MODULE 4: NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

19.1 : Four types of negative feedback

• The input to a negative feedback amplifier can be either a voltage or current.
• Also the output signal can either a voltage or a current.
• Thus four types of negative feedback exist.
1) Voltage controlled voltage source (VCVS)
2) Current controlled voltage source (ICVS)
3) Voltage controlled current source (VCIS)
4) Current controlled current source (ICIS)

1) Voltage controlled voltage source (VCVS)

• This type has input as voltage and output as voltage.
• It is an ideal voltage amplifier because it has
a) stabilized voltage gain
b) Zin= ∞
c) Zout= 0
Voltage gain Av= Vōut/ Vin

Above fig. (a) shows VCVS, a voltage amplifier.

• Practically, Zin is very high and Zout is very low.

• It acts like a stiff voltage source as Zout approaches zero.

2) Current controlled voltage source (ICVS)

• In this type an input current controls an output voltage.
• It is also called transresistance amplifier.
• The conversion factor is called transresistance rm = Vout/iin
• Ideally : Zin = 0
Zout=0

• It is a current to voltage converter

Above fig is current controlled voltage source

• Practically: Zin is very low

Zout is also very low

• It acts as a stiff voltage source as Zout approaches zero.

3) Voltage controlled current source (VCIS)

• Here an input voltage controls an output voltage.
• It is called transconductance amplifier.
• It is voltage to current converter.
• The conversion factor is transconductance gm = iout/vin
• Ideally : Zin = ∞
Zout = ∞

Above fig is voltage controlled current source

• Practically : Zin is very high

Zout is also very high

• It acts as stiff current source as Zout approaches infinity.

4) Current controlled current source (ICIS)

 • In this type of negative feedback, an input current is amplified to get a larger output
current.
• It is an ideal current amplifier having:
a) Stabilized current gain Ai = iout/iin
b) Zin = 0
c) Zout = ∞

Above fig is current controlled current source

• Practically: Zin is very low

Zout is very high
• It acts as stiff current source as Zout approaches infinity
19.3 Other VCVS Equations
Gain stability:

• Gain stability depends on having a very low percentage error between the
ideal and the exact closed loop voltage gains.
• Worst case error of closed loop voltage gain occurs when the open loop
voltage gain is minimum.

•
•
Closed loop input impedance:
fig 19.5a shows a noninverting amplifier.
the exact equation for closed loop input impedance of this VCVS amplifier :
Since (1+AVOLB) is much greater than unity, the closed loop input impedance is very high.
In other words,

Closed loop output impedance:

Exact equation for closed loop output impedance is

Where ROut = open loop output resistance

Nonlinear Distortion:

• Non linear distortion produces harmonics of the input signal and it is also called
harmonic distortion.
• For example, if a sinusoidal signal has a frequency of 1KHz, the distorted output
current will contain sinusoidal signals with frequencies of 1,2,3 kHz and so forth as
shown in spectrum diagram in fig 19.5c.
Percentage of total harmonic distortion is defined as

Discrete negative feedback amplifier

for two CE stages produce an open loop voltage gain equal to:

Output voltage drives a voltage divider formed by rf and re. feedback fraction is given by
19.5 The VCIS Amplifier

• In VCIS amplifier, an input voltage controls an output current.

• Below fig shows a transconductance amplifier.

It is similar to a VCVS amplifier except that RL is the load resistor as well as feedback resistor.
The exact equation for output current is

Practically, second term in the denominator is much smaller than the first and the equation
simplifies to:

Current through resistor R1 is

Above circuit is a voltage to current converter.

The approximate equation for the closed loop input impedance of a VCIS amplifier is :
The circuit is a perfect voltage to current converter because it has very high input and output
impedance.
 Chapter 21 ACTIVE FILTERS
21.1 Ideal Responses
Frequency response of a filter is the graph of its voltage gain versus frequency.
There are five types of filters: 1) low pass 2) high pass 3) bandpass 4) bandstop 5) all-pass

Low Pass Filter High pass Filter

1. passes all frequencies from zero to cutoff 1. blocks all frequencies from zero up to
frequency and blocks all frequencies above cutoff frequency and passes all frequencies
the cutoff frequencies. above the cutoff frequency.

