Three Fractional-Order-Capacitors-Based Oscillators with Controllable Phase and Frequency

This paper presents a generalization of six well-known quadrature third-order oscillators into the fractional-order domain. The generalization process involves replacement of three integer-order capacitors with fractional-order ones. The employment of fractional-order capacitors allows a complete tunability of oscillator frequency and phase. The presented oscillators are implemented with three active building blocks which are op-Amp, current feedback operational amplifier (CFOA) and second generation current conveyor (CCII). The general state matrix, oscillation frequency and condition are deduced in terms of the fractional-order parameters. The extra degree of freedom provided by the fractional-order elements increases the design flexibility. Eight special cases including the integer case are illustrated with their numerical discussions. Three different phases are produced with fixed sum of 2p which can be completely controlled by fractional-order elements. A general design procedure is introduced to design an oscillator with a specific phase and frequency. Two general design cases are discussed based on exploiting the degrees of freedom introduced by the fractional order to obtain the required design. Spice circuit simulations with experimental results for some special cases are presented to validate the theoretical findings. © 2017 World Scientific Publishing Company.