II.

PASSIVE FILTERS
Frequency-selective or lter circuits pass to the output only those input signals that are in a
desired range of frequencies (called pass band). The amplitude of signals outside this range
of frequencies (called stop band) is reduced (ideally reduced to zero). Typically in these
circuits, the input and output currents are kept to a small value and as such, the current
transfer function is not an important parameter. The main parameter is the voltage transfer
function in the frequency domain, H
v
(j) = V
o
/V
i
. As H
v
(j) is complex number, it has
both a magnitude and a phase, lters in general introduce a phase dierence between input
and output signals.
To minimize the number of subscripts, hereafter, we will drop subscript v of H
v
. Furthermore,
we concentrate on the the open-loop transfer functions, H
vo
, and denote this simply by
H(j). The impact of loading is sperately discussed.
Pass
Band Band
Stop
| H(j ) |

c
| H(j ) |

c

0.7
2.1 Low-Pass Filters
An ideal low-pass lters transfer function is shown. The
frequency between the pass- and-stop bands is called the
cut-o frequency (
c
). All of the signals with frequen-
cies below
c
are transmitted and all other signals are
stopped.
In practical lters, pass and stop bands are not clearly
dened, |H(j)| varies continuously from its maximum
toward zero. The cut-o frequency is, therefore, dened
as the frequency at which |H(j)| is reduced to 1/

2 =
0.7 of its maximum value. This corresponds to signal
power being reduced by 1/2 as P V
2
.
o
-
+
i
-
+
V
V
L
R
Low-pass RL lters
A series RL circuit as shown acts as a low-pass lter. For
no load resistance (open-loop transfer function), V
o
can
be found from the voltage divider formula:
V
o
=
R
R +jL
V
i
H(j) =
V
o
V
i
=
R
R +jL
=
1
1 +j(L/R)
We note
|H(j)| =
1
_
1 + (L/R)
2
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 21
It is clear that |H(j)| is maximum when denominator is smallest, i.e., 0 and |H(j)|
decreases as is increased. Therefore, this circuit allows low-frequency signals to pass
through while blocking high-frequency signals (i.e., reduces the amplitude of the voltage
of the high-frequency signals). The reference to dene the low and high-frequencies is
the cut-o frequency: low-frequencies mean frequencies much lower than
c
.
To nd the cut-o frequency, we note that the |H(j)|
Max
= 1 occurs at = 0 (alterna-
tively nd d |H(j)| /d and set it equal to zero to nd = 0 which maximizes |H(j)|).
Therefore,
|H(j)|
max
= 1
|H(j)|
=c
=
1

2
|H(j)|
max
=
1

2
1
_
1 + (
c
L/R)
2
=
1

2
1 +
_

c
L
R
_
2
= 2

c
L
R
= 1
Therefore,

c
=
R
L
and H(j) =
1
1 +j/
c
Input Impedance: Using the denition of the input impedance, we have:
Z
i
=
V
i
I
i
= jL +R
The value of the input impedance depends on the frequency . For good voltage coupling,
we need to ensure that the input impedance of this lter is much larger than the output
impedance of the previous stage. Since we do not know the frequency of the input signal,
we need to ensure that good voltage coupling criteria is satised for all frequencies (or all
possible values of Z
i
). As such, the minimum value of Z
i
is an important number. Z
i
is
minimum when the impedance of the inductor is zero ( 0).
Z
i
|
min
= R
o
Z
L
R
Output Impedance: The output impdenace can be
found by killing the source and nding the equivalent
impdenace between output terminals:
Z
o
= jL R
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 22
where the source resistance is ignored. Again, the value of the output impedance depends on
the frequency . For good voltage coupling, we need to ensure that the output impedance
of this lter is much smaller than the input impedance of the next stage for all frequencies,
the maximum value of Z
o
is an important number. Z
o
is maximum when the impedance of
the inductor is innity ( ).
Z
o
|
max
= R
Bode Plots and Decibel
The voltage transfer function of a two-port network (and/or the ratio of output to input
powers) is usually expressed in Bel:
Number of Bels = log
10
_
P
o
P
i
_
or Number of Bels = 2 log
10

