Frequency Response

 In our sinusoidal circuit analysis, we have learned how to find

voltages and currents in a circuit with a constant frequency
source.
 If we let the amplitude of the sinusoidal source remain constant
and vary the frequency, we obtain the circuit’s frequency
response.

 The sinusoidal steady-state frequency responses of circuits can be

applied especially in communications and control systems.
 For example, an electric filter which blocks out or eliminate
signals with unwanted frequencies and pass signals of the desired
frequencies. Filters are used in radio, TV, and telephone systems
to separate one broadcast frequency from another.
 The transfer function H(ω) (also called the network function) is
a useful analytical tool for finding the frequency response of a
circuit.

 In general, a linear network can be represented by the block

diagram shown in Figure.

 The transfer function H(ω) hides the details of the circuit and
mathematically describes the effects of the circuit to the input
signal.
 Thus,
assuming zero initial conditions.

 Since the input and output can be either voltage or current, there
are 4 possible transfer functions:
i and o denote input and output values.

 H(ω) has a magnitude H(ω) and a

phase Ø. That is H(ω) =H(ω)∠Ø .

 The transfer function can be obtain

by replacing resistors, capacitors
and inductors with their impedance
R, j ω L and 1/j ω C.
 Then use any techniques to solve.
QUICK REVIEW ON POLYNOMIALS

 A polynomial is an expression consisting of variables

 The roots of a polynomial are those values of the variable that

cause the polynomial to evaluate to zero.
 The transfer function H(ω) can be expressed in term of its
numerator polynomial N(ω) and denominator polynomial
D(ω) as
 The roots of N(ω) = 0 are called the
zeros of H(ω) and are usually
represented as jω = z1, z2, . . . .
 Similarly, the roots of D(ω) = 0 are the
poles of H(ω) and are represented as jω
= p1, p2, . . . .

In fact, the frequency response of a circuit is the plot of the

circuit’s transfer function H(ω) versus ω, with ω varying from ω = 0 to
ω =∞.
EXERCISE:
For the RC circuit in figure,
obtain the transfer function Vo/Vs
and its frequency response. Let vs = Vm cos ωt.

Solution:
The frequency domain equivalent of the circuit is shown
By voltage division, the transfer function is given as

Comparing to the basic properties of complex number,

We obtain the magnitude and phase of H(ω) as

where ω0 =1/RC.
 To plot H and Ø for 0<ω<∞, we obtain their values at some critical
points and then sketch.
 At ω =0, H =1 and Ø=0.
 At ω= ∞, H =0 and Ø=-90°.
 At ω =ω0, H =1/√2and Ø=-45°.
 The frequency range required in frequency response is often so
wide that it is inconvenient to use a linear scale for the frequency
axis.

 It has become standard practice to use a logarithmic scale for the

frequency axis and a linear scale in each of the separate plots of
magnitude and phase.

 Such semi-logarithmic plots of the transfer function—known as

Bode Plots —have become the industry standard.
 Bode plots contain the same information as the non-logaritmic
plot , but they are much more easier to construct.

 In a Bode magnitude plot, the gain

is plotted in decibels (dB) vs frequency.

 In a Bode phase plot, Ø is plotted in degrees vs frequency.

 Both magnitude and phase plots are made on semilog graph
paper.
 A transfer function in the form of Eqn. (14.3) may be written in
terms of factors that have real and imaginary parts.

which is obtained by dividing out the poles and zeros in H(ω)

 This representation of H(ω) is called the standard form.

EXAMPLE:
Construct the Bode plots for the transfer function

Solution:
Standard form of H(ω) by diving out the poles and zeros.

Hence, the magnitude and phase are

EXERCISE:
Construct the Bode plots for the transfer function

Solution:
Standard form

The magnitude and phase are

 The most prominent feature of a frequency response may be the
sharp peak (or resonant) exhibits in its amplitude characteristic.

 Resonant occurs in any circuit that has at least one inductor and
one capacitor.

 Resonant circuits (series or parallel) are useful in constructing

filters, as their transfer function can be highly selective.
 They are used in selecting the desired stations in radio and TV
receivers.
 Consider the series RLC circuit shown in the frequency domain.

 The input impedance is

 Resonant results when the imaginary part of the transfer fucntion

is zero, or

The value of ω that satisfies this condition is called the resonant frequency ω0 .
 Thus, the resonant condition is

or

 Since ω0 = 2f0
 Note that at resonance:

 The impedance is purely resistance, thus Z =R. In other word, the LC

series act like a short circuit, and the entire voltage is across R.

