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RC Low and High Pass Filter Analysis

An RC circuit can act as either a lowpass or highpass filter depending on whether the voltage is measured across the capacitor or resistor when an input voltage VS is applied. Measuring across the capacitor yields a lowpass filter where the output voltage VC approaches VS at low frequencies and decreases to 0 at high frequencies. Measuring across the resistor yields a highpass filter where the output voltage VR is near 0 at low frequencies and approaches VS at high frequencies. The document then provides the transfer functions that mathematically describe these lowpass and highpass filters.

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23 views2 pages

RC Low and High Pass Filter Analysis

An RC circuit can act as either a lowpass or highpass filter depending on whether the voltage is measured across the capacitor or resistor when an input voltage VS is applied. Measuring across the capacitor yields a lowpass filter where the output voltage VC approaches VS at low frequencies and decreases to 0 at high frequencies. Measuring across the resistor yields a highpass filter where the output voltage VR is near 0 at low frequencies and approaches VS at high frequencies. The document then provides the transfer functions that mathematically describe these lowpass and highpass filters.

Uploaded by

shivanshu
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© All Rights Reserved
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1st order Low and High Pass RC Filter Example

(a) An RC circuit; (b) if we measure the voltage across the capacitor (given the input VS), we obtain a lowpass
filter; (c) if we measure the voltage across the resistor (given the input VS), we obtain a highpass filter. The
expressions that generate the plots above are worked out on the next page.

Some material reproduced with permission from Ulaby, F. T., & Maharbiz, M. M. (2012). Circuits. 2nd Edition, NTS Press.

The Lowpass Filter


Application of voltage division gives

The transfer function corresponding to VC is

where we have multiplied the numerator and denominator of the top expression by jC to simplify the form
of the expression. In terms of its magnitude MC() and phase angle C(), the transfer function is given by

with

and

At dc, the capacitor acts like an open circuitallowing no current to flow through the loopwith the obvious
consequence that VC = Vs. At very high values of , the capacitor acts like a short circuit, in which case the
voltage across it is approximately zero.
The Highpass Filter
The output across R is

The magnitude and phase angle of HR() are given by

And

Some material reproduced with permission from Ulaby, F. T., & Maharbiz, M. M. (2012). Circuits. 2nd Edition, NTS Press.

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