V
o
V
i

because P V
2
. Bel is a large unit and decibel (dB) is usually used:
Number of decibels = 20 log
10

V
o
V
i

or

V
o
V
i

dB
= 20 log
10

V
o
V
i

There are several reasons why decibel notation is used:

1) Historically, the analog systems were developed rst for audio equipment. Human ear
hears the sound in a logarithmic fashion. A sound which appears to be twice as loud
actually has 10 times power, etc. Decibel translates the output signal to what ear hears.
2) If several two-port network are placed in a cascade (output of one is attached to the input
of the next), the overall transfer function, H, is equal to the product of all transfer functions:
|H(j)| = |H
1
(j)| |H
2
(j)| ...
20 log
10
|H(j)| = 20 log
10
|H
1
(j)| + 20 log
10
|H
2
(j)| +...
|H(j)|
dB
= |H
1
(j)|
dB
+|H
2
(j)|
dB
+...
making it easier to nd the overall response of the system.
3) Plot of |H(j)|
dB
versus frequency has special properties that make analysis simpler. For
example, the plot asymptotes to straight lines at low and high frequencies as is shown below.
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 23
Also, using dB denition, we see that, there is a 3 dB dierence between maximum gain and
gain at the cut-o frequency:
20 log |H(j
c
)| 20 log |H(j)|
max
= 20 log
_
|H(j
c
)|
|H(j)|
max
_
= 20 log
_
1

2
_
3 dB
Bode plots are plots of |H(j)|
dB
(magnitude) and

H(j) (phase) versus frequency in a
semi-log format (i.e., axis is a log axis). Bode plots of rst-order low-pass RL lters are
shown below (W denotes
c
).
|H(j)|
dB

H(j)
At high frequencies, /
c
1,
|H(j)|
1
/
c
|H(j)|
dB
= 20 log
_
1
/
c
_
= 20 log(
c
) 20 log()
which is a straight line with a slope of -20 dB/decade in the Bode plot. It means that if
is increased by a factor of 10 (a decade), |H(j)|
dB
changes by -20 dB.
At low frequencies, /
c
1, |H(j)| 1 which is also a straight line in the Bode plot.
The intersection of these two asymptotic values is at 1 = 1/(/
c
) or =
c
. Because of
this, the cut-o frequency is also called the corner frequency.
The behavior of the phase of H(j) can be found by examining

H(j) = tan
1
(/
c
). At
low frequencies, /
c
1,

H(j) 0 and at high frequencies, /
c
1,

H(j) 90

.
At cut-o frequency,

H(j) 45

.
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 24
General rst-order low-pass lters
As we discussed before, transfer functions characterize a two-port network. As such, it is
useful to group two-port networks into families based on their voltage transfer functions.
To facilitate this grouping, the convention is to simplify the voltage transfer function to a
form such that the Real part of the denominator of H(j) is unity (i.e., the denominator
should be 1 + j or 1 j ). As we will see later in this section, this grouping will also
help reduce the math that we do in analyzing various circuits.
The low-pass RL lter discussed before is part of the family of rst-order low-pass lters
(rst order means that appears in the denominator with an exponent of 1 or 1. In
general, the voltage transfer function of a rst-order low-pass lter is in the form:
H(j) =
K
1 +j/
c
The maximum value of |H(j)| = |K| is called the lter gain. Note that the exponent of
in the denominator is +1 so that |H(j)| decreases with frequency (thus,a low-pass lter):
|H(j)| =
|K|
_
1 + (/
c
)
2

