Lab 10

Owen Blair
ECE-213
11/10/2020

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Introduction
The purpose of this lab is to observe the charestics of a low pass filter and a high pass
filter. This is done using an oscilloscope, a resistive-capacitive circuit and a frequency generator
to act as a voltage source (Vin). Within this lab a high pass filter will be the oscilloscope
measuring voltage across the resistor and a low pass filter will be the oscilloscope measuring
voltage across the capacitor.
Procedure
Turn on all instruments and generators to warm up and to help the equipment stabilize.
Set up the circuit as shown in figure 1 and the function generator as the input voltage. Set the
function generator to 3Vpeak and connect one channel of the oscilloscope across the source and
another channel across the capacitor. Next adjust the frequency to 100Hz and record the output
voltage and the phase angle of the output voltage. Do this for 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, and
10000 Hz. The results should be recorded in table 1.
Now set up the circuit as a high pass filter by connecting the second channel of the
oscilloscope to the positive and negative ends of the resistor. Use the same circuit in figure 1
with the only difference being that the output voltage end of the oscilloscope is connected to the
positive and negative ends of the resistor. Using the same frequencies as the previous circuit
record the output voltage and phase angle. The results should be recorded in table 2.
Using the results from table 1 and table 2 to calculate the gain and phase shift in tables 3
and 4. Also plot the voltage gain against the frequency using a logarithmic scale. Do the same
for the phase shift against frequency.
Calculations
Power

V2
P=
R
Gain in Voltage
Vo
Gain=
V¿
Gain in dB
Vo
Gain dB=20∗log 10( )
V¿
Percent Error
claculated value−measured value
%= ∗100
calculated value

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Tables and Figures
Figure 1: Circuit

Table 1: Low Pass Circuit Results

Table 2: High Pass Circuit Results

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 Table 3: Low Pass Filter Analysis

Table 4: High Pass Filter Analysis

Figure 2: Low Pass Voltage Gain Vs. Frequency

Low Pass Gain vs Frequency

2.5000

2.0000

1.5000

1.0000

0.5000

0.0000
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000

Figure 3: High Pass Voltage Gain Vs. Frequency

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 High Pass Gain vs. Frequency
0.9000
0.8000
0.7000
0.6000
0.5000
0.4000
0.3000
0.2000
0.1000
0.0000
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000

Questions
High pass filters can be used in audio mixing for emphasizing higher frequencies. The
same can be said for low pass filters but for lower frequencies. Both high and low pass filters can
be used in amateur radio as well. Each filter when attached to an antenna can be used to filter out
undesired frequencies. Capacitors are usually used in high/low pass filters because they have no
internal resistance that needs to be accounted for. If there was only an inductor and a resistor
available to make a low pass filter, then the output of the filter should be connected to the
resistor. If a high pass filter was needed, then the output of the filter should be connected to the
inductor. The maximum voltage gain of the low pass filter is 1 and the minimum is 0. If the
voltage gain is a 1 then 100% of the signals going through the filter are getting through, but if the
voltage gain is a 0 then 0% of the signals going through the filter are getting through. The corner
frequency of the low pass filter is about 416.4 Hz and the corner frequency of the high pass filter
is about 2424.5 Hz.
Conclusion
The results I got were not as expected. The percent error from the measured vs the
calculated voltage gain is significantly high. This is because between each change of frequency
the 3 volts RMS was not reestablished. This means that as the frequency increased the resistance
of the capacitor decreased but the input voltage was not continuous at 3 volts RMS. What was
expected is that the voltage gain should never exceed 1 and never fall short of 0.

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