INDIAN INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANIPUR
Department of Electronics & Communication
Basic Electronics Lab
Experiment 10: First Order Filters
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Objective: Designing a Active Low Pass Filter and Active High Pass Filter
Materials Required:
1. Breadboard.
2. Equipment: Multi-output DC Power Supply, Function Generator, Oscilloscope.
3. Components:
4. Op-Amp: LM741 (1 nos).
5. Resistor: Four - 470 Ω (1 no), 1 kΩ (2 nos), 10 kΩ (1 no).
6. Capacitor: Two - 0.1 µF, 10 µF.
I Active RC Filters
A filter is a circuit that has designed to pass a specified band of frequencies while attenuating all
signals outside the band.
Active filters employ transistors or op-amps in addition to resistors, capacitors and inductors.
Active filters offer several advantages over passive filters. The high input and low output resistance
of the op-amp, the active filter does not cause loading of the source or load.
A low pass filter has a pass band from 0 Hz to a high cut of f frequency fH. This cut off frequency is
defined as the frequency where the voltage gain is reduced to 0.707, that is at fH the gain is down
by 3 dB; after that (f > fH) it decreases as f increases. The frequencies between 0 Hz and fH are
called pass band frequencies, whereas the frequencies beyond fH 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 < fL 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).
I.I Active Low Pass Filter
Fig. 1: Active Low Pass Filter
Observations:
1. Measure the power supply ± 12 V from the bread board power lines with respect to ground
using multimeter.
2. Fig. 1 shows a low pass filter. Connect the circuit and make sure the power supply (± 12 V)
ground is connected to circuit to circuit ground.
3. Apply a sinusoidal signal of 150 mVp as a input to the circuit from a function generator, and
vary the input signal frequency (f) from 10 Hz to 30 KHz. Observe the output voltage
corresponding to the input voltage at different frequencies like 10 Hz, 100 Hz, 1 KHz, 5 KHz, 10
KHz, 15 KHz, 17 KHz, 18 KHz, 19 KHz, 20 KHz, 21 KHz, 22 KHz, 23 KHz, 25 KHz and 30 KHz.
4. Observe the input voltage Vi and output voltage Vo together on the oscilloscope.
5. Draw the frequency response curve (Gain in dB vs f).
6. Calculate the higher cut of frequency fH and compare with the theoretical value.
Gain in dB Av = 20log (Vo/Vi)
[Link] Active High Pass Filter
Fig. 2: Active High Pass Filter
Observations:
1. Assemble the circuit as shown in Fig. 2. Make sure the power supply (± 12 V) ground is
connected to circuit to circuit ground.
2. Apply a sinusoidal signal of 150 mVp as a input to the circuit from a function generator, and
vary the input signal frequency (f) from 10 Hz Hz to 30 KHz. Observe the output voltage
corresponding to the input voltage at different frequencies like 10 Hz, 50 Hz, 100 Hz, 500 Hz, 1
KHz, 5 KHz, 10 KHz, 15 KHz, 20 Khz, 25 KHz and 30 KHz.
3. Observe the input voltage Vi and output voltage Vo together on the oscilloscope.
4. Draw the frequency response curve (Gain in dB vs f).
5. Calculate the lower cut of frequency fL and compare with the theoretical value.
Important Note: Pre observation reading - Determine the appropriate theoretical values and draw
the expected waveforms.