H(j) =
|K|
K
tan
1
_

c
_
For RL lter, K = 1, and
c
= R/L. Note that K can be negative, and in that case, the
minus sign adds 180

phase shift to the transfer function as is denoted by |K|/K factor

above.
-
o
i
+
+
-
V
R
C
V
Low-pass RC lters
A series RC circuit as shown also acts as a low-pass lter.
For no load resistance (open-loop transfer function), V
o
can be found from the voltage divider formula:
V
o
=
1/(jC)
R + 1/(jC)
V
i
=
1
1 +j(RC)
V
i
H(j) =
1
1 +jRC
We see that the voltage transfer function of this circuit is similar to transfer function of a
general rst-order low-pass lter. So, this is a low-pass lter with K = 1 and
c
= 1/RC.
(Note: we identied the circuit and found the cut-o frequency without doing any math!).
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 25
We could, of course, do the math following the procedure in analyzing the low-pass RL lter
to get the same answer. (Exercise: Show this.).
Following the same procedure as for RL lters, we nd input and output Impedances
Z
i
= R +
1
jC
and Z
i
|
min
= R
Z
o
= R
1
jC
and Z
o
|
max
= R
-
o
-
+
i
L
+
V
C
R
V
R
Terminated RL and RC low-pass lters
Now let us examin the eect of a load on the perfor-
mance of our RL and RC lters. For this example,
a resistive load is considered but the analysis can be
easily extended to an impedance load. For example,
consider the terminated RC lter shown:
From the circuit,
H(j) =
V
o
V
i
=
1/(jC) R
L
R + [1/(jC) R
L
]
=
R

/R
1 +j(R

C)
with R

= R R
L
This is similar to the transfer function for unterminated RC lter but with resistance R
being replaced by R

. Therefore,

c
=
1
R

C
=
1
(R R
L
)C
and H(j) =
R

/R
1 +j/
c
We see that the impact of the load is to reduce the lter gain (K = R

/R < 1) and to shift

the cut-o frequency to a higher frequency as R

= R R
L
< R.
Input Impedance: Z
i
= R +
1
jC
R
L
Z
i
|
min
= R
Output Impedance: Z
o
= R
1
jC
Z
o
|
max
= R
We could have arrived at the same results using the the relationship between open-loop,
H
o
(j), and terminated, H(j), transfer functions of a two-port network:
H(j) =
Z
L
Z
L
+Z
o
H
o
(j) =
R
L
R
L
+R
1
jC

1
1 +jRC
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 26
(Exercise: show this.) Also, note that the output impdenace of the terminated circuit is
exactly the same as the open-loop version.
Furthermore, it can be seen that as long as R
L
Z
o
or R
L
Z
o
|
max
= R (our condition
for good voltage coupling), R

R and the terminated RC lter will look exactly like an

unterminated lter The lter gain is one, the shift in cut-o frequency disappears, and
input and output resistances become the same as before.
Terminated RL low-pass lters
The parameters of the terminated RL lters can be found similarly:
Voltage Transfer Function: H(j) =
V
o
V
i
=
1
1 +j/
c
,
c
= (R R
L
)/L.
Input Impedance: Z
i
= jL +R R
L
, Z
i
|
min
= R R
L
Output Impedance: Z
o
= (jL) R, Z
o
|
max
= R
Here, the impact of load is to shift the cut-o frequency to a lower value. Filter gain is not
aected. Again for R
L
Z
o
or R
L
Z
o
|
max
= R (our condition for good voltage coupling),
the shift in cut-o frequency disappears and the lter will look exactly like an unterminated
lter.
Exercise: Derive above equations for the transfer function and input and output impde-
nacess.
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 27
2.2 First-order high pass lters
In general, the voltage transfer function of a rst-order high-pass lter is in the form:
H(j) =
K
1 j
c
/
It is a rst-order lter because appears in the denominator with an exponent of 1. It
is a high-pass lter because |H| = 0 for = 0 and |H| is constant for high-freqnecies.
Paramter
c
is the cut-o freqnecy of the lter (Exercise: prove that |H(j
c
)| is 1/

2 = 0.7
of |H(j)|
Max
.)
The maximum value of |H(j)| = |K| is called the lter gain.
|H(j)| =
|K|
_
1 + (
c
/)
2

H(j) = +
|K|
K
tan
1
_

_
Bode Plots of rst-order high-pass lters (K = 1) are shown below. The asymptotic behavior
of this class of lters is:
At low frequencies, /
c
1, |H(j)| (a +20dB/decade line) and

