Calculation of LC filters

By combining inductors and capacitors, it is possible to build filters, firstly, of

higher orders (the order of the filter, as a rule, is equal to the number of its
reactive elements), i.e., having steeper slopes of the frequency response in
the stopband, and secondly, introducing significantly less attenuation in the
passband. Ideally, when coils and capacitors are lossless (their quality factor
is infinite), LC filters introduce no losses at all.

The simplest LC filter is an oscillatory circuit. Included as shown in fig. 38

diagram, it will act as a narrow bandpass filter tuned to the frequency

f0= 1/2π√LC.

At the resonant frequency, the loop resistance is active:

R0 = pQ.

where p is the characteristic resistance, equal to the reactance of the coil and
capacitor. It is more convenient to calculate it by the formula

p = √L / C.

Since the capacitor usually introduces almost no losses, the quality factor of
the circuit is equal to the quality factor of the coil. It is easier to determine the
resonant frequency and quality factor experimentally by assembling the
cascade according to the above scheme. You will need a signal generator that
creates an input voltage Uin, and some kind of output meter with high internal
resistance, best of all an oscilloscope. It will serve to register the voltage Uout.

By changing the frequency of the generator, it will be possible to register the

maximum Uout at the resonant frequency of the circuit f0. Resistor R1 and
resonant circuit resistance r0 form a divider, and

Uout = Uin/(R1+r0).

Having measured the voltages at the input and output, it is now easy to
calculate the resonant impedance, and then the quality factor of the circuit.

Another way to measure the quality factor is to measure the loop bandwidth
2Δf, where Δf is the oscillator frequency deviation at which Uout falls to 0,7 of
the resonant value. The quality factor is related to the bandwidth by a simple
formula

Q = f0/2Δf.

In this case, it must be borne in mind that it is not the intrinsic (constructive)
quality factor of the circuit Q0 that will be measured, but a slightly smaller
value - the quality factor of the circuit shunted by the resistor R1. Therefore,
the resistance of the resistor in this experiment should be chosen as large as
possible. Often the resistor is replaced with a small capacitor, in practice it is
enough to bring the generator probe to the upper (according to the diagram)
output of the circuit.

The input impedance of an oscilloscope, or other device connected to the

circuit, is also not infinitely large, and, of course, it reduces its quality factor.
The method for calculating the "loaded" quality factor is simple: you need to
find a new resonant resistance formed by the parallel connection of R1 and
R0, and then divide it by p. Then, the resistance R2 connected to the output is
taken into account in the same way.

A single-loop bandpass filter is a very imperfect device. If we want to use the

properties of the circuit completely, i.e., to obtain a sharp resonance curve
corresponding to the constructive quality factor, then the circuit must be
loaded weakly by choosing R1 and R2 much larger than R0. Then the power
transfer coefficient is small, which means a large loss in the bandwidth. If the
circuit is heavily loaded by selecting R1 = R2 << R0, then the transmission
coefficient tends to the maximum possible (-6 dB), but the circuit almost
completely loses its resonant properties. However, a single circuit is often
used at the input of radio receivers or in resonant amplifiers because of its
simplicity.
The voltage transfer coefficient increases if at least R2 can be made large (for
example, by connecting the circuit to the gate of a field-effect transistor, which
serves to further amplify the signal). It remains to coordinate the circuit from
the input side (for example, with a 75-ohm antenna feeder). Use an
autotransformer connection (Fig. 39) or a capacitive divider (Fig. 40).

In the first case

R1 = R0(n1/n0)2,

where n1 is the number of turns from the "ground" to the tap: n0 is the total
number of turns of the coil (the connection of the parts of the coil is assumed
to be strong) In the second case

R1 = R0C12/(C1 +C2)2.

If R2 is not infinite, then first you need to take it into account by calculating the
new R0 (reduced by parallel connection of R2), and then calculate the input
matching. The parameters of a narrow bandpass filter can be significantly
improved, including two, three or more circuits. The connection between them
can be inductive or external capacitive. The mutual inductance coefficient is
chosen to be Q times less than the inductance of the coils, and the
capacitance of the coupling capacitors is Q times less than the loop
capacitances, and Q is determined from the required bandwidth of the filter. If
O is much less than the constructive quality factor of the coils, the losses in
the filter are small. The input and output of the filter are loaded with resistors
R = pQ.

The signal to the circuit can be applied not only in parallel, as described
above, but also in series, as in Fig. 41. In this case, if it is necessary to obtain
a sharp resonance curve, the resistance R2, as before, must be chosen as
much as possible, and R1, on the contrary, as little as possible. With a small
internal resistance of the generator, such a circuit has a large voltage transfer
coefficient at the resonant frequency, equal to Q in the limit. At the lowest
frequencies, the transfer coefficient tends not to zero, as in the filters already
considered, but to one.