 The voltage Vs and the current I are in phase.

 The magnitude of the transfer function H(ω)= Z(ω) is minimum.

 The inductor voltage and capacitor voltage can be much more than the
source voltage.
 The frequency response of the
circuit’s current magnitude is shown

 The average power dissipated by the RLC circuit is

 Highest power dissipated occurs at resonance, when I = Vm/R,

 At certain frequencies ω=ω1 , the dissipated power is half the
maximum value.

Hence, ω1 and ω2 are called the half-power frequencies.

 The half-power frequencies are obtained by setting |Z| =√2R

 Solving for ω
 From the figure, the height is determined by R and the width
depends on the bandwidth, B.

 Band width is defined as the differences

between the two half-power
frequencies.

 The “sharpness” of the resonance is measured by the quality

factor, Q.
 Quality factors is a measure of the energy storage in relation to its
energy dissipation.
 The relationship between the B and Q is obtained

 As shown from the figure, the higher value

of Q, the more selective the circuit is but
the smaller the bandwidth.

 This selectivity is the ability to respond to

a certain frequency and discriminate all
other frequencies.
 A resonant circuit is designed to operate at or near its resonant
frequencies.
 It is said to be a high-Q circuit when its quality factor is equal to
or greater than 10.

 For high-Q circuit (Q≥10), the haft-power frequencies are

symmetrical around the resonant frequency and can be
approximated as
EXERCISE:
In the series RLC circuit, R = 2 Ω, L = 1 mH, and C = 0.4 μF.
Determine
(a) Resonant frequency and half-power
frequencies
(b) Quality factor and bandwidth
(c) Determine the amplitude of the
current at w0, w1 and w2

Solution:
(a) Resonant frequency is
Lower half-power frequency

(b) Bandwidth

Quality factor
(c) At ω = ω0

At ω = ω1, ω2
 The parallel RLC circuit is shown as follow:
The general admittance Y of the parallel
RLC circuit is:

 At resonance, V and I are in-phase. i.e. all ‘j’ terms equal to 0

(Resonance occurs when the imaginary part of Y is zero)

This equation is the same

as the series resonant.
 The voltage |V| is sketched as a function of frequency as:

 At resonance, the parallel LC combination acts like an open circuit,

so that the entire current flows through R.
 The inductor and capacitor current can be much more than the
source current.
 By replacing R, L and C in the expressions for the series circuit
with 1/R, C and L, we obtain for parallel circuit:
 For high-Q circuits (Q ≥10),
 Series Resonance
Refers to the resonance that
occurs in circuits where C and L
are connected in series
series resonance occurs when
the arrangement of the
components creates the
minimum impedance
At the resonant frequency, a series
RLC circuit has the maximum
current,
Parallel Resonance
Refers to the resonance that
occurs in circuits where the C &
L are connected in parallel.
parallel resonance occurs when
the arrangement of components
creates the largest
impedance.
At the resonant frequency, parallel
RLC circuit has minimum current
EXERCISE:
In the parallel RLC circuit, let R = 8 kΩ, L = 0.2 mH, and C = 8 μF.
(a) Calculate ω0, Q, and B.
(b) Find ω1 and ω2.
(c) Determine power dissipated
at ω0, ω1 and ω2.

Solution:
(a)
(b) Due to high value of Q, we can regard thus as a high-Q circuit

(c)
 As a frequency-selective filter, a filter can be used to limit the
frequency spectrum of a signal to some specified band of
frequencies.

 Filters are the circuit used in radio and TV receivers to allow us to

select one desired signal out of a multitude of broadcast.

 A filter is a passive filter is it consists of only passive elements R,

L and C.
 It is an active filter if it consists of active elements such as
transistors and op-amps, in addition to passive element.
  There are 4 types of filters whether
passive or active:

(a) A low-pass filter passes low

frequencies and stop high frequencies.

(b) A high-pass filter passes high

frequencies and rejects low frequencies.

(c) A band-pass filter passes frequencies

within a frequency band and block or
attenuates frequencies outside the
bands.

(d) A band-stop filter (Notch filter)

passes frequencies outside a frequency
band and block or attenuates
frequencies within the band.
 A low-pass filter is formed when the output of an RC circuit is
taken at the capacitor as shown:

 The transfer function is:

Note that H(0) =1 and H(∞) =0.

