EE40, Spring 2015, Pre-Lab 8

More filters and ADC circuits

Logistics
You should submit your prelab assignments on Gradescope before your lab section. This will be
different than the Gradescope page of the course where you submit your homework and you should
already be able to see the page of your lab in addition to the main course in your Gradescope account. If
not, you can email your lab GSI to do that for you.
You will complete the lab assignments during the lab sessions. You should ask your GSI to verify it and
check you off the list at the end of each lab session before you leave.
If you complete your lab at home before beginning of the session, please show up to your lab session
and make sure your GSI verifies that you have completed all the required tasks correctly and checks you
off.
Objectives of Lab 8
For prelab you will be getting familiar with two broad concepts, RLC filters and Analog-to-Digital
Converters (ADC). Below are the tasks you should complete before and during lab 8.

Prelab assignment (to be completed before your lab session)

o Simulations: S.1, S.2, S.3, S.4
o Questions: Q.1, Q.2, Q.3, Q.4
Lab assignment (to be completed during your lab session)
o Build a notch filter with RLC circuit to cancel 60 Hz signals.
o Build a 2-bit ADC circuit with the 2 outputs bits connected to LEDs.

Outline
1. Prelab Assignment
2. Lab guidelines

1. Prelab Assignment
You should complete your prelab assignment and submit it to the Gradescope account of your lab
section before beginning of your lab session.
Your prelab assignment consists of two parts. In the first part you will do a simulation using Multisim
and in the second part you should answer a few intuitive questions about the simulation.
1.1. More on Filters
In this lab we will introduce the application of inductors in filter circuits. The general letter used
to represent the inductors in a circuit schematic is L and, hence, the filters employing
resistors, inductors and capacitors are called RLC filters. As you may recall from Lab 6,
capacitors are components that have a certain behavior depending on the change in voltage
=

. Similarly, inductors have a certain behavior depending on the change in their

current: =

. Please refer to Edge-edx module 4.1 and 5.1 to learn more about capacitors

and inductors. To understand the role of inductors and capacitors in filter circuits we will
consider the dependency of their behavior on frequency. We model the two components as
"frequency dependent resistors", where the resistance of an inductor or capacitor changes with
the frequency of the input (this resistance is also referred to as impedance). Here is a table
comparing the impedance of capacitors and inductors:

Impedance

Resistors
R

Capacitor
1

Inductor

where C is capacitance and L is inductance value. Here j represents the imaginary unit
or 1. Refer to Edge-edx module 4.7 and 5.6 for more information on phasor analysis. It is
recommended to use these impedances to calculate the transfer function of each filter circuit
presented in this prelab to get a better grasp of how they work (but these calculations will not
be graded).

Figure 1: (a) Low-pass filter (b) High-pass filter.

S.1 Please run an AC simulation of both low and high pass filter circuits in Figure 1 and include
in your prelab write-up the resulting plot of the magnitude and phase plot. Your plot should be
from 1Hz to 1MHz in a logarithmic scale and with 20 points per decade. We will care only about
the general shape of the curve.

1.2. RLC Circuits

In the real world there is no such thing as pure LC circuits since energy loss is always present
which has to be modeled with a resistance. So instead, we model these filters as RLC circuits.
RLC circuits are very practical since, besides being capable of doing low-pass and high-pass
filtering, they can also leverage the two frequency dependent elements (L and C) to offer more
complicated filtering behaviors like band-pass filters or notch filters. Notch filters are used to
attenuate a specific frequency while passing all other frequencies (we also refer to this filter as
band-stop filter). We will be simulating a notch filter circuit in this exercise that is tuned to
attenuate an undesired 10 kHz noise signal. In the following exercise we will simulate a signal
with 10 KHz noise and observe how the notch filter cleans it out.
S.2 Please run a Transient analysis from 0 to 0.3s of the circuit shown in Figure 2. In the analysis
include V(V_in) to visualize the 10 Hz signal with the 10 KHz interference. Also, include V(V_out)
in the same graph to see the result of passing the signal with disturbance through a notch filter
tuned at 10 KHz. Also, run an AC analysis from 10 Hz to 10 MHz of the notch filter including
V(V_out) and include the magnitude and phase plot in a second graph. (total of 2 graphs)

