DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING

NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY

EEE 311, ETE 311, CSE 351 lab: Electronics II

Experiment No: 06

Name of the Experiment:

Study of First order Active High Pass Filter

Objective:
a. To study the basic construction of active high pass filter.
b. To study the frequency response curve of active high pass filter.

Theory:
Electronic filters
Electronic filters are electronic circuits which perform signal processing functions,
specifically to remove unwanted frequency components from the signal, to enhance wanted
ones, or both. Electronic filters can be:
 passive or active
 analog or digital

Passive filters
Passive implementations of linear filters are based on combinations of resistors (R), inductors
(L) and capacitors (C). These types are collectively known as passive filters, because they do
not depend upon an external power supply and/or they do not contain active components such
as transistors.

Resistors on their own have no frequency-selective properties, but are added to inductors and
capacitors to determine the time-constants of the circuit, and therefore the frequencies to
which it responds. If an inductor is added to the design of a passive filter, the response curve
will be closer to the ideal one. But there are some problems with inductors: they are bulky,
costly and may have large internal resistive component.

The main disadvantage of passive filters is that the amplitude of the output signal is less than
that of the input signal, the gain is never greater than unity and that the load impedance
affects the filters characteristics. With passive filter circuits containing multiple stages, this
loss in signal amplitude called "Attenuation" can become quiet severe. One way of restoring
or controlling this loss of signal is by using amplification through the use of Active Filters.

Active filters
As their name implies, Active Filters contain active components such as operational
amplifiers, transistors or FET's within their circuit design. They draw their power from an
external power source and use it to boost or amplify the output signal. Filter amplification
can also be used to either shape or alter the frequency response of the filter circuit by
producing a more selective output response, making the output bandwidth of the filter
narrower or even wider. Then the main difference between a passive filter and an active filter
is amplification.

An active filter generally uses an operational amplifier (op-amp) within its design. Unlike a
passive high pass filter which has in theory an infinite high frequency response, the
maximum frequency response of an active filter is limited to the Gain/Bandwidth product (or
open loop gain) of the operational amplifier being used. Still, active filters are generally
easier to design than passive filters; they produce good performance characteristics, very
good accuracy with a steep roll-off and low noise when used with a good circuit design. They
are often smaller and less expensive because they do not require inductors. Inductors are
bulky, they can’t be used in IC. As active filers don’t require inductors, IC realizations of
them are feasible.

Active filters are implemented using a combination of passive and active components, and
require an outside power source. High-pass filter, low-pass filter, band-pass filter, band reject
filter and notch filter are some of the variants.

A high-pass filter is an electronic filter that passes signals with a frequency higher than a
certain cutoff frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies lower than the cutoff
frequency. The amount of attenuation for each frequency depends on the filter design. A
high-pass filter is usually modeled as a linear time-invariant system. It is sometimes called a
low-cut filter or bass-cut filter.

The basic operation of an Active High Pass Filter (HPF) is the same as for its equivalent RC
passive high pass filter circuit, except this time the circuit has an op amp or transistor
included within its design providing amplification and gain control. High-pass filters have
many uses such as: blocking DC from circuitry sensitive to non-zero average voltages or
radio frequency devices. They are used as part of an audio crossover to direct high
frequencies to a tweeter while attenuating bass signals which could interfere with, or damage,
the speaker. High-pass and low-pass filters are also used in digital image processing to
perform image modifications, enhancements, noise reduction, etc., using designs done in
either the spatial domain or the frequency domain
 (a) (b)

Figure 1: (a) Non-inverting configuration, (b) Frequency Response

Filter Order
The inductors and capacitors are the reactive
elements of the filter. The number of reactive
elements determines the order of the filter. In
applications that use filters to shape the
frequency spectrum of a signal such as in
communications or control systems, the shape
or width of the roll-off also called the
"transition band", for a simple first-order filter
may be too long or wide and so active filters
designed with more than one "order" are
required. These types of filters are commonly
known as "High-order" or "nth-order" filters.
The complexity or filter type is defined by the
filters "order", and which is dependent upon
the number of reactive components such as
capacitors or inductors within its design. Figure 2: Frequency response of low pass filter of
different orders

Equipment List:

Component Details Specification Quantity

1. Op-Amp LM741 2 pieces
2. Resistor 100kΩ, 10kΩ 1 piece, 2 pieces
3. Capacitors 10nF 1 piece
4. Oscilloscope 1 unit
5. Function Generator 1 unit
6. Digital Multimeter 1 unit
7. Breadboard 1 unit
8. DC Power Supply 1 unit

Circuit Diagram:
Circuit 1 – Active high pass filter circuit with gain 1 Circuit 2 – Active high pass filter circuit with gain 11

Procedure:

1. Calculate the cutoff frequency fc using the equation below

1
fc ¿ 2 πRC =

2. Construct the circuit of circuit 1. Set +VCC = 10 V and –VEE = –10 V.

3. Apply a sine wave with a peak-to-peak voltage = 5 V as the input.
4. Vary the input frequency while keeping the same amplitude and observe the output
wave shape through an oscilloscope. Record the output voltage in the data table.
5. Take at least 15 data until the cutoff frequency and then there is a flat region (take 10
data). Finally after the flat region, output voltage reduces significantly (take 10 data
till 5 MHz).
6. Draw the response curve (gain vs. frequency) in a semi log graph paper and find the
3-db frequency or cut-off frequency from the graph.
7. Now, construct the circuit of circuit 2. Set +VCC = 10 V and –VEE = –10 V.
8. Apply a sine wave with a peak-to-peak voltage = 1 V as the input.
9. Repeat procedure no. 4, 5 & 6
10. Plot both frequency response curves on same log graph.
11. What is the practical cutoff frequency?

fc(practical) =

Questions:

1. What is the definition of active and passive elements in electronics? Give examples.
2. Design a band pass and band stop filter using low pass and high pass filter. Show your
design in both block diagram and circuit diagram.
3. What defines the order of a filter?
 4. Why we use capacitor rather than inductor in active filters?
5. What is the advantages of using Op-Amp in high pass filter?
6. You have a series circuit consisting of an AC power supply, an 1150.0 ohm resistor
and a 144.0nf capacitor. If the circuit is configured as an Active high pass filter, what
frequency will cause the gain to be 0.25?

Data Sheet: (Gain 1)

Input
Gain (dB) = 20
Frequency Vin (p-p) Vout (p-p) Gain (Vo / Vi)
Log (Vo/Vi)
(Hz)
Data Sheet: (Gain 11)
Input
Gain (dB) = 20
Frequency Vin (p-p) Vout (p-p) Gain (Vo / Vi)
Log (Vo/Vi)
(Hz)