H(j) = 90

At high frequencies, /
c
1, |H(j)| 1 (a line with a slope of 0) and

H(j) = 0

|H(j)|

H(j)
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 28
o
+
i
-
+
-
V
V
C
R
High-pass RC lters
A series RC circuit as shown acts as a high-pass lter.
The open-loop voltage transfer function of this lter is:
H(j) =
V
o
V
i
=
R
R + 1/(jC)
=
1
1 j(1/RC)
Therefore, this is a rst-order high-pass lter with K = 1 and
C
= 1/RC. Input and output
impdenaces of this lter can be found similar to the procedure used for low-pass lters:
Input Impedance: Z
i
= R +
1
jC
and Z
i
|
min
= R
Output Impedance: Z
o
= R
1
jC
and Z
o
|
max
= R
- -
i
+
o
+
V
L
R
V
High-pass RL lters
A series RL circuit as shown also acts as a high-pass lter.
Again, we nd the open-loop tranfunction to be:

c
=
R
L
H(j) =
1
1 j
c
/
Input Impedance: Z
i
= R +jL and Z
i
|
min
= R
Output Impedance: Z
o
= R jL and Z
o
|
max
= R
Exercise: Compute the voltage transfer function and input and output impdenaces of
terminated RC and RL lters.
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 29
2.3 Band-pass lters
A band pass lter allows signals with a range of frequencies (pass band) to pass through and
attenuates signals with frequencies outside this range.
Band
| H(j ) |
Pass
u

l

l
: Lower cut-o frequency;

u
: Upper cut-o frequency;

u
: Center frequency;
B
u

l
: Band width;
Q

0
B
: Quality factor.
As with practical low- and high-pass lters, upper and lower cut-o frequencies of practical
band pass lter are dened as the frequencies at which the magnitude of the voltage transfer
function is reduced by 1/

2 (or -3 dB) from its maximum value.

Second-order band-pass lters:
Second-order band pass lters include two storage elements (two capacitors, two inductors,
or one of each). The transfer function for a second-order band-pass lter can be written as
H(j) =
K
1 +jQ
_

_
|H(j)| =
|K|

1 +Q
2
_

_
2

H(j) =
|K|
K
tan
1
_
Q
_

__
The maximum value of |H(j)| = |K| is called the lter gain. The lower and upper cut-o
frequencies can be calculated by noting that |H(j)|
max
= K, setting |H(j
c
)| = K/

2 and
solving for
c
. This procedure will give two roots:
l
and
u
.
|H(j
c
)| =
1

2
|H(j)|
max
=
K

2
=
K

1 +Q
2
_

c
_
2
Q
2
_

c
_
2
= 1 Q
_

c
_
= 1

2
c

2
0

0
Q
= 0
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 30
The above equation is really two quadratic equations (one with + sign in front of fraction
and one with a sign). Solving these equation we will get 4 roots (two roots per equation).
Two of these four roots will be negative which are not physical as
c
> 0. The other two
roots are the lower and upper cut-o frequencies (
l
and
u
, respectively):

l
=
0

1 +
1
4Q
2


0
2Q

u
=
0

1 +
1
4Q
2
+

0
2Q
Bode plots of a second-order lter is shown below. Note that as Q increases, the bandwidth
of the lter become smaller and the |H(j)| becomes more picked around
0
.
|H(j)|
db

H(j)
Asymptotic behavior:
At low frequencies, /
0
1, |H(j)| (a +20dB/decade line), and

H(j) 90

At high frequencies, /
0
1, |H(j)| 1/ (a -20dB/decade line), and

H(j) 90

At =
0
, H(j) = K (purely real) |H(j)| = K (maximum lter gain), and

H(j) = 0

.
There are two ways to solve second-order lter circuits. 1) One can try to write H(j) in
the general form of a second-order lters and nd Q and
0
. Then, use the formulas above
to nd the lower and upper cut-o frequencies. 2) Alternatively, one can directly nd the
upper and lower cut-o frequencies and use
0

u
to nd the center frequency and
B
u

l
to nd the bandwidth, and Q =
0
/B to nd the quality factor. The two
examples below show the two methods. Note that one can always nd
0
and k rapidaly as
H(j
0
) is purely real and |H(j
0
)| = k
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 31
o
-
+
-
+
i
C
V
R V
L
Series RLC Band-pass lters
Using voltage divider formula, we have
H(j) =
V
o
V
i
=
R
R +jL + 1/(jC)
H(j) =
R
R +j
_
L
1
C
_
There are two approaches to nd lter parameters, K,
0
,
u
, and
l
.
Method 1: We transform the transfer function in a form similar to general form of the
transfer function for second order bandpass lters:
H(j) =
K
1 +jQ
_

