LBYELC2 S11

Experiment 3: Active Filters

Jediah Billones, Mary Louise Paragas, John Patrick Tan
College of Computer Studies – CT Department
De La Salle University- Manila
2401 Taft Ave, Manila, Metro Manila, Philippines
[email protected]

Abstract — This experiment was conducted to understand fully where the X axis is the frequency and the Y axis is the
the lessons that have been encountered in the lectures of this voltage. The measured gain was also computed using the
subject. There were circuits and procedures given to equation,
demonstrate what the experiment was all about. In this
experiment, the students were able to compare and see the
trend if the frequency increases of the high-pass and low-pass
active filter using an op-amp IC, and to see the output of the Vo
Gain (in dB) = 20 log ⁡( )
band-pass filter as the frequency and the resistor increase. Vi
This also proved the equation of the voltage gain that was (1)
taught in class.
In the second procedure, the band-pass filter
I. INTRODUCTION circuit, illustrated in Fig. 3, was wired. The potentiometer
One of the applications of an operational amplifier was initially set to its minimum resistance setting. The input
is to build active filters. A filter can be active or passive. A signal voltage was set to 1 VPP, and the frequency was
passive filter circuit consists of resistors and capacitors. In initially set to 100 Hz. The output voltage was measured.
active filters, there is a voltage amplification and signal The frequency was also changed depending on the required
isolation or buffer—thus, an amplifier is needed. The three value from the table given. The resistance setting of the
of the basic kinds of filter are low-pass filter, high-pass potentiometer was also adjusted to 100kΩ and 500kΩ. The
filter, and bandpass filter. These are tested in this acquired input voltage and output voltage were recorded,
experiment. and the measured gain was also computing using Eq. (1).
A low-pass filter provides a constant output from The experimental results were plotted on a graph, where the
dc up to a cutoff frequency and then passes no signal above X axis is the frequency and the Y axis is the voltage.
that frequency. A high-pass filter passes a signal above a
cutoff frequency. A bandpass filter passes signals that are
above one ideal cutoff frequency and below a second cutoff
frequency [1].
This experiment aims to plot the frequency
response of a low-pass and high-pass active filter, and an
active band-pass filter. It is also to observe the operation of
an active band-pass filter.
This paper would show the methodology in section
2, followed by the results and analysis, and the conclusion
in
sections 3 and 4 respectively.

II. METHODOLOGY
In the third laboratory experiment, the procedures were
divided into two. In the first procedure, the 2nd-order low-
pass filter, illustrated in Fig. 1, and 2nd-order high-pass
filter, illustrated in Fig. 2, circuits were wired separately. Fig. 1. A 2nd-order low-pass filter circuit with an input signal of 4 V PP
The input signal voltage was set to 4 V PP, and the frequency connected to non-inverting input (pin 3) of a 741 op-amp. The +VCC (pin
was initially set to 100 Hz for both circuits. The output 7) and -VCC (pin 4) are set to +15V and -15V respectively. A 10µF was
connected to each VCC. The R1 and R2 connected to the non-inverting
frequency input are fixed to 68kΩ, while R3 is 27kΩ, and R4 is 47kΩ. C1 and C2 are
of the audio generator was changed depending on the both fixed at 0.0033µF.
frequency required from the experiment. It was to record the
obtained input voltage and output voltage as the frequency
varied. The experimental results were plotted on a graph,
 2 kHz 3.76 V 960 mV -11.86 dB
4 kHz 3.76 V 400 mV -19.46 dB
8 kHz 3.76 V 240 mV -23.9 dB
10 kHz 3.76 V 240 mV -23.9 dB
.

