Low-Cost Circuit Converts Clock to Low-Distortion Sinewave
Abstract
This circuit derives a pure sinewave from a crystal-controlled clock source by using a ring counter to remove the highest-amplitude unwanted harmonics, and filtering the result with an 8th-order lowpass, switched-capacitor elliptic filter (MAX7400).
A similar version of this article appeared in the October 2007 issue of PD magazine.
A simple, low-cost circuit (Figure 1) uses the existing clock in a digital system to generate low-distortion audio signals. Because most digital-system clocks are derived from crystal oscillators, those clocks produce stable and accurate sinewaves.
The most obvious approach is to divide the clock frequency down to the required audio frequency, and then filter out the harmonics. A squarewave of 50% duty cycle, for instance, contains only odd harmonics (3rd, 5th, 7th, etc.), and their amplitudes decrease with frequency. The 3rd-harmonic amplitude is 1/3 that of the fundamental, the 5th is 1/5 that of the fundamental, and so on.
Filter circuits give better results if you first attenuate the input signal's highest-amplitude unwanted harmonics. This job is easily accomplished with a ring counter (U2) and a simple weighted-resistance network that attenuates all harmonics below the 9th by at least 70dB (Figure 2). An 8th-order lowpass, switched-capacitor elliptic filter (U3, MAX7400) removes most of the remaining harmonics. U3's corner frequency is set by the input clock as fCLOCK/100.
Ring counter U1 divides the incoming CMOS-level clock signal by ten. The second ring counter (U2) also divides the clock by ten, but its outputs are summed by a weighted-resistance network to produce a 9-step approximation of a sinewave. That waveform is further filtered by U3, which attenuates all harmonics below the noise level. The circuit's input signal (clk in) serves as a clock for U3. To achieve the lowest distortion, U3's input should be biased to VDD/2, and its input signal attenuated to 2.2V peak. This attenuation is accomplished with a voltage divider consisting of the weighting network's output resistance and the filter IC's input resistance (R5 and R6 in parallel). Below 10kHz, the circuit shown achieves distortion levels below 0.01%.