Passive Filters

References:
Barbow (pp 265-275), Hayes & Horowitz (pp 32-60), Rizzoni (Chap. 6)
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
. Subscript v of H
v
is frequently
dropped. As H(j) is complex number, it has both a magnitude and a phase, lters in
general introduce a phase dierence between input and output signals.
Pass
Band Band
Stop
| H(j ) |

c
| H(j ) |

c

0.7
Low-Pass Filters
An ideal low-pass lters transfer function is shown. The
frequency between pass and stop bands is called the cut-
o frequency (
c
). All of the signals with frequencies be-
low
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 (output is open circuit, R
L
), 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)
To nd the cut-o frequency, we note
|H(j)| =
1
_
1 + (L/R)
2
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 17
|H(j)| is maximum when denominator is smallest, i.e., 0 (alternatively nd d |H(j)| /d
and set it equal to zero to nd = 0). In this case,
|H(j)|
max
= 1 |H(j
c
)| = |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. Thus, 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
where the source resistance is ignored. Again, the value of the output impedance also 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, 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
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 18
-
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 (output is open circuit, R
L
):
V
o
=
1/(jC)
R + 1/(jC)
V
i
=
1
1 +j(RC)
V
i
H(j) =
1
1 +jRC
To nd
c
, we follow a procedure similar to RL lters above to nd

c
=
1
RC
and H(j) =
1
1 +j/
c
similar to the voltage transfer function for low-pass RL lters (only
c
is dierent).
Input and Output Impedances: Following the same procedure as for RL lters, we nd:
Z
i
= R +
1
jC
and Z
i
|
min
= R
Z
o
= R
1
jC
and Z
o
|
max
= R
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
0 2 4 6 8 10
f/f
c
|H|
-90
-80
-70
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
f/f
c
P
h
a
s
e
First-order Low-pass lters
RL and RC lters above are part of the family of
rst-order lters (they include only one capacitor or
inductor). 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. For RL and RC lters, K = 1.
|H(j)| =
K
_
1 + (/
c
)
2

H(j) = tan
1
_

c
_
For low-pass RL lters:
c
=
R
L
Z
i
|
min
= R Z
o
|
max
= R
For low-pass RC lters:
c
=
1
RC
Z
i
|
min
= R Z
o
|
max
= R
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 19
Bode Plots and Decibel
The ratio of output to input power in a two-port network is usually expressed in Bell:
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), it is easy to show that 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 again make analysis simpler
as is seen below. For example, using dB denition, we see that, there is 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. Bode plots of rst-order low-pass lters (K = 1) are shown below (W
denotes
c
).
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 20
|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

.
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 21
-
o
-
+
i
L
+
V
C
R
V
R
Terminated RL and RC lters
Terminated two-port networks are referred to
those with a nite load resistance. For example,
consider this terminated low-pass RC lter:
Voltage Transfer Function: 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
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 resistance 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.
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 22
o
+
i
-
+
-
V
V
C
R
High-pass RC lters
A series RC circuit as shown acts as a high-pass lter.
For no load resistance (output open circuit), we have:
H(j) =
V
o
V
i
=
R
R + 1/(jC)
=
1
1 j(1/RC)
The gain of this lter, |H(j)|, is maximum when denominator is smallest, i.e.,
leading to |H(j)|
max
= 1. Then, the cut-o frequency can be found from
|H(j
c
)| =
1

2
|H(j)|
max
=
1

2
which leads to

c
=
1
RC
H(j) =
1
1 j
c
/
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.
For no load resistance (output open circuit), we have:

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
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 23
First-order High-pass Filters
In general, the voltage transfer function of a rst-order high-pass lter is in the form:
H(j) =
K
1 j
c
/
The maximum value of |H(j)| = K is called the lter gain. For RL and RC high-pass
lters, K = 1.
|H(j)| =
K
_
1 + (
c
/)
2

H(j) = +tan
1
_

_
For high-pass RL lters:
c
=
R
L
Z
i
|
min
= R Z
o
|
max
= R
For high-pass RC lters:
c
=
1
RC
Z
i
|
min
= R Z
o
|
max
= R
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)
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 24
o
-
i
-
+ +
L
V
C
R
V
R
Terminated RC high-pass lters
The parameters of the terminated RC lters can
be found similarly:
Voltage Transfer Function: From the circuit,
H(j) =
V
o
V
i
=
R R
L
R R
L
+ 1/(jC)
=
1
1 j(1/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) =
1
1 j
c
/
Here, the impact of the load is to shift the cut-o frequency to a higher frequency (as
R

= R R
L
< R).
Input Impedance: Z
i
=
1
jC
+R R
L
Z
i
|
min
= R R
L
Output Impedance: Z
o
= R
1
jC
Z
o
|
max
= R
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 like a unterminated lter The shift in cut-o
frequency disappears and input and output resistance become the same as before.
Terminated RL high-pass lters
The parameters of the terminated RL lters can be found similarly:
Voltage Transfer Function: H(j) =
R

/R
1 j
c
/

c
=
R

L
R

= R R
L
Input Impedance: Z
i
= R + (jL) R
L
Z
i
|
min
= R
Output Impedance: Z
o
= (jL) R Z
o
|
max
= R
We see that the load lowers the gain, K = R

/R < 1 and shifts the cut-o frequency to a

lower value. 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 RL lter will look like a unterminated lter.

ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 25
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) = 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
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 26
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
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 27
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
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 28
The lower and upper cut-o frequencies can now be found from the formulas on page 24.
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 23. 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
similar to page 23.
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
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 29
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 c1 c2
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
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 30
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 and real ones for rst-order high-pass
lters are given in page 21. 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 24) 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
_
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 31
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.
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 32
Example: Design a band-pass lter to pass signals between 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
As before, one should choose R
1
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.)
ECE60L Lecture Notes, Spring 2004 33