Active Filters

Lab 10

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 Equipment List
• WFG
• TEK DPO 4032A
• µA741
• Resistors: 51kΩ
• Capacitors: 0.33µF

2
 Active Low-pass filters
• Low pass filters pass frequencies from
DC upto the cutoff frequency and
rejects frequencies beyond the cutoff
• A low pass filter is active, if the
associated circuitry incorporates an op-
amp

3
 Active filters criteria
• Ideally, an active filter should
– Contain few components
– Have a transfer function that is insensitive to
component tolerances
– Place modest demands on the op-amp’s gain-bw
product, output impedance, slew rate
– Be easily adjusted
– Require a small spread of component values
– Allow a wide range of useful transfer functions to
be realized

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Butterworth Transfer Function
• The magnitude of the Butterworth
transfer function is given as
H0
H(f) =
1 + ( f fb )
2n

– n is the order of the filter

– fb is the 3 dB cutoff frequency
– H0 is DC gain magnitude

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 Sallen-Key Circtuis
• A Sallen Key circuit is shown below:

• For convenience
– All resistors labeled R have equal values
– All capacitors labeled C have equal values
• Circuit shown is a 2nd order low pass filter
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 Sallen-Key Circuits
• To obtain an nth order filter, n/2 circuits
must be cascaded
– Usually n is even
• The 3 dB frequency is related to R and
C as follows
1
fb =
2! RC

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 Design Considerations
• Design a filter for a given cutoff
frequency
• Select small capacitance values, as
they are physically smaller and cheaper
• For a given cutoff frequency, if the
capacitance is too small, resistance
becomes impractically large

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 Designing a Filter
• Select a suitable capacitance and
calculate the corresponding resistance
value
– Resistances are available in more finely
spaced values than capacitors
• The available resistors and capacitors
close to the values of R and C will have
to be used
– Might not give us exact cutoff frequency,
but should be sufficient for most purposes 9
 Other Considerations
• The feedback resistors Rf and (K-1)Rf
and the op-amp form a non-inverting
amplifier with gain K
• At DC, the capacitors are open circuits,
and the resistors labeled R have no
effect on gain
– DC gain of the ciruit is K
• As K is varied from 0 to 3, the transfer
function gets peakier
– For K = 3, gain peak goes to infinity
(instability) 10
 Other Considerations
• As mentioned previously, an
nth order Butterworth Order K
lowpass filter requires the 2 1.586
cascading of n/2 stages with
4 1.152
each stage having a proper
2.235
K value
6 1.068
• The DC gain H0 of the 1.586
overall filter is given as the
2.483
product of the K of each
individual stage 11
 Design a Filter

• Choose C = 0.33µF and Rf = 51KΩ

• Calculate the value of the other
components in a 2nd order Sallen Key
circuit for a 3 dB cutoff frequency of
500Hz

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 Build a Low Pass Filter
• Build the circuit using the µA741 op
amp
• Measure Vo for the following inputs: Vpp
of 1V and frequencies: 50, 100, 250,
500, 1k, 1.5k, 3k, and 5k
• Calculate the gain at each frequency
and plot the frequency response of the
circuit you built
– Gain = 20log10(VO/VIN)
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