INTRODUCTION TO BME

Lab III

FIRST ORDER CIRCUITS (RC)

FALL 2020

10.12.2020
 1 Goals:
 To learn High pass filter and low pass filter working principles.
 To learn how to set up RC circuits properly.
 To learn how use oscilloscope and how to use function generator

2 Background:

A resistor–capacitor circuit (RC circuit), or RC filter or RC network, is an electric circuit

composed of resistors and capacitors driven by a voltage or current source. A first order
RC circuit is composed of one resistor and one capacitor and is the simplest type of RC
circuit.

Figure 1: RC CIRCUIT

2-1 : Passive Low Pass Filter :

A Low Pass Filter is a circuit is a first order circuit that can be designed to edit or to reject all
unwanted high frequencies of an electrical signal and accept or pass only those signals wanted by
the circuit designer.
Passive filters are made up of passive components such as resistors, capacitors and inductors and
have no amplifying elements (transistors, op-amps) and because of that no signal gain, thus their
output level is always less than the input.

Figure 2: Passive low Pass filter

the low pass filter only allows low frequency signals from 0Hz to its cut-off frequency, ƒc point to
pass while blocking those any higher.
And the cut off equation is :
 1
ƒc =
2πRC
and the following figure explains how does signal change in low pass filter

Figure 3: Passive low Pass filter (example)

2-2 : Passive High Pass Filter :

A High Pass Filter is the exact opposite to the low pass filter circuit as the two components have
been interchanged with the filters output signal now being taken from across the resistor.
the passive high pass filter circuit as its name implies, only passes signals above the selected cut-
off point, ƒc eliminating any low frequency signals from the waveform. Consider the circuit below.

Figure 4: Passive low Pass filter (example)

In this circuit arrangement, the reactance of the capacitor is very high at low frequencies so the
capacitor acts like an open circuit and blocks any input signals at Vin until the cut-off frequency
point ( ƒC ) is reached. Above this cut-off frequency point the reactance of the capacitor has
reduced sufficiently as to now act more like a short circuit allowing all of the input signal to pass
directly to the output as shown below in the filters response curve.
And the cut off equation is :

1
ƒc =
2πRC
3. Using LTSpice for filters:
For low pass filters
1) First, you open a new schematic.

2) Now, we start assembling the components of our circuit:

First, we add our Voltage source by clicking on the components icon (F2) or by
selecting “voltage” from the menu as following:
 After that, we add our resistors: R and capacitor C (We assign their values). Then,
we connect the components using the wire tool (F3) and we connect to ground:

3) Before stimulate the circuit, first we add the following text:

 4) Then, we click on the run button à DC sweep, we assign our range and we press ok.

4 . Procedure and Analysis :

1-Low pass filter :

Figure 2: Passive low Pass filter

Create Low pass filter with following components : (R1 = 10k ,C=12nF )
1- Create the circuit in the breadboard
2- Connect the function generator
3- Connect the oscilloscope
4- Calculate the cutoff frequency
5- Choose 4 different frequencies and take picture ( Ex : 0 – 100HZ, 1KHZ-10KHZ)
 2-High pass filter :

Figure 2: Passive High Pass filter

Create High pass filter with following components : (R1 = 10k ,C=12nF )

1- Create the circuit in the breadboard

2- Connect the function generator
3- Connect the oscilloscope
4- Calculate the cutoff frequency
5- Chose 4 different frequencies and take picture ( Ex : 0 – 100HZ, 1KHZ-10KHZ)

5 .Questions for Post-Lab Report

Use your own words, the answers should not be long.

1) Compare between the low pass filter results and high pass filter results? what are the
differences ?
2) Search for another applications for low and high pass filters?
3) Explain Capacitor’s behavior in High – Low pass filters?