Passive RC and RL High Pass Filter LAB 5

Lab # 5: Passive RC and RL High Pass Filter.

Learning Objective:
 To find the cutoff frequency of passive RC and RL high pass filter.
 To determine gain of the given passive high pass filters.
 To plot the graph between the output voltages and input frequencies.
 To find the bandwidth for the given passive high pass filters.

Equipment Required:

 Digital multi-meter
 Oscilloscope
 Breadboard
 Probes
 Resistors
 Capacitors
 Inductors

Introduction:
An electrical filter is a circuit that can be designed to modify, reshape or reject all unwanted
frequencies of an electrical signal and accept or pass only those signals wanted by the circuit
designer. In other words, they “filter out” unwanted signals. An ideal filter will separate and
pass sinusoidal input signals based upon their frequency.

Task 1:RC High Pass Filter:

A simple passive RC High Pass Filter or HPF, can be easily made by connecting together in series a single
Resistor with a single Capacitor as shown below. In this type of filter arrangement, the input signal (Vin) is
applied to the series combination (both the Resistor and Capacitor together) but the output signal (V out) is taken
across the resistor only.

This type of filter is known generally as a “first-order filter” or “one-pole filter”, because it has
only “one” reactive component, the capacitor, in the circuit.

Figure 12.1: RC High Pass Filter

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As, the reactance of a capacitor varies inversely with frequency, while the value of the
resistor remains constant as the frequency changes. At low frequencies the capacitive
reactance of the capacitor will be very large compared to the resistive value of the resistor, R.

This means that the voltage potential, V C across the capacitor will be much larger than the
voltage drop, VR developed across the resistor at lower frequencies. At high frequencies the
reverse is true with VC being small and VR being large due to the change in the capacitive
reactance value.
Signals at low frequencies will be blocked because the capacitor acts as an open circuit, and
the input signal will appear across the capacitor and voltage across the resistor is zero. For
high frequencies, on the other hand, the capacitor can be considered a short circuit. Thus the
output will be same as the input across the resistor and at low frequency signals will be
blocked.

The corner (cutoff) frequency for a passive RC filter is given by the following formula:

Figure 12.3: Frequency Response of High Pass Filter

Procedure
:
1. Design a passive-RC and RL High pass filter for a cutoff frequency of 10 kHz.
2. Build the RC high pass filter circuit. Use appropriate values of resistor and capacitor.
3. Measure the actual values of resistor and capacitor using DMM and LCR Meter and
record them in Table-12.1.Calculate the cutoff frequency.
4. Connect the circuit as shown in Figure-12.1.
5. Connect the function generator at input. Adjust the function generator to produce 5
Vp- p sine wave at a frequency of 100 Hz. Increase the frequency from function
generator until the output voltage Vout is equal to 0.707 times the input voltage. The
frequency where this occurs is the cutoff frequency of the filter. Measure and record
this frequency in Table-12.1.
6. Set the frequencies to the values given in Table-12.2, measure and record input,
output voltage and gain. Complete Table-12.2.
7. Plot the semi log graph of the output voltage versus frequency.
8. Repeat steps 2 – 7 for the RL high pass filter circuit as shown in Figure-12.2 using
appropriate values of R and L. Record the corresponding readings in Table-12.3 and
Table-12.4, and plot the graph.

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 Experiment Results:
Table 11.1

Calculated Measured
1kΩ 0.9858kΩ
Resistor
100nF 85.4nF
Capacitor
1.592kHz 1.8905kHz
Cut off Frequency

Table 11.2

Measured Calculated
Frequency
(kHz) Vi Vout Av
(Vp-p) (V) (Vp-p) (V) (Vout /Vin)(V)
5.04 2.46 0.49
1.0
5.04 2.62 0.52
1.1
5.04 2.78 0.55
1.2
5.04 2.92 0.58
1.3
5.04 3.06 0.61
1.4
5.04 3.16 0.63
1.5
5.04 3.26 0.65
1.6
5.04 3.38 0.67
1.7
4.96 3.48 0.70
1.8
5.04 3.64 0.72
2.0
4.96 3.68 0.74
2.1
4.88 3.8 0.78
2.2
4.88 3.96 0.81
2.6
4.88 4.12 0.84
3.0
4.88 4.28 0..88
3.5
4.88 4.36 0.89
4.0
4.88 4.44 0.91
4.5
4.88 4.52 0.93
5.0
4.88 4.64 0.95
7.0

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graph for Frequency Vs Vout.

