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The Wien bridge oscillator is usually denoted with a bulb to balance the gain of the system and produce stable oscillations.

Unfortunately, I don't have any bulbs, so I'm curious what a good modern replacement is, and how one would design such a replacement.

wein bridge oscillator for wikipedia

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Read Andy's comment about JFETs here: electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/78388/… -- which is also a link to the right of your question. \$\endgroup\$
    – jonk
    Sep 9, 2016 at 20:19
  • \$\begingroup\$ Also, some discussion about using a JFET part way down this page: learnabout-electronics.org/Oscillators/osc34.php -- just from a quick google search for you. \$\endgroup\$
    – jonk
    Sep 9, 2016 at 20:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ I was kind of hoping for an expansion of that idea. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 9, 2016 at 20:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ Can you expand your question to include the jfet topology and by then talking about the aspects of the jfet circuit where you need more thought added? Or are you fishing for a still different answer? \$\endgroup\$
    – jonk
    Sep 9, 2016 at 20:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ Jfets aren't the only option for agc, so I would rather not limit answers to just jfet agc circuits. I'm going to let this question fester for a bit (I don't have time to rewrite it right now), but maybe I'll refocus it later. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 9, 2016 at 20:27

3 Answers 3

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I believe you might benefit from Linear's Application Note 43f. Look for the section on Wien bridge oscillators. Jim Williams tried replacing the bulb with JFETs as well as a photocell "vactrol". Essentially, anything that has a nice linear transconductance would be a good candidate.

If anything, the app note is an excellent read and Jim Williams was a rock star :-)

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The same techniques are explained in the 3rd edition of Art of Electronics. \$\endgroup\$ Sep 10, 2016 at 7:06
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A PTC thermistor is the other replacement option if you want to keep the simplicity of a two terminal passive.

Active level stabilisation is a good and useful thing, but there is sometimes much to be said for simple and crude, and often good enough is all that is needed.

Regards, Dan.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ How do I choose said thermistor? \$\endgroup\$ Sep 10, 2016 at 19:54
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Ok, too late ... but more simpler, for information ...

enter image description here

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