This paper describes the design and measurement of a translinear secon
d-order oscillator, The circuit is a direct implementation of a nonlin
ear second-order differential equation and follows from a recently dev
eloped synthesis method for dynamic translinear circuits. It comprises
only two capacitors and a handful of bipolar transistors and can be i
nstantaneously controlled over a very wide frequency range by only one
control current, which indicates its suitability for spread-spectrum
communications, Its total harmonic distortion can be made small by the
design, which enables fully integrated transmitters, A semicustom tes
t chip, fabricated in a standard 2-mu m, 7-GHz, bipolar IC process, op
erates from a single supply voltage, which can be as low as 2 V and os
cillates over six decades of frequency with -31 dB total harmonic dist
ortion.