 Figure shows the plot of |H(w)|, along with the ideal
characteristic.
The half-power frequency, which is known as
the cutoff frequency (or roll-off frequency),
is obtained by setting the magnitude of H(w)
equal to 1/√2, thus

 A low-pass filter can also be formed when the output of an RL

circuit is taken off the resistor.
 A high-pass filter is formed when the output of an RC circuit is
taken off the resistor as shown:

 The transfer function is:

Note that H(0) =0 and H(∞) =1.

 Figure shows the plot of |H(w)|.

The cutoff frequency is

 A high-pass filter can also be formed when the output of an RL

circuit is taken off the inductor.
 The RLC series resonant circuit provides a band-pass filter
when the output is taken off the resistor.

 The transfer function is:

Note that H(0) =0 and H(∞) =0.

 Figure shows the plot of |H(w)|.

 The band-pass filter passes a band of

frequencies (ω1 < ω < ω2 centered on ω0 .

 The cutoff frequency is

 A band-pass filter can also be formed by cascading the low-pass
filter (where ω2 = ωc ) with the high-pass filter (where ω1 = ωc )
 A band-stop filter can be formed when the output RLC series
resonant circuit is taken off the LC series combination.

 The transfer function is:

Note that H(0) =1 and H(∞) =1.

 Figure shows the plot of |H(w)|.

 The cutoff frequency is

 Here ωo is known as frequency of rejection,

while the corresponding bandwidth ( B= ω2 -
ω1) is known as the bandwidth of rejection.
EXERCISE:
Determine the type of filter shown in the figure. Calculate the
corner or cut-off frequency. Take R = 2 kΩ, L = 2 H, and C = 2 μF.

Solution:
Since H(0) = 1 and H(∞)=0, we can conclude that this is second
order low-pass filter.
The magnitude of H is

The corner frequency is the same as the half-frequency, that is

where H is reduced by a factor of 1/√2
EXERCISE:
If the bandstop filter shown below is to reject a 200-Hz sinusoid
while passing other frequencies, calculate the values of L and C.
take R = 150 Ω and the bandwidth as 100 Hz.
Solution:
EXERCISE:
Design a series RLC type bandpass filter with cutoff frequencies
of 10 kHz and 11 kHz. Assuming C = 80 pF, find R, L, and Q.

SOLUTION:
EXERCISE:
Determine the center frequency and bandwidth of the bandpass
filters in the figure.

SOLUTION:
.
 There are 3 major limitations to the passive filter:

 They cannot generate gain more than 1; cant add energy to the network.

 May require bulky and expensive inductors.

 Perform poorly at frequencies below the audio frequency range ( 300Hz

< f < 3000Hz)

 Nevertheless, passive filters are useful at high frequencies.

 Active filters consist of combination of resistors, capacitors and op
amps.

 They offer some advantages over passive filter:

 They are smaller and less expensive.
 They can provide amplifier gain in addition providing the same
frequency responses as RLC filters.

 However, active filter are less reliable and less stable.

 The practical limit of most active filter is about 100kHz –most

active filter operate well below the frequency.
 An operational amplifier (often op-amp or opamp) is a DC-coupled
high-gain electronic voltage amplifier with a differential input and,
usually, a single-ended output.

 Op-Amp is fundamentally a voltage amplifying device designed to be

used with external feedback components such as resistors and capacitors
between its output and input terminals.
 The general type of first-order low-pass filter is shown:

 The component selected for Zi and Zf determine whether the filter

is low-pass or high-pass but one of the component must be
reactive.
 Figure shows a typical active low-pass filter

The transfer function is:

where Zi=Ri and

 Therefore,

This eqn. is similar to LPF, except that there is

a low frequency (ω→ 0) gain or dc gain of -
Rf/Ri.
 The corner frequency is
which does not depend on R.
 Figure shows the typical high-pass filter:

 As before,

where Zi = Ri + 1/jωCi and Zf = Rf

 So that,

This eqn. is similar to HPF, except that there is

a low frequency (ω→ 0) gain or dc gain of -
Rf/Ri.
 The corner frequency is
 The circuit of low-pass filter and high-pass filter can be combined
to form a band-pass filter that will have gain K over the required
range of frequencies.
 Frequency response of band-pass filter:

 The transfer function is obtained by multiplying Eqn. (14.60) and

(14.63).
 The low-pass section sets the upper corner frequency ω2 while
high-pass section sets the lower corner frequency ω1 :

 The center frequency, bandwidth and quality factors are

 To find the pass-band gain K, we write Eqn.(14.65) in the
standard form

 At the center frequency ω0 = √ ω1ω2 , the magnitude of the

transfer function is

 Thus, the pass-band gain at the center frequency is

 A band-reject filter can be constructed by parallel combination of
low-pass and high-pass filter and a summing amplifier.
 The low-pass section sets the upper corner frequency ω1 while
high-pass section sets the lower corner frequency ω2.
 The gap between ω1 and ω2 is the bandwidth of the filter, as
shown.

