Course: Electric Network Analysis Lab (T2)

Experiment 9: Passive Low Pass and High Pass Filters

Pre-Lab Questions:
Q.1) What are passive filters and what is meant by cut-off frequency of a filter?
Ans)
Frequency-selective or filter circuits pass to the output only those input signals that are in a
desired range of frequencies (called pass band). The amplitude of signals outside this range of
frequencies (called stop band) is reduced (ideally reduced to zero). Passive filters use only
passive electronic components: resistors, capacitors, and inductors. For low frequency
applications (less than 100 kHz) it is typically sufficient to use only resistors and capacitors.
These filters are called RC networks or RC filters. Inductors play a more important role in high-
frequency applications. Filters that also employ inductors are called RLC networks or RLC
filters.
In electronics, cutoff frequency or corner frequency is the frequency either above or below which
the power output of a circuit, such as a line, amplifier, or electronic filter has fallen to a given
proportion of the power in the pass band.
Q.2) What is a bode plot? Draw magnitude bode plots for a low pass, high pass,
band pass and band stop filter.
Ans)
A Bode Plot consists of frequency on the X axis and 2 Y axes, one for gain and one for phase. The
plot is drawn on logarithmic scale. So what a Bode plot tells us is the relationship of the gain
and phase properties between some input and some output.  These are typically used to assess
control bandwidth and stability of a circuit.  They are used all the time in power supply/control
system design and analysis. 
Q.3) Implement a series RC circuit in ORCAD PSpice with R=10k Ω and C=0.01uF.
Use AC Voltage Source and perform AC Sweep analysis with logarithmic scale
(Frequency Range: 10Hz to 1000 kHz) when:
Ans)

b) The output voltage is measured across resistor

a) The output voltage is measured across capacitor

Can we implement both; a high pass and a low pass filter, using the same RC series
circuit? Answer with respect to the plots obtained.
Ans) Yes, we can implement both a high pass and a low pass filter using the same RC series
circuit. This is verified from the plots we got. We can see that if we extract the output across the
resistor we get the graph for high pass filter and if we extract the output across the capacitor we
get the graph for a low pass filter. So getting the output from different passive components i.e.
the resistor and capacitor we can use the circuit as different type of a filter.