CD4060 Oscillator Counter Divider – Pinout, Operation, and Example Usages

The CD4060 is a CMOS oscillator and counter IC commonly used for clock generation, timing, and frequency division. Its integrated oscillator and 14-stage binary divider make it a practical choice for both RC- and crystal-based applications.

This article covers the CD4060 pinout, basic operation, and typical input-output behavior. Both the RC and crystal oscillator implementations are also examined to understand how they will be utilized in regular, practical circuits.

What is the CD4060?

The CD4060 is a dedicated CMOS oscillator chip with a 14-stage ripple-carry counter or divider. It possesses internal logic gates constructed for RC and crystal operations. It also allows for an external input clock without an oscillator circuit.

The ripple-carry counter can function as a normal binary counter or a divider for the input clock. The CD4060 also has a common reset pin that halts the oscillation and resets the counter outputs to “0” when activated.

The majority of CD4060s used by hobbyists and beginners alike are in the DIP-16 (dual-in-line) package. With that said, SMD designs such as SOIC or TSSOP are also available. All CD4060s today come with the -B suffix for the B series CMOS standard. The DIP-16 units would also have an -E suffix.

The CD4060 is a very popular chip and widely available; purchasing one online is quite convenient and inexpensive, especially the DIP-16 one.

The CD4060’s Features

• Integrated oscillator supporting RC or crystal clock sources.
• Member of the 4000-series CMOS logic family.
• 14-stage binary ripple counter for on-chip frequency division.
• It can operate as a counter with an external clock input.
• Noise-tolerant oscillator input for reliable clock generation.
• Fully buffered CMOS inputs and outputs.
• Asynchronous common reset for the entire chip.
• Wide operating supply voltage range (3V to 18V for the -B suffix unit).
• Relatively low power consumption suitable for on-battery operation.

Typical Applications

In practical circuit designs, the CD4060 is typically used for timer-related applications, such as oscillators, counters, and frequency dividers. Here are three examples that we see quite frequently.

1️⃣ RC Oscillator with On-Chip Divider

This type of application is often the most common usage of the CD4060. The oscillator part is paired with an RC circuit made up of a few resistors and capacitors. The desired frequency is taken from the 14-stage binary divider.

It offers a simple oscillator setup with sufficient accuracy for basic or hobbyist projects, or where precise frequency accuracy is not critical. The integrated counter/divider makes for more output frequency options without additional ICs.

2️⃣ Crystal Oscillator with On-Chip Divider

This usage is fundamentally the same as the RC oscillator setup. However, the clock crystal oscillator generates a more accurate frequency than the RC circuit. The divider still provides for a variety of frequency options.

The CD4060 crystal oscillator is especially useful for generating a clock signal for timers. The 14-stage divider can easily divide down the crystal frequency. This makes the CD4060 a great one-IC solution for generating a 1Hz clock.

3️⃣ Binary Counter Using External Clock

Because the 14-stage ripple carry counter/divider can also be driven by an external clock, the CD4060 can be used as a pure counter chip. This is especially useful when using a pair of CD4060s as a timer, where one chip acts as an oscillator and frequency divider, while the other acts as a binary counter. 

That said, the CD4060 does not expose all counter stages, which limits design flexibility. Furthermore, there are other CMOS counter chips with less restrictive counter outputs, such as the CD4040.

The CD4060 Pinouts and Functions

As mentioned earlier, the CD4060 contains both an oscillator and a counter/divider. We interface with these two parts via the pins on the chip. The pinouts and functions of each pin in the DIP-14 package are shown below.

Pins 6 and 18 are the two power pins, Vss and Vdd, respectively. Pins 1 through 7 and 13, 14, and 15 are the binary counter outputs. Pin 11 is the common reset pin; when applied with “1” logic, it sets all counter outputs to “0”.

Pin 11 is the frequency input, while pins 9 and 10 are the noninverted and inverted frequency outputs. Pins 9 and 10 are used when constructing an RC or crystal oscillator. The table below has the pin number, pin name or label, and pin function of the CD4060.

Pin No.	Pin Label	Pin Function
1	Q12	Divided by 4096 (2^12)
2	Q13	Divided by 8192 (2^13)
3	Q14	Divided by 16384 (2^14)
4	Q6	Divided by 64 (2^6)
5	Q5	Divided by 32 (2^5)
6	Q7	Divided by 128 (2^7)
7	Q4	Divided by 16 (2^4)
8	VSS	Negative Voltage Supply
9	ϕO	Frequency Output
10	_ϕO	Inverted Frequency Output
11	ϕI	Frequency Input
12	R	Common Reset
13	Q9	Divided by 512 (2^9)
14	Q8	Divided by 256 (2^8)
15	Q10	Divided by 1024 (2^10)
16	VDD	Positive Voltage Supply

Similar to other DIP package ICs, the CD4060 has an indentation or dot indicating the side at which the first pins start, or a notch at the end that shows pin 1 to the left of it.

Oscillator Side Internal Diagram

The oscillator side of the CD4060 contains logic gates ready for RC or crystal operations. Shown below is a simplified diagram of the internal logic gates on the CD4060.

The first NAND gate in the diagram acts as an inverter (NOT) gate for the pin 11 frequency input when the pin 12 common reset is applied with “0” logic. In the case that pin 12 receives “1” logic, the NAND gate stops functioning and outputs a constant “1.” 

Note: Pin 12 is connected to the NAND gate’s inverted inputs.

Since the first NAND gate acts as an inverter, the pin 10 frequency output has an inverted (180° out-of-phase) signal compared to the input. This inverting gate is used for both RC and crystal circuits.

Moving along forward, there’s the pin 9 non-inverted frequency output. It takes the signal at pin 10 and then passes it through another inverter. As a result, the signal at pin 9 is again in phase with the input signal. Pin 9 is mainly used for RC circuit implementation.

An additional internal inverter with Schmitt-trigger action is used only for internal signal conditioning. It is not part of the RC or crystal circuit and simply cleans up the oscillator signal before it reaches the counter.

After the last inverter, the signal passes through another common reset logic (not shown in the diagram) before arriving at the counter/divider. The reset signal from pin 12 is also taken to the counter/divider.

Divider / Counter Outputs

As for the divider side of the chip, we’ll not go into much detail about its internal design, as it offers no practical uses. Instead, what’s important is how they work and how we might use them.

Each output divides the input frequency by a specific base-2 number (binary). The base-2 number used in the division came from the Q output number (Qn = ÷2^n). For example, Q9 is divided by 2^9, which is 512.

As shown in the simplified diagram above, the CD4060 offers 14-stage division options, with the highest being divided by 16384 (2^14). However, note that, in total, only 10 outputs are available from the chip outputs (we’ll examine what’s missing shortly).

Now, let’s look at how the CD4060 divider operates in practice by applying a constant pulse signal to it. The signal is at a 3.2kHz (3200Hz) constant clock pulse; the output frequencies are as follows.

The first output, Q4, produces a 200Hz signal, which is exactly equal to 3200Hz divided by 16. As we progress up the Q-numbered output, the output frequency decreases by half each time until it reaches approximately 0.1953Hz at the Q14 output.

Additionally, the common reset pin 12 is held to the GND for the duration of the test. The chip might not work properly if pin 12 is left floating or is connected to the positive voltage.

The Missing Outputs

As you may have noticed, the CD4060 is missing 4 of the 14 stage outputs that it is supposed to have. These outputs, however, exist within the chip, as that is how a ripple-carry counter operates. They are simply not available for connection from the outside of the chip.

The missing outputs include 2^1, 2^2, 2^3, and 2^11. These outputs are most likely omitted to save space and keep the chip within the 16-pin package, as they are regarded as unimportant and/or have insignificant values.

To compensate for the missing outputs, we can either add another counter/divider with these outputs visible and feed it the same input frequency or use an IC with a complete set of outputs.

Example CD4060 Circuit Implementations

In practice, the CD4060 is most often used as an RC or crystal oscillator. In this section, we’ll examine the recommended circuits for both implementations and also try them on a real breadboard. We would also talk a bit about the CD4060 as a binary counter, but we don’t actually recommend using it as such.

RC Oscillator

In RC implementations, we’ll use all of the oscillator pins (9, 10, and 11). The external components we need are two resistors and one capacitor. And don’t forget to connect pin 12 to GND.

As shown above, the circuit itself is rather simple. C1 and R2 are the main RC timing, while R1 limits the current for the oscillation. The resistance of R1 in this circuit is usually between 2 and 10 times the value of R2. An equation for finding frequency is as follows.

$$f=\frac{1}{2.2\times C_1\times R_2}$$

f is the RC oscillator frequency, or the frequency that passes through to the counter/divider.

The RC oscillator circuit is reasonably sufficient for basic uses. It is often preferred over the crystal circuit due to its simplicity, which requires only three external components. However, an RC circuit may not be suitable for high-precision applications.

Crystal Oscillator

In crystal implementations, we’re creating a Pierce oscillator, which requires a frequency input and inverted output (pins 10 and 11). The external components needed are two resistors, two capacitors, and one quartz crystal. Pin 12 is still connected to the GND, however.

The circuit appears more complex compared to the RC version, but it remains manageable. Most of the time, the value of the external components is given by the crystal manufacturer. 

However, in the case that the crystal’s datasheet is unavailable, you can try C1 and C2 in the low 100pf (0.1nf) ranges, R1 in the multiples of MΩ, and R2 in 10 to 100kΩ. The crystal circuit isn’t as finicky as the RCs; if the oscillation starts, it should already be accurate.

Compared to the RC circuit previously, this crystal implementation should be significantly more precise, with around 0.01% tolerance or lower. That said, it also requires more components and is less durable than the RC circuit (temperature and crystal degradation have impacts on frequency).

Binary Counter

As a binary counter, the CD4060 doesn’t need any external components. The clock signal from an external source enters the chip via pin 11, the frequency input. The divider outputs now function as binary outputs. Pin 12 still has to be connected to the GND.

Typically, for a binary counter, the input clock operates at a very low frequency (approximately 1Hz). Technically, the counter still divides the incoming signal, but when the frequency is very low, we can also see it as one pulse every number of seconds.

For example, if we apply a 1Hz clock to the chip, the frequency at the Q4 output will be 0.0625Hz (1 ÷ 2^4). That also means that Q4 outputs “1” logic every 16 seconds, or on the 16th 1Hz pulse.

As a result, it allows us to use the divider to count the pulse of the incoming clock signal or count the time associated with the constant clock signal.

We should also mention the downside of using the CD4060 in this way and some better alternatives. The divider outputs are quite limited, and this usage completely bypasses the oscillator-ready capability of the CD4060. Pure counter chips, such as CD4024 and CD4040, would be better picks for the task.

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