_
Note that the denominator of the general form is in the form 1 +j . . . Therefore, we divide
top and bottom of transfer function of series RLC bandpass lters by R:
H(j) =
1
1 +j
_
L
R

1
RC
_
Comparing the above with the general form of the transfer function, we nd K = 1. To nd
Q and
0
, we note that the imaginary part of the denominator has two terms, one positive
and one negative (or one that scales as and the other that scales as 1/) similar to the
general form of transfer function of 2nd-order band-pass lters (which includes Q/
0
and
Q
0
/). Equating these similar terms we get:
Q

0
=
L
R

Q

0
=
L
R
Q
0

=
1
RC
Q
0
=
1
RC
We can solve these two equations to nd:

0
=
1

LC
Q =

0
R/L
=

L
R
2
C
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 32
The lower and upper cut-o frequencies can now be found from the formulas on page 31.
Method 2: In this method, we directly calculate the lter parameters similar to the proce-
dure followed for general form of transfer function in page 30. Some simplications can be
made by noting: 1) At =
0
, H(j) is purely real and 2) K = H(j = j
0
).
Starting with the transfer function for the series RLC lter:
H(j) =
R
R +j
_
L
1
C
_
We note that the transfer function is real if coecient of j in the denominator is exactly
zero (note that this happens for =
0
), i.e.,

0
L
1

0
C
= 0
0
=
1

LC
Also
K = H(j = j
0
) =
R
R
= 1
The cut-o frequencies can then be found by setting:
|H(j
c
)| =
K

2
=
1

2
1 +
_

c
L
R

1

c
RC
_
2
= 2
which can be solved to nd
u
and
l
.
Input and Output Impedance of band-pass RLC lters
Z
i
= jL +
1
jC
+R = j
_
L
1
C
_
+R
Z
i
|
min
= R occurs at =
0
Z
o
=
_
jL +
1
jC
_
R Z
o
|
max
= R
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 33
Wide-Band Band-Pass Filters
Band-pass lters can be constructed by putting a high-pass and a low-pass lter back to
back as shown below. The high-pass lter sets the lower cut-o frequency and the low-pass
lter sets the upper cut-o frequency of such a band-pass lter.
| H (j ) |
2

1
| H (j ) | X
=
l
=

| H (j ) |

| H (j ) |

1

2
c2 c1
c2 c1
o

+
i

+
1
HighPass LowPass
2 1
1
2
V
V
C
V
R C
R
An example of such a band-pass lter is
two RC low-pass and high-pass lters put
back to back. These lters are widely
used (when appropriate, see below) instead
of an RLC lter as inductors are usually
bulky and take too much space on a cir-
cuit board.
In order to have good voltage coupling in the above circuit, the input impedance of the
high-pass lter (actually Z
i
|
min
= R
1
) should be much larger than the output impedance of
the low-pass lter (actually Z
o
|
max
= R
2
), or we should have R
1
R
2
. In that case we can
use un-terminated transfer functions:
H(j) = H
1
(j) H
2
(j) =
1
1 +j/
c2

1
1 j
c1
/

c1
= 1/(R
1
C
1
)
c2
= 1/(R
2
C
2
)
H(j) =
1
(1 +j/
c2
)(1 j
c1
/)
=
1
(1 +
c1
/
c2
) +j(/
c2

c1
/)
Again, we can nd the lter parameters by either of two methods above. Transforming the
transfer function to a form similar to the general form (left for students) gives:
K =
1
1 +
c1
/
c2
Q =
_

