ay
2
(t )+by
2
1
(t ))
(D
n
+a
1
D
n1
+ +a
n
)y
3
(t ) = N
D
(ay
3
(t )+2by
1
(t )y
2
(t )+cy
3
1
(t ))
.
.
.
(12)
where
a =
d f
dy

y=0
, b=
1
2!
d
2
f
dy
2

y=0
, c=
1
3!
d
3
f
dy
3

y=0
(13)
Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:127134
DOI: 10.1002/cta
TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF OSCILLATORS 131
And the initial conditions to solve (12) are:
Y
10
=
_
y
1(0)
=y(0),
dy
1
(t )
dt

t =0
=
dy(t )
dt

t =0
, . . . ,
d
n1
y
1
(t )
dt
n1

t =0
=
d
n1
y(t )
dt
n1

t =0
_
Y
i 0
=
_
y
i
(0) =0,
dy
i
(t )
dt

t =0
=0, . . . ,
d
n1
y
i
(t )
dt
n1

t =0
=0
_
, i =2 . . . n
(14)
Proof
The response of (7) to the initial condition (10) can be expressed as:
y(t ) =G(Y
0
, t ) (15)
Since f () has been assumed to be analytic, G: R
n
RR will be an analytic function of Y
0
[22]. So the Maclaurin expansion of (15) with respect to Y
0
yields:
y(t ) =
n

i =1

i
(t )y
i 0
. ,, .
y
1
(t )
+
1
2
n

k=1
n

l=1

kl
(t )y
k0
y
l0
. ,, .
y
2
(t )
+
1
6
n

p=1
n

q=1
n

r=1

pqr
(t )y
p0
y
q0
y
r0
. ,, .
y
3
(t )
+
= y
1
(t )+y
2
(t )+y
3
(t )+ (16)
where

i
(t ) =
*G(Y
0
, t )
*y
i 0

Y
0
=0
,
kl
(t ) =
*
2
G(Y
0
, t )
*y
k0
*y
l0

Y
0
=0

pqr
(t ) =
*
3
G(Y
0
, t )
*y
p0
*y
q0
*y
r0

Y
0
=0
, . . .
(17)
The functions y
i
(t ) are the weighted sum of all the terms that are dependent on the multiples
of i elements of Y
0
, for example, y
3
(t ) is the weighted sum of all the terms of the form y
p0
y
q0
y
r0
for p, q,r {1, 2, . . . , n}.
The convergence of (11) is guaranteed as it is equivalent to (16) which is the Maclaurin expansion
of G, and since G is an analytical function of Y
0
, it exists and converges.
The above derivation is valid for any initial condition Y
0
, so letting the initial condition be Y
0
,
where is an arbitrary parameter, the response to the new initial conditions would be:
y

(t ) =y
1
(t )+
2
y
2
(t )+
3
y
3
(t )+ (18)
Substituting (18) in (7) results in:
M
D
y

(t ) =N
D
f (y

(t )) (19)
And substituting the Taylor expansion around the origin of f in (19), and noting that f (0) =0, we
obtain:
M
D
y

(t ) =N
D
(ay

(t )+by
2

(t )+cy
3

(t )+ ) (20)
where a, b and c are dened in (13).
The coefcients of
i
on both sides of (20) are equal as it is satised for any arbitrary . By
equating the coefcient of
1
,
2
,
3
, . . . , on both sides of (20), (12) will be obtained.
Thus, solving the nonlinear ODE, (7) is reduced to solving a set of linear ODEs. These linear
ODEs must be solved recursively, y
i
(t ) is needed for the solution of y
i +1
(t ).
Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:127134
DOI: 10.1002/cta
132 M. KHATIBI AND H. M. SHANECHI
The initial conditions for these equations are obtained by letting t =0 in (18) and its derivatives
and equating the coefcients of
i
on both sides of the resulted equations:
Y
10
=
_
y
1(0)
=y(0),
dy
1
(t )
dt

t =0
=
dy(t )
dt

t =0
, . . . ,
d
n1
y
1
(t )
dt
n1

t =0
=
d
n1
y(t )
dt
n1

t =0
_
Y
i 0
=
_
y
i
(0) =0,
dy
i
(t )
dt

t =0
=0, . . . ,
d
n1
y
i
(t )
dt
n1

t =0
=0
_
, i =2 . . . n
(14)
This proves the theorem.
4. AN ALGORITHM FOR OBTAINING THE TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF OSCILLATORS
The following algorithm is presented for the calculation of the oscillators transient response in
analytic form (Modal series):
1. Determine the ODE description of oscillators model, Equation (7). Set i =1 and calculate
the constants in Equation (13).
2. Solve Equation (12) for y
i
(t ) with the initial condition (14).
3. Eliminate the insignicant terms of y
i
(t ).
4. Let y(t ) =y(t )+y
i
(t ).
5. If there is no signicant change in y(t ) by adding y
i
(t ), exit the procedure, else let i =i +1
and go to step 2.
5. APPLYING THE ALGORITHM TO THE COLPITTS OSCILLATOR
We assume Q=10, g