Fig. 2. A 2nd-order high-pass filter circuit with an input signal of 4 VPP

Fig. 4. The frequency against the output voltage of a 2nd-order low-pass
connected to non-inverting input (pin 3) of a 741 op-amp. The +VCC (pin
filter based on Table 1.1
7) and -VCC (pin 4) are set to +15V and -15V respectively. A 10µF was
connected to each VCC. The C1 and C2 connected to the non-inverting
input are both fixed at 0.0033µF. R1 and R2 are fixed to 68kΩ, while R3 is It can be observed from Table 1.1 that as the
27kΩ, and R4 is 47kΩ.
frequency is increased, the gain decreases gradually before
the cut-off frequency is reached then starts decreases
significantly after the cut-off frequency is reached. The cut-
off frequency in this case is computed to be 709.25 Hz,
using Eq. (2). This behavior is typical for an active low-pass
filter. The data is verified to be accurate by comparing the
computed cut-off frequency to the graph of the results as
seen on Fig. 4. The pass-band gain was computed to be 3.94
dB, using Eq. (3). Comparing the computed gain with the
data on Table 1.1, it can be seen that the value of the
measured gain approaches the value of the computed gain as
Fig. 3. A band-pass filter circuit with an input signal of 1 VPP connected to the frequency is decreased.
non-inverting input (pin 3) of a 741 op-amp. The +VCC and -VCC are set 1
to +15V and -15V respectively. A 10µF was connected to each VCC. The FC =
C1 and C2 are fixed at 0.005F. R1 is set to 4.7kΩ, R2 and R3 at 30kΩ, R3 2 RC
and R7 at 47kΩ, R4 at 68k. R5 is potentiometer with a maximum (2)
resistance setting of 1MΩ.

III. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS Rf

AV= 20 log(1+ ) (3)
Ri
Table 1.1 Low-pass Filter
Input Input, Output, Measured Gain, in
Table 1.2 High-pass Filter
Frequency Vi Vi dB
Input Input, Output, Measured Gain, in
100 Hz 4V 6.16 V 3.75 dB Frequency Vi Vi dB
200 Hz 4V 6.00 V 3.52 dB 100 Hz 4.08 V 240 mV -24.61 dB
400 Hz 3.92 V 5.76 V 3.34 dB 200 Hz 4V 640 mV -15.92 dB
600 Hz 3.92 V 4.88 V 1.90 dB 400 Hz 4V 1.92 V -6.38 dB
700 Hz 3.92 V 4.24 V 0.68 dB 600 Hz 4V 3.44 V -1.31 dB
800 Hz 3.84 V 3.60 V -0.56 dB 700 Hz 3.92 V 4.16 V 0.52 dB
1 kHz 3.92 V 2.72 V -3.17 dB 800 Hz 3.92 V 4.72 V 1.61 dB
 1 kHz 3.76 V 5.20 V 2.82 dB 20 kHz 920 mV 480 mV -5.65 dB
2 kHz 3.92 V 5.84 V 3.46 dB 30 kHz 920 mV 400 mV -7.23 dB
4 kHz 3.92 V 6.00 V 3.7 dB 50 kHz 840 mV 320 mV 8.38 dB
8 kHz 3.84 V 6.00 V 3.88 dB 100 kHz 800 mV 240 mV -10.46 dB
10 kHz 4V 6.00 V 3.52 dB

Fig. 6. The frequency against the output voltage of a band-pass filter based
on Table 2.1.
Fig. 5. The frequency against the output voltage of a 2nd-order high-pass
filter based on Table 1.2.
Table 2.2 Bandpass Filter with R5 = 103k Ω
Conversely, the data in Table 1.2 in can be Input Input, Output, Measured Gain, in
observed that as the frequency is increased, the gain Frequency Vi Vi dB
increases significantly before the cut-off frequency is 100 Hz 1V 920 mV -0.72 dB
reached then starts to stabilize when the cut-off frequency is 200 Hz 1V 1.44 V 3.17 dB
reached. Since the same components were used on the high-
pass circuit, the computed gain and cut-off frequency is 400 Hz 1V 1.96 V 5.85 dB
exactly the same. Comparing the data with the computed 600 Hz 1V 2.20 V 6.85 dB
values, it can be seen from Table 1.2 that the gain 700 Hz 1V 2.28 V 7.16 dB
approaches 3.94 dB at frequencies higher than the cut-off
frequency and it can be seen from Fig. 5 that the voltage 800 Hz 1V 2.28 V 7.16 dB
starts to stabilize after 709.25 Hz. 1 kHz 1V 2.32 V 7.31 dB
2 kHz 1V 2.32 V 7.31 dB
Table 2.1 Bandpass Filter With R5 = 0 Ω
4 kHz 920 mV 2.04 V 6.92 dB
Input Input, Output, Measured Gain, in
Frequency Vi Vi dB 8 kHz 920 mV 1.48 V 4.13 dB
100 Hz 1V 80 mV -21.94 dB 10 kHz 920 mV 1.28 V 2.87 dB
200 Hz 1V 120 mV -18.42 dB 15 kHz 800 mV 960 mV 1.5 dB
400 Hz 1V 180 mV -14.89 dB 20 kHz 880 mV 800 mV -0.83 dB
600 Hz 1V 220 mV -13.15 dB
700 Hz 1V 280 mV -11.06 dB
800 Hz 1V 280 mV -11.06 dB
1 kHz 1V 320 mV -9.9 dB
2 kHz 1V 580 mV -4.73 dB
4 kHz 960 mV 840 mV -1.16 dB
8 kHz 940 mV 820 mV -1.37 dB
10 kHz 960 mV 760 mV -2.03 dB
15 kHz 920 mV 600 mV -3.71 dB
Fig. 7. The frequency against the output voltage of a band-pass filter based
on Table 2.2.

