COMSATS UNIVERSITY

ISLAMABAD

SAAD ABDULLAH

FA20-BEE-178

LAB 09
 Lab # 9Multistage Passive Low Pass Filter
 To design a first order, second order and third order RC low pass filter
circuit by using three single stage RC filter circuits with cutoff frequency
of 4.8KHZ, also draw the BodePlot.

 To design RL low pass & high pass filter circuit with cutoff frequency of
5KHZ, also draw the BodePlot.

Introduction:
The objective of this lab is to show that:
 As more stages are added, the filter becomes able to better reject high frequencynoise.
 When plotted on a Bode plot, the gain approaches two asymptotes: the low frequency gain
approaches a constant gain of 0dB while the high-frequency gain drops as 20N dB/decade
where N is the number ofstages.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES:
(1) Design higher order passive RC low passfilter.
(2) Understand the difference in response of first order and higher order filtercircuits

EXPERIMENTAL OBJECTIVES:
(1) Calculate and measure cutoff frequency for higher order RCfilters.
(2) Design of higher order RC low-passfilter.
(3) Bode plots for higher orderfilters.

PRE-LAB:
Reading:
(1) Study the Background section of thisLaboratory.
(2) Study textbook Chapter 14 (14.1-14.4).
Written:
(1) Perform the calculations on Page #10 and page#11.
Note: Before the starts of simulation make sure that the calculatedvalues
ofR,LandCareavailableinLab.OtherwiseDesignyourcircuitsaccording to the
availablevalues.
(2) Simulate the circuit shown in Fig (5), Fig (6), Fig (7) and Fig (8) in LTspice and Record the simulation
result in Table 1, Table 2, Table 3 and Table4.
(3) Sketch the Bode Plots (Page #14-17) of the simulation results recorded in Table 1, Table 2, Table 3
and Table4.
EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS
 Digital FunctionGenerator
 Digital Oscilloscope withProbes.
 BreadBoard
 Capacitors
 Inductors
 Resistors

Background:
ThesinglestageRCfilterisalowpassfilter:lowfrequenciesarepassed(haveagainofone),whilehigh
frequencies are rejected (the gain goes to zero). This is a useful filter to remove noise from a signal.
Many types of signals are predominantly low-frequency in nature - meaning they change slowly. This
includes measurements of temperature, pressure, volume, position, speed, etc. Noise, however, tends
tobeatallfrequencies,andisseenasthe“fuzzy”lineonyouoscilloscopewhenyouamplifythe signal.

The trick when designing a low-pass filter is to select the RC time constant so that the gain is one over
the frequency range of your signal (so it is passed unchanged) but zero outside this range (to reject the
noise).

First Order Low Pass Filter:

A first order low- pass filter (LPF) is shown in Fig (1). It is called “1st order" because it contains one
resistor and one capacitor. You have already done the first order filter circuit in previous lab i.e. Lab #
8.
At the end of this lab you will compare the responses of first order, second order and third order filter
circuits, and therefore, you have to repeat the first order filter circuit with new cutoff frequency.

𝑅 = 330 Ω

𝐶 = 0.1µ𝐹

Fig (1): First Order RC Low Pass Filter

Second Order Low Pass Filter:

A 2nd order low- pass filter (LPF) is shown in Fig (1). It is called “2nd order" because it contains two
resistors, and two capacitors. A 2nd order LPF consists of a chain of two 1st order LPFs.
One problem with adding stages to an RC filter is that each following stage 'loads' the previous stage.
This loading bleeds some current from the previous capacitor, changing the circuit. If you make the
impedance of each stage 10 times the previous stage, this loading is less than 10%, meaning that the
transfer function will be close to that from lab 8. The value of R2 has purposely been chosen to be
10larger than R1; and the value of C2 has purposely been chosen to be 10 smaller than R1.

It also means that every RiCiis the same, which makes the situation computationally easy. Every time
you add on an RC into chain, you should continue the pattern of increasing R by a factor of 10 and
decreasing C by a factor of 10. This 10rule of thumb is a very good one to keep in mind.

𝑅1= 330 Ω
𝑅2= 3.3 𝐾Ω

𝐶1=0.1µ𝐹 𝐶2= 0.01 µ𝐹

Fig (2): Second Order RC Low Pass Filter

Third Order Low Pass Filter:

A third order low- pass filter (LPF) is shown in Fig (2). It is called “third order" because it contains three
resistors, and three capacitors. A 3rd order LPF consists of a chain of three 1st order LPFs.

One problem with adding stages to an RC filter is that each following stage 'loads' the previous stage.
This loading bleeds some current from the previous capacitor, changing the circuit. If you make the
impedance of each stage 10 times the previous stage, this loading is less than 10%, meaning that the
transfer function will be close to that from lab 8.

𝑅1= 330 Ω
𝑅2= 3.3𝐾Ω 𝑅3 = 33𝐾Ω

𝐶1 𝐶2 𝐶3
0.1 µ𝐹 0.01 µ𝐹 0.001µ𝐹

Fig (3): Third Order RC Low Pass Filter.

Thegainofthisfilterisapproximatelythegainofeachstageanalyzedseparately(i.e.theloadingeffects are
ignored).
 1 3
Y2 x«1c+1

dB
Corner Frequency

1- stage RCfilter
-2O -20dB 7 decade

2- stage RCfilter
-40dB / decade

3- stage RCfilter
-60 -60d B decade
200 400 7D0 2k 4k 7k 10k

rad/sec
In-Lab Tasks
Task 1: Design of first order RC Low Pass Filter.

First RC Low Pass Filter

Phase and Magnitude plot

Simulated values
Frequency (KHz) Output Voltage (V) Gain Phase (degree)

60 9.81 -0.04 -0.0879°

400 9.99 -0.07 -0.777 °
1500 7.7 -1.01 -4.54 °
4000 6.99 -3.06 -9.55 °
9500 4.44 -7.02 -17.78 °
20000 2.54 -12.2 -32.99 °
29000 1.55 -15.6 -44.67 °
39500 1.32 -18.3 -52.34 °
49500 1.00 -20.2 -58.23 °
500000 1.54 -35.0 -86.143 °

Task 2:

Second RC Low Pass Filter

Phase and Magnitude plot
Task 3:
Third RC Low Pass Filter
Phase and Magnitude plot:
POST LAB:
Design second order and third order RC high pass filter?

Second order RC high pass filter

Third order RC high pass filter

Create Bode plots of the magnitude transfer functions of high-pass
filters.

Second order RC high pass filter

Third order RC high pass filter

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
In this lab I have taken in the utilization of multistage detached channels that are
utilized to channel the particular frequencies from the wave. I additionally have
noticed the impact of option of the an ever increasing number of stages in the circuit
and with these options it turns out to be all the more simple to channel the frequencies
with higher effectiveness and the advancement of the circuit.