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002x Circuits and Electronics

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LAB 2

A circuit that combines two or more signals is called a mixer. In this lab, your goal is to build a mixer that combines the
signals generated by two voltage sources, V1 and V2, where:

V1 is a 1 kHz square wave that varies between 0V and +1V, and

V2 is a 5 kHz sine wave that varies between -1V and +1V.

Please design a circuit that mixes V1 and V2 to produce Vout such that

1 1
Vout ≈ V1 + V2 .
2 6

The resulting output should be similar to that shown in Figure 1. The maximum value of the output is approximately
667mV and the minimum value is approximately −167mV .

Figure 1. Desired output waveform

Hint: Figure 2 shows a simple resistive mixer for combining two signals.
 Figure 2. Simple resistive mixer

Enter your circuit below, using the appropriate configuration of resistors. Please do not modify the wiring or
parameters of the voltage sources -- your goal is to take the signals they generate and combine them, not to change
what is generated. Run a 5ms transient analysis to verify the correct operation of your circuit. We will be checking for
the transient waveform at the "output" node.

DC TRAN

When you're done or if you wish to save your work, please click CHECK. The checker will be verifying the voltage of the
output node at several different times, so you'll earn a checkmark only after you've performed the transient simulation
so that the checker will have a waveform to check!

EXPLANATION:

1 1
out = ⋅ 1 + ⋅ 2
The goal is to design a mixer circuit with characteristics of Vout You might have started to
1 1
= ⋅ V1 + ⋅ V2
2 6

design your mixer with two resistors only as the example suggests. But working through the math, soon you'll
realize that the equations return no non-zero value for the resistor components. Thus you have to change the
design. The next simplest design will be to add a resistor R3 that connects the node Vout to ground. See the
schematic below:

Since we are going to use only linear elements in this circuit (resistors are linear), superposition will hold and thus
one can look at the effect of each source V1 and V2 one at the time:

(R2 ∥ R3 )
Vout1 = V1 ⋅
(R2 ∥ R3 + R1 )

(R1 ∥ R3 )
Vout2 = V2 ⋅
(R1 ∥ R3 + R2 )

Vout = V out1 + Vout2

(R2 ∥ R3 ) (R1 ∥ R3 ) 1 1
Vout = V1 ⋅ + V2 ⋅ = ⋅ V1 + ⋅ V2
(R2 ∥ R3 + R1 ) (R1 ∥ R3 + R2 ) 2 6

Therefore:

(R2 ∥ R3 ) 1
=
(R2 ∥ R3 + R1 ) 2

(R1 ∥ R3 ) 1
=
(R1 ∥ R3 + R2 ) 6

So we have to solve for the resistors given these two equations. You might notice that we have 2 equations and 3
unknowns, and that there is therefore not a unique solution. That is okay, though. We only have to worry if there is
no solution, not if there are too many solutions. We will simply find one of the many possible correct answers by
arbitrarily choosing a value for one of the variables later.

The first equation simplifies to R1 = R2 ∥ R3 and the second simplifies to R2 = 5 ⋅ R1 ∥ R3 Expanding the
notation gives:

1 1 1
 1 1 1
= + (*)
R1 R2 R3

1 1 5
+ =
R1 R3 R2

Subtracting these two equations will yield R2 = 2 ⋅ R3 And putting this back to the starred equation , will result in
So now we have R2 and R1 in terms of R3 with the following ratios:
2
R1 = ⋅ R3
3

R2 = 2 ⋅ R3

= R1 =
2

3
⋅ R3

Since the design hadn't mentioned anything about the resistances, one can use a simple value of R3 = 3Ω and
find the rest accordingly:

R1 = 2Ω

R2 = 6Ω

R3 = 3Ω

With these resistor values, doing a transient analysis shows a result which meets the required specs of Vout .

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