VCO - RF Cafe Forums

RF Cafe Forums closed its virtual doors in late 2012 mainly due to other social media platforms dominating public commenting venues. RF Cafe Forums began sometime around August of 2003 and was quite well-attended for many years. By 2012, Facebook and Twitter were overwhelmingly dominating online personal interaction, and RF Cafe Forums activity dropped off precipitously. Regardless, there are still lots of great posts in the archive that ware worth looking at. Below are the old forum threads, including responses to the original posts. Here is the full original RF Cafe Forums on Archive.org

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Noise

Post subject: VCO Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 5:06 am

Captain

Joined: Tue May 02, 2006 4:59 am

Posts: 15

Does anyone have a good application for VCO design at ~2GHz ?

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yendori

Post subject: Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:57 pm

General

Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2003 1:19 am

Posts: 50

Location: texarcana

What?

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nubbage

Post subject: Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 11:27 am

General

Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:07 pm

Posts: 218

Location: London UK

Uhh?

If you mean is there a good application for a VCO the smartass answer is yes: an oscillator where the frequency is voltage controlled.

Did you mean "do we know of any design application notes to help design these", then about the best source of articles I know of is by Ulrike Rohde.

If you google his name then it should biff back some good papers he has written.

He now runs a US company making a wide range of integrated assemblies for mixers amps and VCOs.

So he has found another good application for VCOs: making money. All power to his elbow (as we say over here). I thought the days of successful microwave companies run by excellent microwave engineers had long passed.

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yendori

Post subject: Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 12:44 pm

General

Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2003 1:19 am

Posts: 50

Location: texarcana

Ohh, application NOTES!

I thought your VCO was so good people would create application just to use it.

More power to your thumb knukle I always say...here....in my cubicle...all alone....with my empty rfcafe coffee cup...the sound of engineers laughing at me...

You could always try Skyworks for some app notes.

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nubbage

Post subject: Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 5:27 am

General

Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:07 pm

Posts: 218

Location: London UK

Hi noise

The company I was trying to remember is Synergy Microwave.

They have design app notes on their website at synergymwave.com.

Hey Yendori: I should be so lucky. My colleagues laugh at me because one of them stole my RFCafe mug. How about that. I knew the mugs were valuable but I never imagined someone would stoop to stealing one.

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yendori

Post subject: Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:36 pm

General

Joined: Thu Sep 25, 2003 1:19 am

Posts: 50

Location: texarcana

Hi Nubbage,

I understand about the coffee mug problem. The thing is it's more than a coffee cup, it tells the world that "I know Kirt Blattenberger!"

Engineers sit in a circle in the lab while I tell stories about Kirt. I say his website has more links than grains of sand on the beach and although he is only 5 feet tall he can squat 600lbs. Kirt is a very handsome man yet he still felt it neccessary to PhotoShop out some blemishes on his home page picture. Kirt makes a mean glass of lemonade.

Then everybody takes a sip of non fat milk from the RFCafe mug and gets back to there Spectrum Analyzers with envious, but satified grins on there faces.

Sorry Nubbage, I need a vacation

Posted  11/12/2012