c1
/
c2
1 +
c1
/
c2

0
=

c1

c2
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 34
One should note that the Bode plots of previous page are asymptotic plots. The real
H(j) diers from these asymptotic plots, for example, |H(j)| is 3 dB lower at the cut-
o frequency. A comparison of asymptotic Bode plots for rst-order high-pass lters are
given in page 28. It can be seen that |H
1
(j)| achieves its maximum value (1 in this case)
only when /
c1
< 1/3. Similarly for the low pass lter, |H
2
(j)| achieves its maximum
value (1 in this case) only when /
c2
> 3. In the band-pass lter above, if
c2

c1
(i.e.,

c2
10
c1
), the center frequency of the lter will be at least a factor of three away from
both cut-o frequencies and |H(j)| = |H
1
| |H
2
| achieves its maximum value of 1. If
c2
is not
c1
(i.e.,
c2
< 10
c1
), H
1
and H
2
will not reach their maximum of 1 and the lter
|H(j)|
max
= |H
1
| |H
2
| will be less than one. This can be seen by examining the equation
of K above which is always less than 1 and approaches 1 when
c2

c1
.
More importantly, we can never make a narrow band lter by putting two rst-order high-
pass and low-pass lters back to back. When
c2
is not
c1
, |H(j)|
max
becomes smaller
than 1. Since the cut-o frequencies are located 3 dB below the maximum values, the cut-o
frequencies will not be
c1
and
c2
(those frequencies are 3 dB lower than |H(j)|
max
= 1).
The lower cut-o frequency moves to a value lower than
c1
and the upper cut-o frequency
moves to a value higher than
c2
. This can be seen by examining the quality factor of this
lter at the limit of
c2
=
c1
Q =
_

c1
/
c2
1 +
c1
/
c2
=
1
1 + 1
= 0.5
while our asymptotic description of previous page indicated that when
c2
=
c1
, band-width
becomes vanishingly small and Q should become very large.
Because these lters work only when
c2

c1
, they are called wide-band lters. For
these wide-band lters (
c1

c2
), we nd from above:
K = 1 Q =
_

c1
/
c2

0
=

c2

c1
H(j) =
1
1 +j(/
c2

c1
/)
We then substitute for Q and
0
in the expressions for cut-o frequencies (page 31) to get:

u
=
0

1 +
1
4Q
2
+

0
2Q
=

0
2Q
_
_
1 + 4Q
2
+ 1
_

l
=
0

1 +
1
4Q
2
+

0
2Q
=

0
2Q
_
_
1 + 4Q
2
1
_
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 35
Ignoring 4Q
2
term compared to 1 (because Q is small),we get:

u
=

0
Q
=

c2

c1
_

c1
/
c2
=
c2
For
l
, if we ignore 4Q
2
term compared to 1, we will nd
l
= 0. We should, therefore,
expand the square root by Taylor series expansion to get the rst order term:

u


0
2Q
_
1 +
1
2
4Q
2
1
_
=

0
2Q
2Q
2
=
0
Q =
c2
What are Wide-Band and Narrow-Band Filters? Typically, a wide-band lter is
dened as a lter with
c2

c1
(or
c2
10
c1
). In this case, Q 0.35 (prove this!). A
narrow-band lter is usually dened as a lter with B
0
(or B 0.1
0
). In this case,
Q 10.
Example: Design a band-pass lter with cut-o frequencies of 160 Hz and 8 kHz. The load
for this circuit is 1 M.
As this is wide-band, band-pass lter (
u
/
l
= f
u
/f
l
= 50 1), we use two low- and
high-pass RC lter stages similar to circuit above. The prototype of the circuit is shown
below:
o

+
i

+
1
HighPass LowPass
2 1
1 2
V
V
C
V
R C
R
The high-pass lter sets the lower cut-o
frequency, and the 1 M load sets the out-
put impedance of this stage. Thus:
Z
o
|
max
= R
1
1 M R
1
100 k

c
(High-pass) =
l
=
1
R
1
C
1
= 2 160 R
1
C
1
= 1 10
3
k
One should choose R
1
as close as possible to 100 k (to make the C
1
small) and R
1
C
1
=
110
3
using commercial values of resistors and capacitors. A good set here are R
1
= 100 k
and C
1
= 10 nF.
The low-pass lter sets the upper cut-o frequency. The load for this component is the input
resistance of the high-pass lter, Z
i
|
min
= R
1
= 100 k. Thus:
Z
o
|
max
= R
2
100k R
2
10 k