2. frequencies between zero and cutoff 2. frequencies between zero and cutoff
frequency are called passband. frequency are the stopband.
Frequencies above cutoff frequency are Frequencies above cutoff frequency are the
called stopband. passband.
Roll off region between passband and
stopband are called transistion. 3. has infinite attenuation in the stopband,
zero attenuation in passband and a vertical
3. has zero phase shift for all frequencies in transition.
passband.
 Bandpass filter Bandstop Filter
[Link] all frequencies from zero up to the [Link] all frequencies from zero up to
lower cutoff frequency. lower cutoff frequency.
Passes all frequencies between lower and Blocks all the frequencies between lower
upper cutoff frequencies. and upper cutoff frequencies.
Finally, it blocks all frequencies above the It passes all frequencies above upper cutoff
upper cutoff frequency. frequency.

[Link] frequencies between the lower and

[Link] is all the frequencies between upper cutoff frequencies is the stopband.
the lower and upper cutoff frequencies. Frequencies below lower cutoff frequency
Frequencies below the lower cutoff and above the upper cutoff frequency is
frequency and above cutoff frequency are called passband.
the stopband.
3. it had infinite attenuation in the
3. has zero attenuation in the passband, stopband and no attenuation in the
infinite attenuation in the stopband and passband and two vertical transitions.
two vertical transitions.
[Link], f0 and Q are same as bandpass.
4. Bandwidth (BW) of a bandpass filter is
the difference between its upper and lower Bandstop filter is also called notch filter
3db cutoff frequencies:
BW = f2 – f1
5. center frequency is symbolized by f0 and
is given by the geometric average of the
two cutoff frequencies

6. Q is defined as the center frequency

divided by the bandwidth

Where,

If Q<1 , bandpass filter is called wideband

filter. If Q>1, bandpass filter is called
narrowband filter.

All pass filter

[Link] passes all frequencies between zero and infinite

frequency.
[Link] has passband and no stopband.
[Link] has zero attenuation for all frequencies.

[Link] response of a filter is phase shift versus

frequency.
[Link] pass filter produces certain amount of phase
shift and without changing its amplitude.
6. it is also called phase shifter.
21.4 First order stages
• First order or 1 pole active filter stages have only one capacitor.
• First order filters can produce only a low pass or high pass response.
• Bandpass and bandstop are implemented for n>1.
Low pass stage
non-inverting unity gain LPF

• Below fig a , shows simplest first order low passs active filter.

• It is a non-inverting unity gain circuit

• This circuit consists of RC lag circuit and a voltage follower.
• voltage gain is

• 3-dB cutoff frequency is given by

• At low frequencies, Xc is high and capacitor acts as open circuit and input is
passed.
• When f > fc , Xc decreases and reduces input voltage and as frequency approaches
intinity, capacitor becomes a short and Vin=0 .
Non-inverting with voltage gain:
Fig b shows another non-inverting 1st order low pass filter
• This circuit has two additional resistors
• Voltage gain is

• Cutoff frequency is

• Above fc , lag circuit reduces input voltage

• Since R3C1 lag circuit is outside feedback loop, Vout rolls off at a rate of 20db
per decade.
Inverting with voltage gain

• Above fig shows an inverting 1st order LPF

• At low frequencies , capacitor appears to be open and circuit acts like
inverting amplifier with voltage gain of

• At high frequencies , Xc decreases and hence less voltage gain. And as

frequency approaches infinity, capacitor becomes a short and there is no
voltage gain.
• Cutoff frequency is given by
High pass stage
21.5 VCVS Unity Gain Second Order Low Pass Filter
• Second order or 2 pole stages are easy to build and analyze.
• Higher order filters are made by cascading second order stages.
• Each stage has a resonant frequency and Q to determine how much
peaking occurs.
• These filters are also called sallen-key low pass filters
• These are VCVS filters because op-amp is used as voltage controlled
voltage source.
Circuit:
 • Above fig shows Sallen-key 2nd order LPF.
• There are 2 resistors and have same value but 2 capacitors are different.
• There is a lag circuit on inverting input.
• At low frequencies, both capacitors are open and circuit has unity gain.
• At high frequencies, impedance of C1 decreases and input voltage decreases.
And C2 is feeding back a signal that is in phase with Vin
Pole frequency

and
Pole frequency is

• Pole frequency is a frequency used in design of active filters.

