Diagram for Reference

This design resulted from the need for a partial replacement of the well-known 8038 chip,  which is no longer in production and there fore hardly obtainable.

An existing design for driving an LVDT sensor (Linear Variable Differential Transformer),  where the 8038 was used as a variable sine  wave oscillator, had to be modernised. It may  have been possible to replace the 8038 with an  Exar 2206, except that this chip couldn’t be used  with the supply voltage used. For this reason we  looked for a replacement using standard components, which should always be available.

In this circuit two opamps from a TL074 (IC1.A  and B) are used to generate a triangular wave,  which can be set to a wide range of frequencies using P1. The following differential amplifier using T1 and T2 is configured in such a way  that the triangular waveform is converted into  a reasonably looking sinusoidal waveform. P2  is used to adjust the distortion to a minimum.

The third opamp (IC1.C) is configured as a  difference amplifier, which presents the sine  wave at its output. This signal is then buffered by the last opamp (IC1.D). Any offset at the  output can be nulled using P3.

Author : Jac Hettema - Copyright : Elektor