Document No: FO/EM/07 REV No:/Date 00/00

Course Title : EE Lab 02

Course code : EE 1204
Module Number: EE 1204/07

DATE :…………………………………………………

TITLE : Higher order filters.

OBJECTIVES :
Familiarization with Butterworth filter.

APPARATUS:
A DC Power supply.
Signal Generator.
A Dual Channel Oscilloscope
A Digital Multimeter.

COMPONENTS:
A BC 109 Transistor
Resistors (1 kΩ ×2, 100 kΩ × 2, 100 Ω ×1)
OP amp uA741
Capacitors (0.1 µF × 2)

BACKGROUND:

Here are mainly three considerations in designing a filter circuit they are

 The response of the pass band must be maximum flatness.

 There must be a slow transition from pass band to the stop band.

 The ability of the filter to pass signals without any distortions within the pass band.

These distortions are generally caused by the phase shifts of the waveforms. In addition to these three the
rising and falling time parameters also play an important role. By taking these considerations for each
consideration one type of filter is designed. For maximum flat response the Butterworth filter is designed. For
slow transition from pass band to stop band the Chebyshev filter is designed and for maximum flat time
delay Bessel filter is designed.

At the expense of steepness in transition medium from pass band to stop band this Butterworth filter will
provide a flat response in the output signal. So, it is also referred as a maximally flat magnitude filter. The rate
of falloff response of the filter is determined by the number of poles taken in the circuit. The pole number

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will depend on the number of the reactive elements in the circuit that is the number of inductors or
capacitors used in the circuits.

The amplitude response of nth order Butterworth filter is given as follows

Vout / Vin = 1 / √{1 + (f / fc)2n}

Where ‘n’ is the number of poles in the circuit. As the value of the ‘n’ increases the flatness of the filter
response also increases.

‘f’ = operating frequency of the circuit and ‘fc‘ = centre frequency or cut off frequency of the circuit.

These filters have pre-determined considerations whose applications are mainly at active RC circuits at higher
frequencies. Even though it does not provide the sharp cut-off response it is often considered as the all-
round filter which is used in many applications.

Ideal Frequency Response of the Butterworth Filter

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Higher-order filters, such as third, fourth, fifth, and so on, are built simply by using the first and second-
order filters.

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 Table: Butterworth polynomials in coefficients form

PROCEDURE: Design a 1st order and 3rd order Butterworth low pass filter with cut off
frequency of 1.61Khz

1. Design the circuit

2. Apply the Butterworth polynomials to gain the required elements
1
Co=
2 π X a 0 X R X fc

1
C 1=
π X a 1 X R X fc

1
C 2=
4 π X a 2 X R X fc

1
C 3=
π X a 3 X R X fc

1
C 4=
4 π X a 4 X R X fc
3. Tabulate the output voltages and plot the frequency response for 1 st order and 3rd order filter

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