next up previous contents
Next: Complex Frequencies and the Up: Passive RC Filters Previous: High-Pass Filter

Approximate Differentiator

A high-pass filter acts as an approximate differentiator at low frequencies. Consider

and differentiate to obtain

We define

Again the filter attenuates the signal by 1/(RC).

Example: Write the transfer function for the network in figure 3.4 and from it find:

  1. the corner frequency,

    Treating the circuit like a voltage divider, the transfer function is

    For .

    For large .

    For the corner frequency .

    Therefore

     
    Figure 3.4:  Four-terminal network without resistance.

  2. the value of at the corner frequency.

    At the corner frequency

  3. How many degrees of phase shift are introduced by this network just below and just above the corner frequency?

    Since is always real there is no phase shift.



Doug Gingrich
Tue Jul 13 16:55:15 EDT 1999