=1.1 and the initial conditions;

y(0) =0,
dy(t )
dt

t =0
=0,
d
2
y(t )
dt
2

t =0
=
1
2
(21)
The above assumptions lead to an stable limit cycle [18]. The approximate response during the
transient is calculated by applying the algorithm to the ODE of the oscillators output (5):
10
d
3
y(t )
dt
3
+
d
2
y(t )
dt
2
+10
dy(t )
dt
=1.1000y(t )+0.5500y
2
(t )0.1833y
3
(t )+0.0458y
4
(t )
0.0092y
5
(t )+0.0015y
6
(t )+ (22)
For the rst-order approximation we can write from (12):
10
d
3
y
1
(t )
dt
3
+
d
2
y
1
(t )
dt
2
+10
dy
1
(t )
dt
=1.1000y
1
(t ) (23)
Solving (23) with respect to the initial conditions (21) yields:
y
1
(t ) =0.4930e
(0.1099t )
0.0566e
(0.0049t )
sin(1.0005t )+0.4930e
(0.0049t )
cos(1.0005t ) (24)
Equation (24) is simplied to (25) by neglecting the insignicant term:
y
1
(t ) =0.4930e
(0.1099t )
+0.4930e
(0.0049t )
cos(1.0005t ) (25)
In Figure 2(a), the true response of the oscillator and the rst-order approximate response
with and without neglecting the insignicant term are shown. It shows that the rst-order
response approximates the true response well, but only for about 5 s. (Note that the time has been
normalized.)
Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:127134
DOI: 10.1002/cta
TRANSIENT RESPONSE OF OSCILLATORS 133
Figure 2. Comparison between real and approximate solutions of y(t ).
For the second-order approximation, using (12), we write:
10
d
3
y
2
(t )
dt
3
+
d
2
y
2
(t )
dt
2
+10
dy
2
(t )
dt
+1.1000y
2
(t ) =0.5500(0.4930e
(0.1099t )
+0.049298e
(0.0049t )
cos(1.0005))
2
(26)
By solving (26) and after neglecting the insignicant terms, y
2
(t ) is obtained:
y
2
(t ) =(0.12110.1199e
(0.1099t )
) cos(1.0005t )0.0550e
(0.1099t )
+0.0557e
(0.0099t )
(27)
Figure 2(b) shows the real response, the rst-order response, and the second-order response of
the oscillator. It shows that the second-order response approximates the true response well only
for about 60 s.
Continuing this procedure for the third-order approximate response, we obtain:
y
3
(t ) =0.0686cos(1.0005t )(e
(0.0049t )
e
(0.0148t )
) (28)
Figure 2(c) shows that the third-order response approximates the true response well for more
than 100 s.
Continuing, the fourth-order response is calculated to be:
y
4
(t ) =0.0400cos(1.0005t )e
(0.0049t )
(e
(0.0049t )
1) (29)
Figure 2(d) shows that the fourth-order response approximates the true response well for about
125 s, in fact until the steady state.
Continuing the procedure for the fth-order response, shows that there is no signicant change
in the response by adding this term. This is because the oscillator has reached its steady state.
The same procedure for Q=100 shows that the rst-order response approximates the true
response well only for about 10 s, but the second-order response approximates the true response
well for more than 500 s.
Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Circ. Theor. Appl. 2011; 39:127134
DOI: 10.1002/cta
134 M. KHATIBI AND H. M. SHANECHI
6. CONCLUSION
In this paper a new form of Modal series that describes and analyzes nonlinear systems response
was used to calculate the approximate transient response of oscillators in an analytic form. The
method is applicable to the analysis of the transient response of large-scale oscillators and is not
dependent on the existence of a small parameter in the circuits model. However, the method has
its own limitations. The proposed method provides a series approximation to the solution and not
the exact solution. Its slow convergence makes it suitable only for nearly sinusoidal oscillators.
Finally, the approximations to the solution do not hold for the whole duration of the transient and
steady-state phases. They are good only in the transient state. The Colpitts oscillator was selected
as a case study and a closed-form expression was derived, which approximated its true transient
response with increasing degrees of accuracy.
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DOI: 10.1002/cta