Mate, Daven Zairel S.
Design and Testing of an Active Low-Pass Filter Using an Op-Amp
Objectives
1. To design an active low-pass filter using an operational amplifier (Op-Amp).
2. To analyze the frequency response (gain vs frequency) of the filter.
3. To determine the cutoff frequency determine the cutoff frequency of the filter.
Materials
• Op-Amp
• Resistors
• Capacitor
• Dual DC power supply (±15V)
• Function generator
• Oscilloscope
• Breadboard and connecting wires
Theory
An Active Low-Pass Filter allows signals with a frequency lower than a certain cutoff frequency (fc) to
pass and attenuates signals with frequencies higher than fc.
For a simple first-order active low-pass filter:
fc = 1/2πRC
where: R – resistor value
C – capacitor value
Active Low Pass Filter Amplification
The frequency response of the circuit will be the same as that for the passive RC filter, except that the
amplitude of the output is increased by the pass band gain, AF of the amplifier. For a non-inverting
amplifier circuit, the magnitude of the voltage gain for the filter is given as a function of the feedback
resistor ( R2 ) divided by its corresponding input resistor ( R1 ) value and is given as:
Gain of the active low pass filter
The operation of the low pass filter can be verified from the frequency gain as summarized below:
Procedure:
1. Configure the
circuit below:
R1 = 1 KΩ R2 = 3 KΩ C1 = 40nF R3 = 1 KΩ Vcc = 15V VEE = -15V Vin = 1Vpp
2. Observe the output using the oscilloscope.
3. Gradually vary the frequency of the input signal and observe its output.
4. Record the output voltage at different frequencies in the table below:
Frequency (Hz) Input Vin (Vpp) Output Vo(Vpp) Gain (Vout/Vin)
200 1Vpp 1.969V 1.969
1000 1Vpp 1.915V 1.915
4000 1Vpp 1.493V 1.493
8000 1Vpp 878.742mV 878.742
16000 1Vpp 476.415mV 476.415
32000 1Vpp 244.376mV 244.376
64000 1Vpp 122.136mV 122.136
128000 1Vpp 58.283mV 58.283
5. Determine the cut-off frequency where the output voltage drops to 70.7% of the maximum
value.
Vcutoff=0.707×1.969≈1.392V
1/2pi(1k)(40n)= 3978 Hz
So, the cutoff frequency is approximately 4000 Hz
6. Plot Output Voltage (or Gain) vs Frequency on a graph (semi-log scale preferred).
Observation:
I observed that at low frequencies, specifically below approximately 4 kHz, the output voltage remained
close to the input level of 1 Vpp. The highest output measured was about 1.969 Vpp, indicating that the
active low-pass filter allowed these lower frequencies to pass through with minimal attenuation.
However, as the frequency increased beyond this range, the output voltage began to drop significantly.
This gradual decrease in output confirms that higher-frequency signals are increasingly attenuated by
the filter.
Conclusion:
In this experiment, we tested an active low-pass filter using an operational amplifier. The input signal
was maintained at a constant 1 Vpp while the frequency was varied. At low frequencies, the output
closely matched the input, showing minimal loss. As the frequency increased, the output voltage
decreased, demonstrating the filter’s ability to block or attenuate higher-frequency signals. The
experiment effectively illustrated the behavior of a low-pass filter: allowing low-frequency signals to
pass while reducing the amplitude of higher-frequency ones.