c
(Low-pass) =
u
=
1
R
2
C
2
= 2 8 10
3
R
2
C
2
= 2 10
5
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 36
As before, one should choose R
2
as close as possible to 10 k and R
2
C
2
= 2 10
5
using
commercial values of resistors and capacitors. A good set here are R
2
= 10 k and C
2
= 2 nF.
In principle, we can switch the position of low-pass and high-pass lter stages in a wide-
band, band-pass lter. However, the low-pass lter is usually placed before the high-pass
lter because the value of capacitors in such an arrangement will be smaller. (Try redesigning
the above circuit with low-pass and high-pass lter stages switched to see that one capacitor
become much smaller and one much larger.)
Exercise: Design an RLC lter with the specications in the previous example. (Hint: Do
not set R = 100 k as this would make the value of the inductor very large.)
2.4 Exercise Problems
Problem 1. Design a RLC bandpass lter with a lower cut-o frequency of 1 kHz and a
bandwidth of 3 kHz. What is the center frequency and Q of this lter?
Problem 2. We have an amplier that amplies a 1 kHz signal from a detector. The load
for this amplier can be modeled as a 50 k resistor. The amplier output has a large
amount of 60 Hz noise. We need to reduce the amplitude of noise by a factor of 10. Design
a rst-order passive lter which can be placed between the amplier and the load and does
the job. Would this lter aect the 1 kHz signal that we are interested in? If so, by how
much?
Problem 3. The tuner for an FM radio requires a band-pass lter with a central frequency
of 100 MHz (frequency of a FM station) and a bandwidth of 2 MHz. a) Design such a lter.
b) What are its cut-o frequencies?
Problem 4. A telephone line carries both voice band (0-4 kHz) and data band (25 kHz to
1 MHz). Design a lter that lets the voice band through and rejects the data band. The
lter must meet the following specications: a) For the voice band, the change in transfer
function should be at most 1 dB; and b) The transfer function should be as small as possible
at 25 kHz, the low end of the data band.
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 37
2.5 Solution to Exercise Problems
Problem 1. Design a RLC bandpass lter with a lower cut-o frequency of 1 kHz and a
bandwidth of 3 kHz. What is the center frequency and Q of this lter?
o
-
+
-
+
i
C
V
R V
L
The circuit prototype is:
For a 2nd order band-pass lter:
B(Hz) = f
u
f
l
f
u
= 1 + 3 = 4 kHz
B(rad/s) = 2B(Hz) = 1.88 10
4

u
= 2f
u
= 2.51 10
4

l
= 2f
l
= 6.28 10
3

0
=

l
= 1.26 10
4
B(rad/s) =

0
Q
Q =
1.26 10
4
1.88 10
4
= 0.67
For the series RLC circuit:

0
=
1

LC
LC =
1

2
0
C =
1
L
2
0
=
1
10 10
3
(1.26 10
4
)
2
= 0.63 F
Q =

0
R/L

R
L
=

0
Q
= B(rad/s)
R = LB = 10 10
3
1.88 10
4
= 188
Therefore, using commercial values, the design values are L = 10 mH, R = 180 , and
C = 0.68 F.
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 38
Problem 2. We have an amplier that amplies a 1 kHz signal from a detector. The load
for this amplier can be modeled as a 50 k resistor. The amplier output has a large
amount of 60 Hz noise. We need to reduce the amplitude of noise by a factor of 10. Design
a rst-order passive lter which can be placed between the amplier and the load and does
the job. Would this lter aect the 1 kHz signal that we are interested in? If so, by how
much?
We want to have 1 kHz signals to go through but reduce 60 Hz signals, so we need a high-pass
lter. The prototype of the circuit is shown below. For this circuit:
Inverting
Amp.
i
L
o
-
+
-
+
R
V
C
R
V
H(j) =
V
o
V
i
=
1
1 j
c
/

c
=
1
RC
Z
i
|
min
= R
Z
o
|
max
= R
As the output impedance of the inverting amplier circuit is zero, we do not need to worry
about the input impedance of our lter. The output impedance of the lter is restricted by
Z
o
|
max
= R 50 k R 5 k
This lter should reduce the amplitude of 60 Hz (
60
= 2 60 = 120 rad/s) signal by a
factor of 10, i.e.,
|H(j = j
60
)| =

