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 c. capacitance, inductance, and resistance
b. capacitance and inductance only d. reactance only


ANS: C

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


ANS: A

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


ANS: C

5. Loading down a tuned-circuit amplifier will:
a. raise the Q of the tuned circuit c. "multiply" the Q
b. lower the Q of the tuned circuit d. 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 c. increasing the Q of the tuned circuit
b. using a common-base amplifier d. it cannot be avoided


ANS: B

8. In a BJT, the Miller Effect is due to:
a. inductance of collector lead c. base-to-emitter capacitance
b. collector-to-emitter capacitance d. 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 c. an RC time constant
b. a two-capacitor divider d. a piezoelectric crystal


ANS: A

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


ANS: B

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


ANS: B

17. A varactor is:
a. a voltage-controlled capacitor c. used in tuner circuits
b. a diode d. 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, V
a
= sin(
a
t) and V
b
= sin(
b
t), 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 c. Varactor-Frequency Oscillator
b. Variable-Frequency Oscillator d. 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, V
1
and V
2
, are fed into an ideal balanced mixer. V
1
is a 20-MHz signal; V
2
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