Waveform Generators

waveform generator is an electronic circuit, which generates a standard wave. There are two types of op-amp based waveform generators −

This chapter discusses each of these op-amp based waveform generators in detail.

Square Wave Generator

square wave generator is an electronic circuit which generates square wave. This section discusses about op-amp based square wave generators.

The circuit diagram of a op-amp based square wave generator is shown in the following figure

 

Thus, the circuit shown in the above diagram will produce a square wave at the output as shown in the following figure –

Triangular Wave Generator

A triangular wave generator is an electronic circuit, which generates a triangular wave. The block diagram of a triangular wave generator is shown in the following figure −

The block diagram of a triangular wave generator contains mainly two blocks: a square wave generator and an integrator. These two blocks are cascaded. That means, the output of square wave generator is applied as an input of integrator. Note that the integration of a square wave is nothing but a triangular wave.

The circuit diagram of an op-amp based triangular wave generator is shown in the following figure −

We have already seen the circuit diagrams of a square wave generator and an integrator. Observe that we got the above circuit diagram of an op-amp based triangular wave generator by replacing the blocks with the respective circuit diagrams in the block diagram of a triangular wave generator.