(electronics) The oscillator in a superheterodyne receiver, whose output is mixed with the incoming modulated radio-frequency carrier signal in the mixer to give the frequency conversions needed to produce the intermediate-frequency signal.
Local oscillator
| Sci-Tech Dictionary: local oscillator |
(′lō·kəl ′äs·ə′lād·ər)
| 5min Related Video: Local oscillator |
| WordNet: local oscillator |
Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.
The noun has one meaning:
Meaning #1:
an oscillator whose output heterodynes with the incoming radio signal to produce sum and difference tones
Synonym: heterodyne oscillator
| Wikipedia: Local oscillator |
Main article: Variable-frequency oscillator
A local oscillator is an electronic device used to generate a signal normally for the purpose of converting a signal of interest to a different frequency using a mixer. This process of frequency conversion, also referred to as heterodyning, produces the sum and difference frequencies of the frequency of the local oscillator and frequency of the input signal of interest. These are the beat frequencies. Normally the beat frequency is associated with the lower sideband, the difference between the two.
Several local oscillators can be strung in series to form a local oscillator chain (LO chain).
Historically, most applications of local oscillators were widely used in radio physics over frequencies from kHz to GHz. After spreading of nonlinear optics, the same terms and principles apply also to the optical frequencies of order of 1015Hz.
See also
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | local-oscillator injection (electronics) |
| local-oscillator radiation (electronics) |
| locked-oscillator detector (electronics) |
 | What is an oscillation? Read answer... |
| What is oscilating motion? Read answer... |
| Is an oscillator in a radio? Read answer... |
Help us answer these
 | What is signal wave form at local oscillator? |
| What is Local oscillation in block up converter? |
| How tunable local oscillator allow detection of individual channels of WDM? |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Local oscillator". Read more |
Related answers
- What is a local oscillation?
- What is the difference between local oscillator and crystal oscillator?
- What is the oscillator?
ADVERTISEMENT
Answer these
- Why local oscillator is called local?
- What does it mean to be a local oscillation of material?
- How do local oscillators match frequency?
Mentioned in
- local-oscillator injection (electronics)
- local-oscillator radiation (electronics)
- locked-oscillator detector (electronics)
- converter tube (electronics)
- intermediate frequency (electronics)
- McNally tube (electronics)
- oscillator harmonic interference (electronics)
- phase-locked system (engineering)
- product demodulator (electronics)
- crystal mixer (electronics)
- heterodyne detector (electronics)
- infrared heterodyne detector (electronics)
- local oscillator (technology)
- stalo (electronics)
