BMEN 3120 – Biomedical Circuits and Instrumentation Laboratory Fall 2015

Lab 7: Active Filters

Name(s): Ami Shah

Date: 11/3/15
Section/time: BMEN 3120.103
Pre-lab assignment
To help prepare for this lab, please read through the preceding discussions and answer the following
(refer to your textbook when needed).

Questions to answer before Lab 7

1. (15 points) Browse the datasheet of MCP604 (the quad op amp chip you will use in this lab) and
draw its pin diagram.

2. (20 points) If you compare the circuit below to an inverting amplifier circuit, you can see that
the input resistor is replaced by a resistor and a capacitor in series. The feedback path has just
one resistor.

Figure 5

a) [15 points] Fill in the following table in a qualitative manner (high/low, yes/no):

BMEN 3120 – Active Filters Page 1

 Frequency of −𝑗 Amplitude of Amplitude of Does the signal
sinusoidal signal 𝜔𝐶 −𝑗 the circuit’s pass through
𝑅1 + Gain the circuit?
𝜔𝐶
LOW High high high Yes

HIGH low low low no

b) [5 points] What kind of filter is this?

 Low pass filter

3. (10 points) If a filter has unity gain (i.e. 0 dB) in its passband, you know that the frequency at
which the output has half the amplitude of the input is known as the cutoff frequency. Hence,
the gain is −3 dB at the cutoff frequency. However, if the maximum gain in the passband is not
0 dB, the cutoff frequency is the point where the gain is 3 dB lower than the maximum gain.

When measuring cutoff frequency from the Bode plot, if you notice that the maximum gain is 8
dB, then what is the gain at the cutoff frequency?

 8-3 = 5dB
4. (10 points) When you design a bandpass filter by cascading a high-pass and a low-pass filter, the
_____________ cutoff frequency of the bandpass filter depends on the low-pass stage while the
____________ cutoff frequency depends on the high-pass stage (circle one).
 upper, lower
 lower, upper

5. (10 points) For a first order low-pass filter (as in Figure 1(a), as well as the first stage in Figure 3)
with a maximum gain of 0 dB (implying that the resistors are equal) and a cutoff frequency of
1000 Hz, find the value of the resistor if the capacitor is 0.47 μF.
 Resistor = 338.6 ohms

6. (15 points) For a third order cascaded low-pass filter consisting of three identical first order filters
(similar to Figure 3), find the required value of the resistors (the maximum gain is 0 dB, the cutoff
frequency for the entire filter is 1000 Hz, and capacitors are all 0.47 μF).
 Resistors = 664.2 ohms

7. (20 points) Design a second order Butterworth filter with a cutoff frequency of 500 Hz. Use only
1 kΩ resistors and find the required values for the capacitors. Draw the circuit schematic [save
a copy of your design; you will build this circuit during the lab].

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