until the average gain is one. The nonlinearity that reduces the gain may also be more subtle than running into a power supply rail. The result of this gain averaging is some harmonic distortion in the output signal. If the small-signal gain is just a little bit more than one, then only a small amount of gain compression is needed, so there won't be much harmonic distortion. If the small-signal gain is much more than one, then significant distortion will be present. However the oscillator must have gain significantly above one to start reliably. So in oscillators that must produce a very low-distortion sine wave, a system that keeps the gain roughly constant during the entire cycle is used. A common design uses an incandescent lamp or a thermistor in the feedback circuit. These oscillators exploit the resistance of a tungsten filament of the lamp increases in proportion to its temperature (a thermistor works in a similar fashion). The lamp both measures the output amplitude and controls the oscillator gain at the same time. The oscillator's signal level heats the filament. If the level is too high, then the filament temperature gradually increases, the resistance increases, and the loop gain falls (thus decreasing the oscillator's output level). If the level is too low, the lamp cools down and increases the gain. The 1939 HP200A oscillator uses this technique. Modern variations may use explicit level detectors and gain-controlled amplifiers. Wien bridge oscillator One of the most common gain-stabilized circuits is the Wien bridge oscillator. In this circuit, two RC circuits are used, one with the RC components in series and one with the RC components in parallel. The Wien Bridge is often used in audio signal generators because it can be easily tuned using a two-section variable capacitor or a two section variable potentiometer (which is more easily obtained than a variable capacitor suitable for generation at low frequencies). The archetypical HP200A audio oscillator is a Wien Bridge oscillator. References External links Electronic oscillators