Fig. 8. The frequency against the output voltage of a band-pass filter based
on Table 2.3.
Table 2.3 Bandpass Filter with R5 = 500k Ω
Input Input, Output, Measured Gain, in Tables 2.1 to 2.3 shows the results taken from the
Frequency Vi Vi dB band-pass filter circuit at varying resistance values for the
100 Hz 1V 2.12 V 6.53 dB potentiometer R5 on Fig. 3. Three different resistance
values were used to change the width of the pass-band. The
200 Hz 1V 2.32 V 7.31 dB setting value used was 0 Ω or a short circuit which produced
an extremely narrow pass-band since the cut-off frequency
400 Hz 1V 2.4 V 7.6 dB
of both the low-pass and high-pass stages, computed using
600 Hz 1V 2.4 V 7.6 dB Eq. (2), were very similar. The second setting used was
700 Hz 1V 2.4 V 7.6 dB 103k Ω which produced a pass-band with the computed
range of 295.56 Hz to 6.772 KHz. The third setting used
800 Hz 1V 2.4 V 7.6 dB
was 500k Ω which produced the widest pass-band with the
1 kHz 1V 2.4 V 7.6 dB computed range of 63.07 Hz to 6.772 KHz. The gain of the
2 kHz 1V 2.32 V 7.31 dB circuit was computed to be 8.56 dB, using Eq. (3) for each
stage. The computed gain corresponds to the values of the
4 kHz 920 mV 2V 6.92 dB
middle frequencies in Tables 2.1 to 2.3 which verifies the
8 kHz 920 mV 1.48 V 4.12 dB accuracy of the data along with the computer pass-band
10 kHz 920 mV 1.24 V 2.59 dB ranges.
15 kHz 920 mV 920 mV 0 dB
Table 3.1 Actual Frequency Response – Bode Plot
20 kHz 800 mV 720 mV -0.92 dB Comparison
Type of Actual Response
Filter
2nd-order
Low-pass

F =
C

709.25Hz
2nd-order 2nd-order
High-pass High-pass

F =
C F =
C

709.25Hz 709.25Hz

Band-pass Band-pass
(R5 = 500kΩ) (R5 = 500kΩ)

LP stage F C
LP stage F C

= 6772. = 6772.
55Hz 55Hz

HP stage HP stage F C

F = 63.07
C
= 63.07 Hz
Hz

A comparison of the actual response and

theoretical response of each circuit can be seen on Table 3.1
and Table 3.2. It can be observed that in the actual response,
Table 3.2 Theoretical Frequency Response – Bode Plot the gain does not decrease or increase instantly at the cut-off
Comparison frequency but instead it decreases or increases gradually as
it approaches the cut-off frequency. There is a variance
Type of Theoretical Response between the bode plots on the peak gain of each filter but
Filter
this is most noticeable on the bandpass filter. It is suspected
2nd-order that the reason for this variance is the number points used in
Low-pass the plotting which affects the accuracy of the graph.

F =
C IV. CONCLUSION
709.25Hz The experiment expounded on the operation of
three active filters. It was observed that the low-pass filter
blocks signals higher than a cut-off frequency determined
by the values of the resistor and capacitor in the circuit.
Similarly, the high-pass filter blocks signals lower than the
cut-off frequency. The band-pass filter is a combination of
both, blocking both low and high signals for the purpose of
having a specific pass-band range. It was inferred that the
actual frequency response of a circuit can have significant
differences with its theoretical frequency response.

REFERENCES
[1] W.H. Hayt, & J.E. Kemmerly, Engineering circuit analysis, New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1978.