Review of Injected Oscillators

Oscillators are critical components in electrical and electronic engineering and other engineering and sciences. Oscillators are classified as free-running oscillators and injected oscillators. This chapter describes the background necessary for the analysis and design of injected oscillators. When an oscillator is injected by an external periodic signal mentioned as an injection signal, it is called an injected oscillator. Consequently, two phenomena occur in the injected oscillators: (I) pulling phenomena and (II) locking phenomena. For locking phenomena, the oscillation frequency of the injection signal must be near free-running oscillation frequency or its sub-/super-harmonics. Due to these phenomena are nonlinear phenomena, it is tough to achieve the exact equation or closed-form equation of them. Therefore, researchers are scrutinizing them by different analytical and numerical methods for accomplishing an exact inside view of their performances. In this chapter, injected oscillators are investigated in two main subjects: first, analytical methods on locking and pulling phenomena are reviewed, and second, applications of injected oscillators are reviewed such as injection-locked frequency dividers at the latter. Furthermore, methods of enhancing the locking range are introduced.