VCO
Science & Engineering abbreviation · Electronics & Electrical
| Stands for | Voltage-controlled oscillator |
|---|---|
| Categories | Science & Engineering |
VCO stands for Voltage-controlled oscillator, an electronics & electrical abbreviation.
Oscillator whose output frequency changes in response to an input control voltage. VCOs are core parts of phase-locked loops and frequency synthesizers, and in analog music synthesizers they generate the basic pitch.
Example: The modular synth's VCO tracks one volt per octave, so a 1 V increase raises the pitch by an octave.
Usage notes
Radio VCOs often tune with varactor diodes, whose capacitance varies with voltage. Robert Moog's synthesizers of the 1960s popularized the volt-per-octave standard. Key VCO specifications include tuning range, linearity and phase noise.
Related abbreviations
More electronics & electrical abbreviations
- AC – Alternating current
- ADC – Analog-to-digital converter
- AFCI – Arc-fault circuit interrupter
- AM – Amplitude modulation
- AMOLED – Active-matrix organic light-emitting diode
- ASIC – Application-specific integrated circuit
- AWG – American wire gauge
- BGA – Ball grid array
- BJT – Bipolar junction transistor
- BLDC – Brushless DC motor
- CMOS – Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor
- CPLD – Complex programmable logic device