Butterworth and Bessel Responses

• If Q= 0.707 , we have Butterworth response and a Kc =1 .

• If Q= 0.577, it’s a Bessel response and Kc = 0.786
• Cutoff frequency is

Peaked response

• Above fig shows how to analyze the circuit when Q > 0.707.
• After calculating Q and fp , we calculate 3 other frequencies with these equations
Where
21.7 VCVS Equal component Low Pass Filter
below fig 21.3 shows Sallen key second order low pass filter.

• In this circuit, both resistors and both capacitors have the same value. Therefore it is
called a sallen key equal component filter.
• Circuit has a midband voltage gain of :

Operation:

• At low frequencies, both capacitors are open and input signal is passed to output.
• At high frequencies, impedance of C decreases and input voltage decreases. As
frequency becomes infinity, both capacitor becomes short circuit and input op-amp
is grounded and hence no signal is passed at the output.
• Q becomes a function of voltage gain and is given by:

Because AV can be no smaller than unity, minimum Q is 0.5.

When AV = 1 to 3 , Q varies from 0.5 to infinity.
When Av>3 , circuit will act as oscillator and produces oscillations because positive
feedback is too large.
21.8 VCVS High Pass Filter
Below fig shows sallen key unity gain high pass filter and its equations.

Note how to remember and draw the circuit: High pass filters have capacitor 1st at the input
and then resistor .

• Q depends on the ration of resistors rather than capacitances.

• To calculate the cutoff frequency of a high pass filter we use

• Fig 21.35b shows sallen key equal component high pass filter and its equations.
21.9 MFB Bandpass Filters
• Here MFB stands for multiple-feedback
• A bandpass has fc and a BW (Bandwidth)
BW = f2 – f1

f0 = √(f2 f1)
Q= f0/ BW

• When Q< 1 , filter has wideband response.

• Bandpass filter is usually built by cascading a low pass stage with a high pass stage.
• When Q >1 , filter has narrow band response and a different approach is used.
Wideband filters

Above fig shows a wideband filter with f1= 300Hz and f2 = 3.3kHz.

• In this case center frequency is

• Bandwidth is

• Q is

• since Q<1 , low pass and high pass stages can be cascaded.
• HPF has cutoff frequency = 300Hz and LPF has cutoff frequency = 3.3kHz.
• When two responses are added we get a BP response.

Narrow band filters

• When Q>1 , we use multiple feedback filter as below
 • Note that input signal is applied to inverting terminal and circuit has 2
feedback paths, one through a capacitor and another through a resistor.
• At low frequency, capacitor is open and Vin cannot reach op-amp and Vout = 0.
• At high frequency, capacitor is short. In this case, Av =0 because Xc= 0. And
hence Vout=0
• Between low and high extremes , there is a band of frequencies where circuit
acts like an inverting amplifier.
• The voltage gain at fc is

• Quality factor is

• If Av = -100

• Greater the voltage gain, higher the Q

• Center frequency is given by:

Increasing the input impedance

 • Above circuit is an MFB bandpass filter that increases the input impedance
• There is additional resistor R3.
• R1 and R3 form a voltage divider.
• We can simplify the circuit using thevenin’s theorem. Fig b
• Now Q and f0 become:

Advantage: higher input impedance because R1 can be made higher for a

given Q.
Tunable center frequency with constant bandwidth

• We can build a circuit that varies center frequency while holding bandwidth constant.

• Above fig is a modified MFB circuit in which R2= 2R1 and R3 is variable
• The analysis equations are:

• We can see that varying R3 will vary f0

• BW is independent of R3 and we can have a constant BW while varying center
frequency.

21.10 Bandstop Filters

• in many applications a bandstop filter will block only a single frequency
• for ex: in ac power lines there will be a hum of 60Hz, this interfere with a desired
signal and we can use bandstop filter to remove this unwanted hum signal

• above fig shows a Sallen-Key second order notch filter and its analysis
equations
• at low frequencies , all capacitors are open. And all input signal
reaches non-inverting input.
• Circuit’s passband voltage gain is given as

• At high frequencies, capacitors are shorted and all input signal

reaches noninverting input
• Between low and high extremes in frequency, there is a center
frequency given by
• Q of the circuit is given by

•
• Av of this circuit must be < 2 to avoid oscillations.