Stabilized delay line oscillator

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide timing circuitry which will adapt to changes in frequency.
Another object of the invention is to provide a delay line clock which will maintain accuracy on a pulse to pulse basis.
In order to accomplish the above and other objects, a variable voltage delay is coupled to the output of a lumped delay line in a delay line clock.
The variable delay s provided by a voltage controllable one-shot multivibrator which is gated to the input of the delay line.
The output of the multivibrator is thereafter controlled by a variable voltage produced by comparing the delay line clock count against a fixed number N during a predetermined reference period.
The control voltage will act to adjust the output of the multivibrator such that the delay line clock output has a frequency equal to the reference period divided by the constant N.
The delay line clock output is therefore stabilized with respect to the reference period on a pulse to pulse basis and can be adjusted in frequency by digitally modifying the fixed number N.
Since the circuitry provides correction to the frequency on a sampled basis, the accuracy of an incoherent crystal oscillator can be employed to produce coherent timing pulses in systems operated asynchronously.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when considered with the accompanying drawings wherein: