electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

and

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, a ramp generator is a circuit that creates a linear rising or falling output with respect to time. The output variable is usually voltage, although current ramps can be created. Linear ramp generators are also known as sweep generators Ramp generators produces a

sawtooth wave The sawtooth wave (or saw wave) is a kind of non-sinusoidal waveform. It is so named based on its resemblance to the teeth of a plain-toothed saw with a zero rake angle. A single sawtooth, or an intermittently triggered sawtooth, is called a ...

form, Suppose a 3V is applied to input of a comparator of X terminal and ramp generator at Y terminal. the ramp generator starts increasing its voltage but, still lower than input X terminal of the comparator the output shall be 1, As soon as the ramp voltage is equal to or more than X, comparator output goes low.

Applications

Voltage and current linear ramp generator find wide application in instrumentation and communication systems. Ramp generators used in

electrical generator In electricity generation, a generator, also called an ''electric generator'', ''electrical generator'', and ''electromagnetic generator'' is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy for use in an extern ...

s or

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

s to avoid transients when changing a load. Some ramp generators present also the possibility to change the start-up and return flow time.

Implementation

Originally, ramp generators were implemented as analog hardware devices.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramp Generator Analog circuits Power engineering