A very interesting case is when in the filter according to the scheme of Fig. 41,
select the resistances at the input and output equal to the characteristic, i.e.
R1 \u2d RXNUMX \uXNUMXd p.

It turns out a matched low-pass filter, the transfer coefficient of which is

constant and equal to 1/2 (-6 dB) at all frequencies from zero to the resonant
frequency of the L1C1 circuit, and decreases with a further increase in
frequency. The slope of the frequency response is 12 dB per octave, as it
should be for a second-order filter.

In the filter passband 0 ... f0, the transfer coefficient is often assumed to be
equal to one, considering the input voltage not the generator EMF, but the
voltage between the upper output of the resistor R1 according to the circuit
and the common wire. Moreover, the resistor R1 can be the internal
resistance of the generator. The generator, as it were, "sees" the load
resistance R2 through a filter transparent in the passband and gives maximum
power at R1 = R2.

By the way, most measuring generators have a standard internal resistance of

50 ohms, and the output voltage scale is calibrated for the case of their load
also at 50 ohms. If the output of such a generator is not loaded with anything,
the output voltage will be twice as high as the scale of the output attenuator
shows!

To obtain steeper slopes of the frequency response, a pair of the described L-

shaped links is used, connecting them in accordance with Fig. 42 to form a T-
link, or according to fig. 43 to form a U-link. In this case, a third-order low-pass
filter is obtained. Usually U-shaped links are preferred, since they have less
labor-intensive inductors to manufacture.

It is also possible to further "build up" the order of the filters. For example, in
Fig. 44 shows how a two-link low-pass filter of the fifth order is made up of two
U-shaped links.

It has a very steep frequency response in the stopband - 30 dB per octave. It

can be made even cooler if additional small capacitors are connected in
parallel with the coils. At the frequencies of the resulting resonant circuits, two
points of "infinite damping" are obtained, lying in the stopband. In some cases,
the role of additional capacitors can be performed by the interturn capacitance
of the coils.

The HPF is constructed in a similar way, only the coils are replaced by
capacitors, and the capacitors are replaced by coils. Broadband bandpass
filters are obtained by cascading a low-pass filter and a high-pass filter,
preferably with an isolating amplifier stage between them.

Question for self-test. Using the formulas in this chapter, derive the
calculation formulas for the inductance and capacitance of the L-shaped link
of the low-pass filter. Calculate the LPF according to fig. 44 for a radio
amateur heterodyne receiver. The filter cutoff frequency is 2,7 kHz and the
characteristic impedance is 1,6 kΩ.
Draw a filter circuit with the designation of the element ratings and plot its
frequency response on a logarithmic scale.

Response. The parameters of the matched L-shaped link of the low-pass

filter (Fig. 41, 42) are found from the relation R = p, where R is the filter load
resistance; p is its characteristic impedance, equal to the reactance of its
elements at the cutoff frequency:

L=R/2πf c,C=1/2πf cR.

Having obtained these formulas, it is no longer difficult to calculate the

elements of a two-link low-pass filter (Fig. 44) of a heterodyne receiver, taking
into account the fact that the inductances of both coils should be 2L, the
capacitances of the extreme capacitors - C, the capacitance of the middle
capacitor - 2C:

L= 1,6-103/ 6,28.2,7-103 - 0,095H = 95 mH, 2L = 190 mH;

C \u1d 6,28 / 2,7 10 XNUMX31,6 103 = 0,037х10-6F \u0,037d 2 uF, 0,074C

\uXNUMXd XNUMX uF.

In the practical manufacture of the filter, the number of turns of the coil is
calculated using the information presented in Chapter 5. In this case, it is
advisable to use ferrite rings, which provide a good quality factor of the coil
and are little susceptible to interference from extraneous fields. Somewhat
worse in both respects are magnetic circuits made of W-shaped steel plates,
for example, from transformers previously used in portable transistor
receivers.

For example, let's calculate the number of coil turns on a K16x8x4 ferrite ring
made of 2000NM grade ferrite. Let's use the formula L=μμ0N2/l. Substituting
into it the values μ = 2000, μ0 = 4π-10-7rH/M,S=16 10-6M2, l=38 10-3M, we get
L -10-6N2 or N - 103L Substituting the value L = 0,19 H, we get N = 430 turns.
It should be noted that, contrary to popular belief, such simple filters are rather
uncritical to the spread of the parameters of their elements, in any case,
deviations of ± 5% have practically little effect on the shape of the frequency
response. Calculations can also be carried out with appropriate accuracy. The
source and load resistances of the filter are even less critical, and deviations
of up to ± 25% are acceptable here.

Author: V.Polyakov, Moscow