Frequency Response and

Active Filters
This document is an introduction to frequency response, and an
introduction to active filters
(filters using active amplifiers, like op
amps).  You might also want to read a similar document
from National
Semiconductor, A Basic Introduction to Filters -
Active, Passive, and Switched-
Capacitor.

Frequency Response -- Background

Up to now we have looked at the time-domain response of circuits.
However it is often useful to
look at the response of circuits in the frequency domain. In
other words, you want to look at how
circuits behave in response to sinusoidal inputs.
This is important and useful for several reasons:
1) if the input to a linear circuit is a
sinusoid, then the output will be a sinusoid at the same
frequency, though its amplitude
and phase may have changed, 2) any time domain signal can be
decomposed via Fourier
analysis into a series of sinusoids. Therefore if there is an easy way to
analyze circuits
with sinusoidal inputs, the results can be generalized to study the response to
any
input.

To determine the response of a circuit to a sinusoidal signal as a

function of frequency it is
possible to generalize the concept of impedance to include
capacitors and inductors. Consider a
sinusoidal signal represented by a complex
exponential:

where j=(-1)1/2 (engineers use j instead of i, because i is used for

current), w is frequency and t
is time. It is a common
shorthand to use "s" instead of "jw".

Now let us look at the voltage-current relationships for

resistors
capacitors and inductors.

For a resistor ohms law states:

where we define the impedance, "Z", of a resistor as its

resistance "R".

For a capacitor we can also calculate the impedance assuming sinusoidal

excitation starting from
the current-voltage relationship:

Note that for a capacitor the magnitude of the impedance, 1/wC, goes down with increasing
frequency. This means that at very high
frequencies the capacitor acts as an short circuit, and at
 low frequencies it acts as an
open circuit. What is defined as a high, or low, frequency depends
on the specific circuit
in question.

Likewise, for an inductor you can show that Z=sL.

For an inductor, impedance goes up with frequency. It behaves as a

short circuit at low
frequencies, and an open circuit at high frequencies; the opposite of
a capacitor. However
inductors are not used often in electronic circuits due to their
size, their susceptibility to parisitic
effects (esp. magnetic fields), and because they
do not behave as near to their ideal circuit
elements as resistors and capacitors..

A Simple Low-Pass Circuit

To see how complex impedances are used in practice consider the simple
case of a voltage
divider.

                 

If Z1 is a resistor and Z2 is a capacitor then

Generally we will be interested only in the magnitude of the response:

Recall that the magnitude of a complex number is the square root of the
sum of the squares of
the real and imaginary parts. There are also phase shifts associated
with the transfer function (or
gain, Vo/Vi), thought we will
generally ignore these.
 This is obviously a low pass filter (i.e., low frequency signals are
passed and high frequency
signals are blocked).. If w<<1/RC
then wCR<<1 and the magnitude of the gain is approximately
unity, and the output equals the input. If w>>1/RC (wCR>>1 ) then the gain goes to zero, asdoes
the output. At w=1/RC, called the break frequency (or cutoff frequency, or 3dB
frequency, or
half-power frequency, or bandwidth), the magnitude of the gain is 1/sqrt(2)@0.71. In this case
(and all first order RC circuits) high frequency
is defined as w>>1/RC; the capacitor acts as a
short circuit
and all the voltage is across the resistance. At low frequencies, w<<1/RC,
the
capacitor acts as an open circuit and there is no current (so the voltage across the
resistor is near
zero).

If Z1 is an inductor and Z2 is a resistor another low pass structure results with a break
frequency
of R/L.

A Simple High-Pass Circuit

If Z1 is a capacitor and Z2 is a resistor we can repeat the calculation:

and

At high frequencies, w>>1/RC, the capacitor acts as a short

and the gain is 1 (the signal is
passed). At low frequencies, w<<1/RC,
the capacitor is an open and the output is zero (the signal
is blocked). This is obviously
a high pass structure and you can show that the break frequency is
again 1/RC.