 The filter passes the frequencies below ω1 and above ω2 .

 The transfer function is

 Formulas for calculating ω1 and ω2 , the center frequency, bandwidth

and quality factor is exactly the same for band-pass filter.

 To determine the pass-band gain K, we can write eqn. (14.74) as

 The gain is

 We can find the gain at the center frequency by finding the

magnitude of the transfer function at ω0 = √ ω1ω2 , writing
EXERCISE:
Design a low-pass active filter with a dc gain of 4 and a corner
frequency of 500Hz. Use Cf of 0.2μF

Solution:

dc gain is
EXERCISE:
Design a band-pass active filter in the form of Figure (14.45) to
pass frequencies between 250 and 3000Hz and with k=10. Select
R = 20kΩ

Solution:
 In designing and analyzing filters and resonant circuit or in
circuit analysis in general, it is sometimes convenient to work
with element values of 1 Ω, 1 K or 1F., and then transforms
the values to realistic value by scaling.

 There are two ways of scaling a circuit

 Magnitude or impedance scaling
 Frequency scaling

 Both method are useful in scaling responses and circuit

elements to values within practical ranges.
 Impedance of individual elements R, L and C are given as

 In magnitude scaling, we multiply the impedance of each

circuit element by a factor Km and let the frequency remain
constant.
 This gives the new impedance as
 Comparing both equations, the new values of the elements
and frequency are

where the primed variables are the new values and unprimed variables are the
old values.
 Consider the series or parallel RLC circuit, we now have

showing that the resonant frequency has NOT changed.

 Similarly, the quality factor and bandwidth are not affected

by the magnitude scaling.
 Also, magnitude scaling does not affect transfer functions.
 Frequency scaling is achieved by multiplying the frequency
by a factor Kf while keeping the impedance the same.

 From Eqn. (14.78), noted that the impedance of L and C are

frequency-dependent.
 If frequency scaling is applied to ZL (ω) and ZC (ω),
 From Eqn. (14.78), noted that the impedance of L and C are
frequency-dependent.
 If frequency scaling is applied to ZL (ω) and ZC (ω),

since the impedance of the L and C must remain the same after frequency
scaling. The value of R is not affected.

 The new values of the elements and frequency are

 Consider the series or parallel RLC circuit, we now have

 And the bandwidth

but the quality factor remains the same.

 If a circuit is called in magnitude and frequency at the same
time, then

 These are the general formulas for those in Eqn. 14.8 and
Eqn. 14.83
 We can set Km = 1 when there is no magnitude scaling or set
Kf = 1 when there is no frequency scaling.
EXAMPLE:
A fourth-order Butterworth lowpass filter is shown in the figure.
The filter is designed such that the cutoff frequency ωc = 1 krad/s.
Scale the circuit for a cutoff frequency of 50 kHz using 10 -kΩ
resistors.

SOLUTION
If the cutoff frequency is to shift from ωc = 1 krad/s to ω’c = 2π(50)
krad/s, then the frequency scale factor is
 If each 1 Ω resistor to be replaced by a 10-kΩ resistor, then
the magnitude scale factor must be

 Using Eqn. (14.86)

 The scaled circuit is shown as follow.

 This circuit uses practical values and will provide the same
transfer function as the prototype in Fig. 14.48(a), but shifted
in frequency.
EXERCISE:
A third-order Butterworth filter normalized to ωc = 1 krad/s is
shown in the figure. Scale the circuit to a cutoff frequency of 10
kHz. Use 15-nF capacitors.

ANSWER
EXERCISE:
The circuit shown in the figure has the impedance

Find
(a) The values of R, L and G

(b) The element values that will raise the resonant frequency by
a factor of 103 by frequency scaling
SOLUTION:
EXERCISE:
Scale the lowpass active filter in the figure so that its corner
frequency increases from 1 rad/s to 200 rad/s. Use a 1- µ F
capacitor.

SOLUTION:
SOLUTION: