GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

SCHOOL of ELECTRICAL and COMPUTER ENGINEERING

ECE 3084
Summer 2014
Problem Set #7
Assigned: 11-July-14
Due Date: 18-July-14

Your homework is due at 3:00 PM on Friday, July 18, to Prof. Lanterman in his Van Leer 431
office. If he is not there, you may simply slide your homework under his office door.
Refrain from looking at backfiles of homework and exam solutions i.e., word in
Georgia Tech parlance from previous versions of ECE2025, ECE2026, or ECE3084,
beyond your own materials assembled while taking those classes and any old material
we explicitly provide to you.
Try posting questions on piazza.
All of the circuit principles and theorems you learned in ECE2040 apply to linear circuits
modeled in the Laplace domain, including:
Kirchoffs current and voltage laws.
Current dividers and voltage dividers.
Thevenin and Norton equivalents, and the various methods for finding them.
Source transformations, both current to voltage (a voltage source V (s) in series with an
impedance Z(s) can be converted to a current source V (s)/Z(s) in parallel with an impedance
Z(s)) and voltage to current (a current source I(s) in parallel with an impedance Z(s) can
be converted to a voltage source I(s)Z(s) in series with an impedance Z(s).)
Series and parallel combination rules: impedances in series add, and admittances (reciprocal
impedances) in parallel add.

PROBLEM 7.1:
Coil guns use electromagnetism to accelerate metal bolts to high speeds. The bolt is placed within
the coils of an inductor, near one end. When a current is run through the coils, the bolt is pulled
towards the center of the inductor. Precise timing is needed, since the current must be shut off just
before the bolt passes through the center of the coil so that it is allowed to leave the coil instead
of being pulled back in.
Effective coil guns require large inductor currents. Batteries can store tremendous amounts
of electric charge, but they usually cannot provide those charges very quickly; there are practical
limits to the amount of current that a battery may provide. A common way to get around this
limitation of batteries is to charge a capacitor and use charge from the capacitor to power the coil.
Consider this simplified coil gun model:

VB represents a battery1 used to charge the capacitor C up to VB volts. Rc represents a

current limiting resistor introduced to make sure the charging doesnt happen too fast (which
might generate excessive heat), and Rp represents parasitic resistances in the coil. Before t = 0,
the coil is disconnected and the capacitor is charged. After t = 0, the charging circuit has been
disconnected and the capacitor provides current to the coil.
We will assume that i(0 ) = i(0+ ) = 0, i.e., no energy is stored in the inductor at the beginning;
this implies that no voltage is dropping across the resistor at t = 0.
Note that after a long time has passed after the switch is flipped, the capacitor acts as an open
circuit, so no current is flowing. (We mention that since later on you will want to double check to
make sure that i(t) 0 as t .)
In this problem, we will assume2 that VB = 900 volts, C = 3150F (yes, that is big), H = 32H,
Rc = 100, and Rp = 0.6 (yes, that is tiny).
(a) Compute ch = Rc C, the time constant of the charging circuit.
(b) A common rule of thumb is to assume that an RC circuit has effectively reached its final
value within 5 time constants. Compute 5ch . We will consider this the amount of time
it takes to be ready to fire (assuming we start the charging process with a fully discharged
capacitor). Justify our rule of thumb by computing VB [1 exp(5)] and saying ooooh and
aaaaah at how close that is to VB .
(c) Compute CVB2 /2, which is the energy stored in the capacitor at t = 0. (Again, we are
assuming that capacitor is it is fully charged to vc (0) = VB volts.)

