CT203: Signals & Systems

Tutorial 13 - Laplace Transform and Sampling

1. Find the Laplace transforms (specify the ROC) of the following signals:

(a) δ(t).
(b) sin(ω0 t)u(t).
(c) cos(ω0 t)u(t).

2. Find the impulse reponse of a causal LTI system with transfer function H (s) = s+1 1 +
1
s+2 . Find the pole-zero locations of the system and comment on the stability of the
system. Also find the ROC of H (s), and comment on the position of the zero with
respect to the ROC.

3. Find the unit-step response of a causal LTI system with transfer function H (s) =
s2 −10
s2 −2s−3
.

4. Find the impulse response of the following circuit assuming it is an LTI system.

Figure 1: An R-C circuit, with input voltage x (t) and output voltage y(t)

1
Solutions
1. Finding Laplace transforms:
R∞
(a) −∞ δ(t) exp(−st)dt = 1, ROC = C.
R∞ R∞ exp(−(σ+ j(ω −ω0 ))t) ∞

(b) −∞ exp( jω0 t)u(t) exp(−st)dt = 0 exp(−(σ + j(ω − ω0 ))t)dt = −(σ+ j(ω −ω0 ))  .
0
exp( jω0 t)−exp(− jω0 t)
= σ+ j(ω1−ω ) , ∀σ > 0. Since sin(ω0 t) = 2j , one can find the re-
0
quired Laplace transform using linearity.
(c) Similar to above.
+3
2. H (s) = (s+2s2)(s+1)
. Zeros = {− 32 }, Poles = {−1, −2}. Since the system is causal, the
impulse response is a right-sided signal, thus the system is stable since all poles lie
on the left hand side s-plane. Note the strange location of the zero, it lies outside
the ROC! Zero would imply that the response of the system should be zero, which
is certainly bounded. This apparent contradiction is resolved when you note that the
Laplace transform expression H (s) given is valid only in the ROC, so you should not
substitute the value of s from outside ROC, if you do, it does not make sense.
H (s)
3. We need to compute y(t) = L−1 ( H (s)U (s)) = L−1 ( s ).

s2 − 10
Y (s) =
s(s − 2)(s − 1)
A B C
Y (s) = + +
s s−2 s−1
2
s − 10 = A(s − 1)(s − 2) + Bs(s − 1) + Cs(s − 2)
Using Partial fractions ,
A = −5, B = −3, C = 9
y(t) = − 5u(t) − 3 exp(−2t)u(t) + 9 exp(−t)u(t)

4. Writing KCL equations, (denote v(t) as voltage across capacitor C1 ),

v(t) − x (t) 1 t y(t) − v(t)
Z
+ v(τ )dτ =
R1 C1 −∞ R2
v(t) − y(t) 1
Z
= ty(τ )dτ
R2 C2 −∞
Using Laplace transform,
V (s) − X (s) V (s) Y (s) − V (s)
+ +
R1 sC1 R2
V (s) − Y (s) Y (s)
=
R2 sC2
Solving these two equations, we get

Y (s) sR1 R22 C22

H (s) = =
X (s) R1 R2 ( R2 + sC2 )( R1 + R2 + sC2 ) − s2 R1 R22 C22
For particular values of R1 , R2 , C1 , C2 , you need to work out the partial fractions and
then the inverse Laplace transform.