Modeling and analysis of a relaxation oscillator

Abstract

A nonlinear analysis of the popular emitter-coupled multivibrator is performed, which is based on the classical discontinuity theory. Exact closed-form expressions for predicting the amplitude of relaxation oscillation and its frequency are obtained. Numerical SPICE simulations were performed to check the validity of the above expressions and to show the errors stemming from the usual assumption of constant capacitor charging current made in previous analyses.