ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS 2 - LABORATORY

REPORT:
PASSIVE LOW-PASS FILTER AND PASSIVE HIGH-PASS FILTER

Name: Samuel Pereira

Student Number: D14128558
Course: DT081 Year 2
Submission Date: 12/10/2015

INTRODUCTION

Filters of some sort are essential to the operation of most electronic circuits. An electrical
filter is a circuit that can be designed to modify, reshape or reject all unwanted frequencies
of an electrical signal and accept (or pass) only those signals wanted by the circuits
designer. To do so, a filter might change the amplitude and/or phase characteristics of a
signal with respect to frequency. In other words, they filter-out unwanted signals and an
ideal filter will separate and pass sinusoidal input signals based upon their frequency.
Filters in general can be separated in two categories: the active filters and the passive
ones. The first kind uses active devices such as operational amplifiers and transistors,
but the topic of this report specific sort of the second kind, which just uses, basically,
resistors, capacitors and inductors. To be more specific, this report will be about passive
high-pass filters and passive low-pass filters.

PASSIVE LOW-PASS FILTER

A basic low pass filter can be constructed with a basic RC circuit, which means that the
output level is always less than the input - it has no signal gain because there is no
amplifying elements.
The circuit can be seen in the figure below.

Figure 1 Low-pass filter circuit

It consists of a resistor in series with a capacitor and it is important to mention that the
output voltage should be measured across the second component. The Vi represents the
input signal and Vo represents the output signal.
This circuit was constructed in the laboratory of Electrical Systems 2. The resistor and the
capacitor used had, respectively, the values of 5 k and 3.3 nF and the input signal was
sinusoidal with Vrms = 4 V.
The objective of the experiment was to analyze the behavior of the output signal for
different frequency values in the input signal through the variation of gain, which is the
relationship between the output and input voltages. It is measured in dB and is given by
the following expression.

The values were analyzed especially near to the cut off frequency, which is the point
where this gain drops below 3 dB and can be calculated as:

According to the values of resistance and capacitance in the circuit, this frequency is
9,645.58 Hz.
The equipment used was a power supply, a 3 MHz function generator a digital multimeter
and a digital oscilloscope.
The following table shows the results of the experiment.

Vin (Vrms)
4.02
4
4.02
4.01
4
4.01
4
3.99
3.99
4.01
3.99
4
3.98
4.02
4
3.99
3.98

Vout (Vrms)
3.99
3.92
3.845
3.73
3.582
3.45
3.283
3.126
2.968
2.843
2.691
2.57
2.433
2.35
2.227
2.13
2.028

f (kHz)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

Vout/Vin
0.99254
0.98
0.95647
0.93017
0.8955
0.86035
0.82075
0.78346
0.74386
0.70898
0.67444
0.6425
0.61131
0.58458
0.55675
0.53383
0.50955

20log10(Vout/Vin) (dB)
-0.065063148
-0.175478486
-0.386594179
-0.628710816
-0.958688196
-1.306505551
-1.715782172
-2.11967844
-2.570179982
-2.987350259
-3.421183958
-3.84253736
-4.274819263
-4.663163816
-5.086795486
-5.451865845
-5.856302428

log10(f)
3
3.30103
3.47712
3.60206
3.69897
3.77815
3.8451
3.90309
3.95424
4
4.04139
4.07918
4.11394
4.14613
4.17609
4.20412
4.23045

Table 1 Results (LPF)

In order to clarify the results, two graphs was constructed. Both show show the frequency
and gain relation, but in the first one the frequency is in linear scale and, in the second, it
is in logarithmic scale.

Low pass filter

0
0

10

12

14

16

18

-1

-3

-4
-5
-6
-7

frequency (kHz)

Graph 1 Frequency x gain (LPF)

Bode plot - LPF

4.5

4
3.5
3

log10(f)

Gain (dB)

-2

2.5
2
1.5
1

0.5
0
-7

-6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

Gain (dB)
Graph 2 Gain x log10(f) (LPF)

PASSIVE HIGH-PASS FILTER

The circuit in this case is similar to the first one, as the figure below. The only difference
is in the output voltage: this it is measured in the resistor.

Figure 1 Low-pass filter circuit

The whole process was repeated and the values for input voltage, resistance and
capacitance used was the same as in the low-pass filter (Vi = 4 R = 5 k and C = 3.3 nF).
Furthermore, the cut off frequency was also the same (fc = 9,645.58 Hz).
The results are shows in the table below.

Vin (Vrms)
4.01
4.03
4
4.01
4.03
3.99
3.99
3.99
4
3.97
3.97
3.98
3.97

Vout (Vrms)
0.408
0.815
1.181
1.527
1.839
2.104
2.319
2.553
2.743
2.869
2.992
3.129
3.215

f (kHz)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Vout/Vin
0.101746
0.202233
0.29525
0.380798
0.456328
0.527318
0.581203
0.63985
0.68575
0.72267
0.753652
0.786181
0.809824

20log10(Vout/Vin) (dB)
-19.84968419
-13.88294875
-10.59620187
-8.386106711
-6.814466338
-5.558543204
-4.713442941
-3.878441618
-3.276683674
-2.82119917
-2.456578351
-2.089550179
-1.83219059

log10(f)
3
3.30103
3.477121
3.60206
3.69897
3.778151
3.845098
3.90309
3.954243
4
4.041393
4.079181
4.113943
6

Vin (Vrms)
4
3.99
3.98
3.99

Vout (Vrms)
3.327
3.391
3.448
3.514

f (kHz)
14
15
16
17

Vout/Vin
0.83175
0.849875
0.866332
0.880702

20log10(Vout/Vin) (dB)
-1.600143809
-1.412902118
-1.246316298
-1.103422771

log10(f)
4.146128
4.176091
4.20412
4.230449

Table 2 Results (HPF)

The two graphs was also constructed.

High pass filter)

0
0

10

12

14

16

18

-5

Gain (dB)

-10

-15

-20

-25

frequency (KHz)

Graph 3 Frequency x gain (HPF)

Bode plot - HPF

4.5
4
3.5

log10(f)

3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

Gain (dB)
Graph 4 Gain x log10(f) (HPF)

CONCLUSION

The experiment achieved its goal once changes in the behavior of the output signal could
be noticed. In the passive low-pass filter high frequencies were blocked while low
frequencies passed and, in the passive high-pass filter, the opposite occurred high
frequencies passed and low frequencies were blocked. In addition, this analysis could be
predicted through the calculation of the cut off frequency, which represents the limit
between pass and block.
This experiment is important to show that useful tools can be constructed through simple
components such as resistors and capacitors -, and knowing how they work can be the
entrance to understand more complex systems.