V
o
V
i

60 Hz
=
1
_
1 + (
c
/
60
)
2
= 0.1
1 + (
c
/
60
)
2
= 100
1
RC
=
c
10
60
= 3751 rad/s RC = 2.67 10
4
Reasonable choices are R = 3.9 k (to keep it below 5 k) and C = 68 nF (f
c
600 Hz).
The impact on 1 kHz signal (
1000
= 2000 rad/s) can be found from:
|H(j = j
1000
)| =
1
_
1 + (
c
/
1000
)
2
=
1
_
1 + (3751/6283)
2
= 0.86
So the amplitude of 1 kHz signal is reduced by 14% (or by -1.3 dB).
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 39
Problem 3. The tuner for an FM radio requires a band-pass lter with a central frequency
of 100 MHz (frequency of a FM station) and a bandwidth of 2 MHz. a) Design such a lter.
b) What are its cut-o frequencies?
o

+
i

+
V
V R
L
C
Because this is not a wide-band lter, the
simplest lter will be an RLC lter as is
shown. For this lter:

0
=
1

LC
= 2100 10
6
Q =

0
B
=

L
R
2
C
=
2100 10
6
2 2 10
6
= 50
Using a L = 1 H inductor:
1
LC
= 4
2
10
16

1
C
= 4
2
10
16
10

6 C = 2.5 10
12
F
Choose: C = 2.2 pF
L
R
2
C
= 2, 500 R
2
=
L
2, 500C
=
10
6
2, 500 2.2 10
12
= 182 R = 13.5
Choose: R = 13 (L = 1 H and C = 2.2 pF).
To nd the cut-o freqnecies, we not:
B = f
u
f
l
= 2 MHz
f
0
=
_
f
u
f
L
= 100 MHz
Solution of the above two equations in two unknowns will give f
l
99 MHz and f
u

101 MHz.
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 40
Problem 4. A telephone line carries both voice band (0-4 kHz) and data band (25 kHz to
1 MHz). Design a lter that lets the voice band through and rejects the data band. The
lter must meet the following specications: a) For the voice band, the change in transfer
function should be at most 1 dB; and b) The transfer function should be as small as possible
at 25 kHz, the low end of the data band.
We need a low-pass lter as it should allow low-frequency signals (voice band) to go through
while eliminating high-frequency signals (data band). The prototype of an RC low-pass lter
is shown and its transfer function is:
H(j) =
1
1 +j/
c
=
1
1 +jf/f
c
i
o
+

| H(j ) |
f (kHz)
4 25
1
2
0
1dB
V
V
R
C
The cut-o frequency of the lter is not given and
it should be found from the specications. First,
we need the change in transfer function to be at
most 1 dB for the frequency range of 0-4 kHz.
The transfer function of lters that satisfy this
constraint is the curve labeled 1 in the gure
and any transfer function located to the right of
this curve (such as transfer function labeled 2).
Second, the transfer function should be as small as possible at 25 kHz. This requires that
we choose the cut-o frequency as small as possible. Therefore, the transfer function of our
lter should be curve labeled 1 as it has the smallest possible value at 25 kHz:
20 log (|H(jf = 4 kHz)|) = 1 dB |H(jf = 4 kHz)| = 0.891
Using the expression for H(j), we have:
|H(jf = 4 kHz)| =
1
_
1 + (f/f
c
)
2
= 0.891
f/f
c
= 0.509 f
c
=
f
0.509
= 7.85 kHz
f
c
=
1
2RC
= 7.85 10
3
RC = 2.0 10
5
Choosing C = 1 nF, we have R = 2.0 10
4
. The commercial values then are C = 1 nF and
R = 20 k.
ECE65 Lecture Notes (F. Najmabadi), Spring 2006 41