If Z1 is a resistor and Z2 is an inductor the resulting circuit is high pass with a

break frequency of
R/L.

This concept of a complex impedance is extremely powerful and can be

used when analyzing
operational amplifier circuits, as you will soon see.

Active Filters

Low-Pass filters - the integrator reconsidered.

In the first lab with op-amps we considered the time response of the
integrator circuit, but its
frequency response can also be studied.

First
Order Low Pass Filter with Op Amp
 If you derive the transfer function for the circuit
above you will find that it is of the form:

which is the general form for first-order (one reactive element)

low-pass filters. At high
frequencies (w>>wo) the capacitor acts as a short,
so the gain of the amplifier goes to zero. At
very low frequencies (w<<wo) the capacitor is an open and the
gain of the circuit is Ho. But
what do we mean by low
(or high) frequency?

We can consider the frequency to be high when the large majority of

current goes through the
capacitor; i.e., when the magnitude of the capacitor impedance is
much less than that of R1. In
other words, we have high
frequency when 1/wC<<R1,
or w>>1/R1C=wo. Since R1
now has little
effect on the circuit, it should act as an integrator. Likewise low
frequency occurs when
w<<1/R1C,
and the circuit will act as an amplifier with gain -R1/R2= Ho.

High-Pass filters - the differentiator reconsidered.

The circuit below is a modified differentiator, and acts as
a high pass filter.

First Order High

Pass Filter with Op Amp

Using analysis techniques similar to those used for the low

pass filter, it can be shown that

which is the general form for first-order (one reactive element)

low-pass filters. At high
frequencies (w>>wo) the capacitor acts as a short,
so the gain of the amplifier goes to H0= -
 R1/R2. 
At very low frequencies (w<<wo) the capacitor is an open and the
gain of the circuit is
Ho. For this
circuit w0=1/R2C. 
Therefore this circuit is a high-pass filter (it passes high
frequency
signals, and blocks low frequency signals.

Band-Pass circuits
Besides low-pass filters, other common types are high-pass (passes only high frequency
signals),
band-reject (blocks certain signals) and band-pass (rejects high and low
frequencies, passing
only signal areound some intermediate frequency).

The simplest band-pass filter can be made by combining the first order low
pass and high pass
filters that we just looked at.

Simple Band Pass

Filter with Op Amp

This circuit will attenuate low frequencies (w<<1/R2C2)

and high frequencies (w>>1/R1C1),
but
will pass intermediate frequencies with a gain of -R1/R2. 
However, this circuit cannot be used to
make a filter with a very narrow
band.  To do that requires a more complex filter as discussed
below.

High Q (Low Bandwidth) Bandpass Filters.

For a second-order band-pass filter the transfer function is given by

where wo is
the center frequency, b is the bandwidth and Ho is
the maximum amplitude of the
filter. These quantities are shown on the diagram below. The
quantities in parentheses are in
radian frequencies, the other quantities are in Hertz
(i.e. fo=wo/2p, B=b/2p).
Looking at the
equation above, or the figure, you can see that as w->0
and w->infinity that |H(s=jw)|->0. You
can also easily show that
at w=wo
that |H(s=jwo)|=H0. Often you will see the equation above
written in terms of
the quality factor, Q, which can be defined in terms of the bandwidth, b,
and
center frequency, wo, as
Q=wo/b.
Thus the Q, or quality, of a filter goes up as it becomes
narrower and its bandwidth
decreases.
 If you derive the transfer function of the circuit shown below:

High-Q Bandpass Filter with Op Amp

you will find that it acts as a band-pass filter with:

and the center frequency and bandwidth given by:

Radian frequency Hertz

The notation R1||R2

denotes the parallel combination of R1 and R2,

Switched Capacitor Filters

 There is a special type of active filter, the switched
capacitor filter, that takes advantage of
integration to achieve very accurate
filter characteristics that are electronically tuneable.  The
page Switched
Capacitor Filters describes these in more detail.