In practice, the battery VB would likely be provided by a battery combined with some other circuitry to step
up the raw battery voltage.
2
Parameters adapted from http://www.powerlabs.org/gaussgun.htm

(d) For this part and all the remaining parts, we can ignore the actual battery VB and Rc ; they
were just there to charge up the capacitor. Redraw the rest of the circuit in the Laplace domain, i.e., denote the resistor with an impedance R, the capacitance with impedance 1/(sC),
and the inductor with an impedance sL. The inductor is assumed to have no stored energy at the start of the problem, but the capacitor has an initial condition of v(0 ) = VB .
You can accommodate this initial condition by placing a voltage source with voltage v(0 )/s
in series with the impedance of 1/(sC), or by placing a current source of Cv(0 ) in parallel with an impedance of 1/(sC). Both these configurations are shown, for instance, on
slide 8 of http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~ece2xx/ECE222/Slides/LaplaceCircuits.pdf or
slide 9 of http://www.ee.nthu.edu.tw/~sdyang/Courses/Circuits/Ch13 Std.pdf or the
s-Domain equivalent circuits and impedances section of the wikipedia page on the Laplace
transform: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace transform. You should use the version that models the capacitance with an initial condition as an impedance in series with a
voltage source. (Be extra careful with the direction of current arrows and the labeling of
voltage differences.)
(e) Write the KVL equation for this loop in terms of I(s), the Laplace transform of the current
i(t) flowing through the inductor for t 0. Rearrange your equation so that it has I(s) on
the left and everything else on the right.
(f) Take the inverse Laplace transform of your expression from part (e) to find i(t) for t > 0.
Note that the circuit is over damped, so i(t) is a sum of decaying sinusoids. Express your
answer in the form i(t) = A exp(t)u(t) + B exp(t)u(t) with < ; give specific values
for A, B, , and .
(g) By taking the derivative of the expression for i(t) you found in part (f) and setting it equal
to zero, find the time t(max) at which i(t) achieves its maximum.
(h) Find i(t(max) ), the actual maximum current.
p
(i) The damping factor for this circuit is = (Rp /2) C/L. Given the values of C and L used
above, what value of Rp would result in a critically damped system, i.e., a damping factor
of = 1?
(j) Using Laplace transforms, find i(t) using the value of Rp you found in part (i); lets add the
subscript c for critical. The solution now has the form ic (t) = F et u(t) + Gtet u(t).
Find the specific values of F , G, and .
(k) By taking the derivative of the expression for ic (t) you found in part (j) and setting it equal
(max)
to zero, find the time tc
at which ic (t) achieves its maximum.
(l) Find ic (t(max) ) and compare it with the peak magnitude of the overdamped system you found
in part (h). Considering that we want to quickly send really high currents into the coil, which
would be preferable: overdamped or critically damped?3

In actuality, an underdamped system would do better, but this problem is already too long, so well stop here.

PROBLEM 7.2:
The following circuit network is referred to as a bridged-T configuration:

(a) Beware: boring algebra lies ahead! Use techniques of the circuit analysis in the Laplace
domain to show that the voltage-to-voltage transfer function relating vo (t) to vi (t) in
the above circuit is
Hnotch (s) =

R2 Cb Cg s2 + 2RCb s + 1
Vo (s)
= 2
.
Vi (s)
R Cb Cg s2 + R(2Cb + Cg )s + 1

All of the brute-force ways to approach this problem are painful and tedious. All of the clever
ways to approach this problem are painful and tedious. There is no escaping the pain. There
is no escaping the tedium. Use whatever circuit analysis tricks you know that currently best
fit your brain.
(b) By adjusting R, C1 , and C2 , notch filters of different frequencies and depths can be designed.
Using Matlab or similar software, plot the magnitude of the frequency response,
|Hnotch (j)|, for the following four cases. You may plot the cases on the same graph, or
different graph, however you think is best. (Pick a range of frequencies that you think best
displays the most interesting characteristics of these cases).
R = 50K, Cb = 680pF , Cg = 0.02F .
Increase R, while keeping Cb and Cg the same, relative to the first case.
Relative to the first case, increase Cb and decrease Cg such that their product Cb Cg
remains constant, i.e., multiply Cb by some number and divide Cg by the same number.
Keep R the same.
Relative to the first case, decrease Cb and increase Cg such that their product Cb Cg
remains constant, i.e., divide Cb by some number and multiply Cg by the same number.
Keep R the same.
(c) Looking at your results, comment on how the notch frequency and depth changes
with the resistance R and the ratio Cg /Cb .

(d) Designing a passive peaking filter using the same bridged-T configuration would require the
use of inductors, which tend to be avoided in audio applications because they are bulky,
expensive, and subject to numerous parasitic effects; resistors and capacitors are relatively
well-behaved in comparison. There are numerous active topologies employing op-amps that
could be used to create peaking filters. Here, lets create a peaking filter by using ideas from
class and putting our bridged-T notch filter in the feedback loop of an op amp. The output
of our peaking filter, which is the output of the op amp, is fed to the input of the bridged-T
notched filter and the output of the bridged-T notched filter is fed to the negative input of
the op amp. The input of the peaking filter is fed to the positive input of the op amp. The
schematic would look something like this:

Notice that the vi (t) and vo (t) in the above schematic are different than the vi (t) and vo (t)
in the previous schematic.
Find Hpeak (s), the transfer function of this peaking filter in part assuming that the op amp
is ideal. If you attended Prof. Lantermans class on the application of feedback to circuit
design, this should be almost trivial!
(e) Repeat the process of making the plots in part (b), except this time plot the magnitude
of the frequency response of our peaking filter instead of our notch filter. (We realize that
making these sorts of plots may seem pedantic, but its really one of the best ways to start
developing intuition about filter design.)
(f) (Optional ungraded background information) A bridged-T-in-feedback-loop peaking filter is
used in the Sontec MEP-250 Equalizer. You might enjoy studying this schematic:
http://gyraf.dk/schematics/Sontec MEP250a.GIF
The schematic is rather difficult to follow, so you may not want to study it too much. The
basic idea is that this peaking filter can be embedded in a second, larger feedback loop, and the
user can switch between peaking and notching behaviors by adjusting a potentiometer. The
resistors we called R are dual-ganged potentiometers that let the user vary the frequency.
The capacitors values used in the first case in part (a) were chosen from the Section C
values on this schematic.
George Massenburg Labs makes a high-quality modern version. You dont want to know how
much it costs:
http://www.massenburg.com/products/gml-8200
Heres a youtube clip of Massenburg equalizing a piano with the GML 8200:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kBFqHo2z9Q

PROBLEM 7.3:
A common method for generating a pure sinusoid is to first generate a square wave (which is
relatively easy to do) and then filter it to remove the higher order harmonics. Suppose you need to
generate a 10 kHz sinusoid from a 10 kHz square wave (period of 100 s). The square wave, x(t),
is defined as follows from 50 < t < 50 s:

1
; |t| 25 s
x(t) =
1
; 25 < |t| < 50 s
and further suppose that the magnitude response of the filter is
|H(j)| =

1+

109 (||

1
.
2 10000)2

(a) Make a rough sketch of |H(j)| for 0 w 2 50000 (i.e., 0 f 50 kHz). (We might
suggest computing |H(j) for 210000k for k = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and5 and connecting the dots
with a smooth eyeballed curve.
(b) The total harmonic distortion of the sinusoid is the ratio of the RMS voltage of all of the
higher order harmonics to that of the fundamental. Use the first three non-zero higher
order harmonics and Parsevals theorem for periodic signals to estimate the total harmonic
distortion given the above filter. Hint: the Fourier series coefficients for x(t) are
ak =

2 sin(k/2)
.
k

Since ak = 0 for k even, you will want to use a1 for the fundamental and a3 , a5 , and a7 for
the higher order harmonics.

PROBLEM 7.4:
Use Parsevals Theorem for nonperiodic signals to evaluate the following integral:
Z +
sin2 (4t)
dt.
t2