The onboard, 800-kHz oscillator generates the switching frequency through a divide-by-2 circuit. The oscillator can be synchronized to other DCR01 device circuits or an external source, and is used to minimize system noise.

A watchdog circuit monitors the operation of the oscillator circuit. The oscillator can be disabled by pulling the SYNC pin low. When the SYNC pin goes low, the output pins transition into tri-state mode, which occurs within 2 μs.