Frequency

Response
Key topics

• Low- and High-Pass Filters

• Active Filters
• Bandpass Filter Design
• Resonant Frequency of Circuits with Inductors and Capacitors
• Quality Factor
• Bandwidth
 A sinusoidal excitation generates a change in amplitude and phase

• The change in amplitude and phase is defined by the nature of the system
• A filter is a device which induces a change in phase and amplitude of the
input signal depending on the nature of input signal
• All physical systems can be called a filter
 Filter and frequency response
• A filter is a circuit that removes, or “filters out,” a specified range of frequency components. In
other words, it separates the signal’s spectrum into frequency components that will
be passed and frequency components that will be blocked.
• Designing a filter requires knowledge of frequency response of a system

• Active filters have amplifiers and passive filters only have passive elements
• Low pass filter: audio amplifiers, rectifiers

• High pass filter: Radio circuits, image and audio

A recording

• Band pass filter: GPS system, mobile phones

• Band stop: specific applications to filter out signals

Frequency Response
 A system’s frequency response, or
sinusoidal transfer function, describes its gain and
phase shift for sinusoidal inputs as a function of
frequency.
f
 Active Low Pass Filter
• An active filter permits only low-frequency components and denies all other high-frequency components and
is termed an Active Low Pass Filter
• A Passive Low Pass Filter connected to either inverting or non-inverting op-amp gives us a simple Active
Low Pass Filter.
 Low Pass Filters
A filter can be constructed by simply using a single capacitor and a single resistor

Taking Laplace transform, = I

Writing Kirchoff’s voltage law,

IR+=IR+= A simple low-pass RC filter.
 Low Pass Filters
A filter can be constructed by simply using a single capacitor and a single resistor

The transfer function for this low-pass filter I

circuit is,

𝑉 𝑜𝑢𝑡 1 1
𝐻 ( 𝑠 )= = = A simple low-pass RC filter.
𝑉 𝑖𝑛 1+ 𝑅𝐶𝑠 1+ 𝑅𝐶 ( 𝑗 )

1 1 1
When, 1=RC, 𝐻 ( 𝑠 )= ∧| 𝐻 ( 𝑠 )|= = =0.707
1+ 𝑗 |1+ 𝑗|  2

H(s) has a single corner frequency, which occurs at ω =

1/RC, and a zero at s = ∞, leading to its “low-pass” filtering
behavior
Active filters
Active Filters

Low-Pass Filter
 High Pass Filters

Applying Kirchoff’s voltage law,

+IR, =IR
Taking Laplace transform, = =

𝑉 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑅𝐶𝑠
=
𝑉 𝑖𝑛 1+ 𝑅𝐶𝑠
Active High pass filter

The first part acts as a high pass filter

The second part offers a gain
𝑉 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑅 2 𝐶𝑠
=
𝑉 𝑖𝑛 1+ 𝑅 1 𝐶𝑠
 Resonance based filters
iR+ =IR

Taking Laplace transform,

11
 Bandpass Filters
The transfer function of this circuit is easily found to be
 Resonant circuits as filters

• A network is in resonance (or resonant) when the

voltage and current at the network input terminals are
in phase.

• This corresponds to a purely real admittance, so that the necessary condition is give,

• The resonant condition may be achieved by adjusting L, C, or ω; we

will devote our attention to the case for which ω is the variable.
 Quality Factor

The (half-power) bandwidth of a resonant circuit is defined as

 Bandwidth the difference of these two half-power frequencies.
B ≡ ω2 − ω1

The bandwidth of the circuit response is

highlighted in green; it corresponds to the
portion of the response curve greater
than or equal to 70.7% of the maximum
value
 Passes frequencies below a cutoff frequency, while
significantly damping frequencies above that cutoff.
Basic Filters

The underlying concept of a

filter is that it selects the
frequencies that may pass
through a network.

Frequency response curves for

(a) a low-pass filter; (b) a
high-pass filter; (c) a bandpass
filter; (d ) a bandstop filter. In
each diagram, a solid dot
corresponds to −3 dB
 Notch Filters

• The notch filter is a specialized band stop filter, designed

with a narrow response characteristic that blocks a single
frequency component of a signal.
• Notch filters eliminate transmission of a narrow band of
frequencies and allow transmission of all the frequencies
above and below this band.
• For example, if a Notch Filter has a stopband frequency
from 100 MHz to 200 MHz, then it will pass all the signals
from DC to frequency of 100 MHz and above 200 MHz, it
will only reject frequency between 100 MHz to 200 MHz.

Active Notch Filter

 Band pass active filter Response Plot

Bandwidth-

1
𝐹 𝑂𝐿=
2 𝜋 𝑅1 𝐶 1
1
1
𝐹𝑟 =
𝐹 𝑂𝐻 = 2 𝜋 √ 𝑅 1 𝑅2 𝐶1 𝐶2
2 𝜋 𝑅2 𝐶 2
Surface Acoustic Wave filters