High pass &
Low pass
filter
Ahmed Yousry Khallaf
CSE department
The R-C filter, incredibly simple in design, can be used as a low-
pass or a high-pass filter. If the output is taken off the capacitor, it
will respond as a low-pass filter.
Let us first examine the network at the frequency extremes of f = 0
Hz and very high frequencies to test the response of the circuit.
and the open-circuit equivalent can be substituted for the capacitor,
as shown in the Fig., resulting in Vo = Vi
At very high frequencies, the reactance is
All low-pass filters are rated at a certain cutoff frequency.
That is, the frequency above which the output voltage
falls below 70.7% of the input voltage. This cutoff
percentage of 70.7 is not really arbitrary, all though it
may seem so at first glance.
In a simple capacitive low-pass filter (one resistor, one
capacitor), the cutoff frequency at Xc = R
In summary, for the low-pass R-C filter
The low-pass filter response can also be obtained using the R-L combination with
As noted early in Section 2, a high-pass R-C filter can be constructed by simply
reversing the positions of the capacitor and resistor, as shown in the Figure 1
At very high frequencies the reactance of the capacitor is very small, and the short-
circuit equivalent can be substituted, as shown in the Figure 2.
The result is that Vo = Vi.
At f = 0 Hz, the reactance of the capacitor is quite high, and the open-circuit equivalent
can be substituted, as shown in Fig. 3. In this case, Vo = 0 V.
At very high frequencies At f = 0 Hz
A plot of the magnitude versus frequency is provided in the figure.
At any intermediate frequency, the output voltage can be determined using the voltage
divider rule:
For the frequency at which XC = R, the magnitude becomes
The frequency at which XC = R is determined by