Figure 2: Input signal with 10 KHz interference filtered out by notch filter.
1.3. Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC)
In this lab you will also learn the intuition behind converting analog signals to digital codes. The
purpose of digitalizing voltage signals is that it allows us to quantify the voltage signal in the
computer with a numerical value. ADC circuits are the bridge between the analog and digital
world. Digital multimeters or oscilloscopes use ADCs to measure the voltage in your circuits and
display their numerical values on a digital screen or send it to your computer unit. But how can
the output of an ADC represent a numerical value? The answer is using binary representation.
ADCs have multiple output pins each represent one bit. An n-bit ADC can represent 2 voltage
levels. The step size between those voltage levels is given by the input voltage range divided by
2 voltage levels. Therefore, the more bits our ADC has, the higher the resolution of our
voltage reading. We have already seen a simple ADC, that is a comparator circuits (Fig. 3). As a
reminder, the comparator circuit shown below behaves as follows:
= {

>
>

Figure 3: Comparator circuit.

It is essentially a 1 bit ADC circuit with only two voltage levels, so if our input voltage ranges
from 0 to 3.3V, our ADC binary output can only represent 0 (0 V) or 1 (3.3 V). In this exercise we
will simulate a 2-bit ADC, so we will have two output bits and 22 voltage levels. In other words,
our binary output will represent 4 different voltage levels evenly spaced between 0 and 3.3 V.
Here are some tips on how to find the components needed for S.3:
op amps: Place/Component/Group:Analog/OPAMP/LMC6484AIN
74LS32D (OR-gate): Place/Component/Group:<All groups>/74LS/74LS32D
74HC04D (NOT-gate): Place/Component/Group:<All groups>/74HC_4V/74HC04D_4V
Note: When placing the op amp a pop-up box will show row of letters. Each row is a different IC and the
letters A through D as shown in Figure 3 are the 4 op amps within an IC. Once you place op amp A and
power VDD and GND, you won't need to do that for op amp B-D, thus the 'X' sign appears at the power
rails.

S.3 Please run a DC Sweep of the 2-bit ADC. Sweep V1 from 0 to 3.3 V with an increment of
0.01V and select D(Bit0) and V(Bit1) as outputs. Remember to move D(Bit0) from Digital graph
to Analog graph. Include the resulting plot in your prelab write-up.

Figure 4: two-bit ADC circuit.

S.4 (Bonus) Please make a 3-bit ADC circuit and run a DC sweep analysis like in S.3. Include a
plot of the output of all 3 bits. (Hint: You may use ICs like 74F148D that will convert the 2
outputs into n-bit outputs instead of figuring out how to connect the logic gates).
1.4. Questions
In this part you will answer a few questions about the simulation that you did in the previous
part, hence, it is important for you to finish all the simulations before starting with the
questions.
Q.1: If we have an RLC circuit as shown in the figure below. Provide the expression of the total
impedance of the circuit in terms of R, L, C, and ? If we define 0 = 1() (resonance
frequency) then what is the total impedance of the circuit at this particular frequency? (Your
answer to this part should be as simplified as possible)

Q.2: The power plants transmit electricity to the wall outlets at 60 Hz. This strong 60 Hz signal is
a common source of interference in most of our electronic circuits. We want to build a notch
filter like the one in S.2 with its resonance frequency 1() / centered at 60Hz
(2 60 /) to eliminate this interference from our circuit. If we can only use a 1 mH
inductor, what would be the value of our capacitor? Check out some capacitors of this value
online and decide if this is a reasonable size capacitor to use on our breadboard circuit. Report
the physical size of a typical capacitor with this value.
Q.3:

a) In the circuit from simulation (S.3), calculate the voltage value of the nodes in
between all the 1k resistors connected in series (i.e. R1, R2, R3 ad R4). What is the
purpose of this resistor ladder?
b) If 1k the resistors in series were connected to 3.3V as shown in Figure 4, and our
input voltage range was increased from 3.3V to 9V what would be the problem?

Q.4:

a) How many op amps did you use for a 3-bit ADC?

b) Name 4 applications where you would need an ADC circuit.