EXPERIMENT-2.

Study of 1st and 2nd order Active filters using 741 Op amp

OBJECTIVES
Design of Active Low Pass, High pass and Band pass filter circuits using IC 741 Op amp &
observing its response to sinusoidal wave. Design and study a 2nd order filter.

EQUIPMENT/COMPONENTS REQUIRED
i) Power supply, Function generator
ii) Resistors, Capacitors
iii) op-amp µA741
iv) Bread board and wires
v) CRO and DMM

THEORY
An electric filter is a frequency-selecting circuit designed to pass a specified band of frequencies while
attenuating signals of frequencies outside this band. There are four types of filters: low-pass, high-pass,
band-pass, and band-reject filters.
A low-pass filter has a constant gain (=V out/Vin) from 0 Hz to a high cut off frequency f H. This cut off
frequency is defined as the frequency where the voltage gain is reduced to 0.707, that is at f H the gain is
down by 3 dB; after that (f > f H) it decreases as f increases. The frequencies between 0 Hz and f H are called
pass band frequencies, whereas the frequencies beyond f H are the so-called stop band frequencies. A
common use of a low-pass filter is to remove noise or other unwanted high-frequency components in a
signal for which you are only interested in the dc or low frequency components.
Correspondingly, a high-pass filter has a stop band for 0 < f < f L and where fL is the low cut off frequency.
A common use for a high-pass filter is to remove the dc component of a signal for which you are only
interested in the ac components (such as an audio signal).
A bandpass filter has a pass band between two cut off frequencies f H and fL, (fH > fL), and two stop bands 0
< f < fL and f > fH. The bandwidth of a bandpass filter is equal to fH–fL.
PRACTICAL
A. Low pass filter
 Fig.1.a. Low pass filter

Frequency(Hz) Input Voltage(V) Output Voltage(V) Gain(dB)

200 1 1.99 6

500 1 1.97 5.822

1k 1 1.92 5.419

2k 1 1.76 4.75

5k 1 1.22 2.95

10k 1 734m -2.19

20k 1 391m -7.9

50k 1 160.1m -15.7

100k 1 81.02m -21.8

Fig 1.a shows a low pass filter. Note that the op-amp is used in its non-inverting mode here. For a
better measurement, make Vin less than 2V peak-to-peak. Use R = 3.9kΩ. Measure the frequency response
and plot the resulting gain (Vout/Vin) as a function of the operating frequency
 B. High pass filter
The high-pass filter is formed by interchanging the resistor and capacitor in the low-pass filter circuit in
Fig. 1.a. Measure the frequency response, i.e. measure V out, and convert the data into dB as a function of
the operating frequency

Frequency(Hz) Input Voltage(V) Output Voltage(V) Gain(dB)

200 1 98.6m -20.18

 500 1 242.65m -18.8

1k 1 473.82m -9.72

2k 1 870m -4.25

5k 1 1.54 3.35

10k 1 1.84 5.26

20k 1 1.96 5.83

50k 1 1.99 5.96

100k 1 1.986 5.907

C. 2nd order Filter

For the first-order low-pass and high-pass filters, the gain rolls off at
the rate of about 20dB/decade in the stop band. In critical applications
(such as digitization, which needs the flattest response possible in the pass
band and most sharply-defined stop band) a higher-order filter is a
necessity. The following diagram shows a second-order low-pass filter
(it’s second order because it contains two low-pass filters). Put it together
and measure its gain versus frequency. Use R2=R3≈3.9 kΩ
 Fig. 1.b: 2nd order low pass filter

Frequency(Hz) Input Voltage(V) Output Voltage(V) Gain(dB)

200 1 1.99 6.03

500 1 1.97 5.84

1k 1 1.935 5.53

2k 1 1.81 4.9

5k 1 1.44 2.55

10k 1 345m -7.21

20k 1 84m -21.71

50k 1 15.33m -37.24

100k 1 11.23m -40.19

D. Band pass filter

Fig. 1.c: Band pass filter

Band pass filters can be formed by simply "cascading" high-pass and low-pass sections. Each section
resembles the filter in the previous sections. The RC combination R4 and C2 is a high-pass filter, which
will determine the lower cutoff frequency. Use R4=1 kΩ, and C2 = C3 = 0.01 µF, R2=R3≈3.9 kΩ, R1=Rf
=RL=10 kΩ.

Frequency(Hz) Input Voltage(V) Output Voltage(V) Gain(dB)

200 1 15.29m -31.9

500 1 33.27m -25.28

1k 1 64.279m -19.7

2k 1 122.797m -13.9

5k 1 255.66m -6.09

10k 1 338.95m -3.62

20k 1 289.81m -4.62

50k 1 149.45m -10.4

100k 1 79.08m -16.13