RC High Pass Filter

5
4.5
4
3.5
3
Vout (V)

2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
frequency(kHz)

Calculations:

Part A: RC High Pass Filter

High

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For Cutoff frequency (calculated):

R=1kΩ
C=100nF
As fC = 1/2πRC
1
=
2∗π∗1000∗1∗e−9
=1591.549431
fC =1.592kHz

For Cutoff frequency (Measured):

R=0,9858kΩ
C=85.4nF
As fC = 1/2πRC
1
=
2∗π∗985.8∗85.4∗e−9

=1890.48592
fC =1.8905kHz

Formula for Calculating Gain of filter in dB

Fc (measured)= 1.8905kHz
Gain(dB)=20 log10 (Vout /Vin )
VOUT=3.56V
VIN=4.96V
Gain(db)=-6.6330dB

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Task 2: RL Low Pass Filter:
A simple passive RL High Pass Filter or HPF, can be easily made by connecting together a
single resistor in series with an inductor as shown in Figure 12.2. In this type of filter, output
(Vout) is taken across the inductor.

Figure 11.2: RL High Pass Filter

At low frequencies; the inductor appears as a short circuit, indicating no voltage at the ouput.
As the frequency increases, the inductor impedance increases so at high frequencies; the
inductor appears as an open circuit. Thus the magnitude of the output is equal to the input
voltage and low frequencies are blocked.
The corner (cutoff) frequency for a passive RL filter is given by the following formula:

Experiment Results:

Table 12.1

Calculated Measured
1kΩ 0.9858kΩ
Resistor
1mH 1..02mH
Inductor
159.155kHz 153.819kHz
Cut off frequency

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 Table 12.2

Measured Calculated
Frequency
(kHz) Vin Vout Av
(Vp-p) (V) (Vp-p) (V) (Vout /Vin)(V)
5.2 3.68 0.71
150
5.2 3.68 0.71
151
5.2 3.68 0.71
152
5.4 3.84 0.71
154
5.2 3.84 0.74
155
5.4 3.84 0.71
156
5.2 3.84 0.74
157
5.4 3.84 0.71
158
5.4 3.84 0.71
159
5.4 4.32 0.8
200
5.4 4.4 0.81
205
5.2 4.4 0.85
210
5.6 4.48 0.8
215
5.4 4.48 0.83
220
6.2 5.52 0.89
250

Calculations:
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 Part B: RL High Pass Filter

For Cutoff frequency (calculated):

R=1KΩ
L=1mH

As fC = R/2πL
1 000
= 2∗π∗1e-3

=159154.9431Hz
fC =159.155kHz

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For Cutoff frequency (Measured):

R=0.9858kΩ
L=1.02mH
As fC = R/2πL

985.8
=
2∗π∗1.02e-3

=153818.5715Hz
fC =153.819kHz

Formula for Calculating Gain of filter in dB

Fc (measured)= 153.819kHz
Gain(dB)=20 log10 (Vout /Vin )
VOUT=3.76V
VIN=5.4V
Gain(db)=-7.2396dB

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graph for Frequency Vs Vout.

RL High Pass Filter

6

4
Vout (V)

0
140 160 180 200 220 240 260
frequency(kHz)

CONCLUSION:
By this experiment, we found out cut off frequency of RC and RL high pass filter theoretically
and experimentally and compared the results and also calculated gain of filter in dB.

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