K7ITM wrote:
On Mar 19, 9:23 am, "Anthony Fremont" wrote:
The waveform in a high Q tank that's lightly coupled to the amplifier
should be very nearly sinusoidal. If in addition, the amplifier
remains linear and represents a constant impedance over the whole
cycle of the waveform, then the waveforms should everywhere be
sinusoidal. If the amplifier+tank has barely enough loop gain to
sustain oscillation, then clipping will be minimal, but it's also
possible to detect the level and control the gain of the amplifier.
You could, for example, use a light bulb like HP did in their original
audio oscillator. Beware, though, that best oscillator performance in
other regards may not be achieved the same way you achieve lowest
harmonic distortion. Be careful that you optimize the right things
for your application.

After reading the other replies, it seems aparent that the shape of the
signal from the first stage is not that critical, it is stability and phase
noise that are most important. So, I should put things back where there is
clipping to be sure that the oscillator oscillates and then clean up the
signal in subsequent stages.

In the work I do, I need to measure distortion, and the generators I
use don't have low enough distortion in their outputs to be directly
useful. The distortion levels in the "raw" outputs are generally
about -40 to -50dBc. I use filters to make things better, and can get
to -140dBc distortion levels fairly easily. If it's low harmonic
distortion you want, I'd suggest that it may be better to just put a
filter on the output of the oscillator that has only moderately low
harmonic output, and not worry so much about that aspect of oscillator
performance. Filters work well when the oscillator frequency range is
about 1.5:1 or less. Much more than that and you'd need to switch in
different filters depending on the oscillator frequency.

Thanks. :-)