1

Experiment I
Signals, Spectrum, and Systems
Kamran Kiasaleh
CONTENTS
I Introduction 2
II Required material 2
III Pre-Lab 2
IV Procedure 3
V Theory and Practice 4
V-A Signals and Spectrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
V-A1 Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
V-A2 Practical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
V-B Bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
V-B1 3-dB bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
V-B2 90% bandwidth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
V-C Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
V-C1 Maximally Flat (MF) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
V-C2 Equal Ripple (ER) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
V-C3 Linear Phase (LP) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
V-C4 Filter Realization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
VI References 18
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2
I. INTRODUCTION
This experiment is designed to enhance the understanding of signals and systems through
a number of experimental procedures. The material presented here are complementary to the
material presented in EE3302 and reviewed in EE3350, and hence students are encouraged to
review the lectures on Signals and Systems material before attempting to conduct this experiment.
A theory and practice section is added to help students familiarize themselves with the material.
Familiarity with matlab will be helpful, but not necessary. However, a knowledge of programming
is of importance to the understanding of some key concepts. LabView will be used in this
experiment. It is necessary for students to familiarize themselves with the LabView setup in the
lab.
II. REQUIRED MATERIAL
In this experiment, the concept of systems will be studied through the design and testing of
lters.
1) Resistors, capacitors and inductors (the values for these components are design values,
which are obtained in the pre-lab section)
2) LabView, Function Generator, Oscilloscope, and breadboard.
III. PRE-LAB
Obtain the spectrum of a sinusoid with an amplitude of 1 volt peak-to-peak (Vpp), frequency
of 10 kHz, and a phase of 0.1 rad. First, nd the exact spectrum using the Fourier Transform,
and then compute the spectrum using DFT. Assume that the signal is sampled at 4 times
the Nyquist rate. You can use matlab or any other programming language to compute DFT.
Plot both spectra. Use dBv to represent spectra.
Repeat the previous step when the sinusoid is replaced with a square wave with peak-to-
peak amplitude of 2 volts, zero dc level, and a period of T
0
= 1 msec. In order to determine
the Nyquist frequency, assume that the spectrum of a square wave is negligible for f > 3f
0
where f
0
=
1
T
0
is the fundamental frequency of the square wave.
Design a maximally-at, low-pass lter with the cut-off frequency of 10 kHz and an
attenuation of 20 dB at 20 kHz. Use amplitude scaling so that the lter is terminated onto
DRAFT January 31, 2013
3
a 50 resistance. Use PSpice (free student version is available online) to simulate/validate
the response of your circuit.
Comment on how the spectrum of the the two signals which you have studied above will be
impacted by this lter (draw a picture of the spectra of the ltered signals) if these signals
are ltered by your circuit. Comment on phase as well as amplitude responses.
IV. PROCEDURE
1) Turn on your computer, the function generator (FG), and the oscilloscope (OSC). Connect
the FG to OSC ch1. Start LabView TIMEFREQ vi function (this function resides in the
LabView folder) and select your OSC from the pull-down menu. Make sure that in the
LabView window you can see the ID numbers of the OSC.
2) Set the frequency span to 30 kHz in the LabView window. Turn on your FG. Press sin
button and set frequency at 10 kHz and amplitude at 1 Vpp. Make sure that output enable
button is pressed for the FG. Set the dc off-set to 0.
3) Observe the spectrum of the signal. Once satised with your observation, ask your TA to
validate your result. Since your lab grade is determined using your observed results, it is
important that you have your TA record your observations. Present your theoretical results
that you have obtained for this signal in the pre-lab along with your observed results to the
TA. Comment on similarities and differences between the two observations. Be prepared
to answer questions regarding your observation.
4) Change FG settings to generate a square wave with a period of 1 msec, Vpp value of 2
volts, and zero off-set (dc=0). Set an appropriate frequency span in the LabView window
to observe up to (and including) the 5th harmonic of the square wave. Repeat step 3.
5) Build the low-pass lter described in the Pre-Lab section. Measure the frequency response
of your lter by applying a sinusoid in the range [0, 10f
c
]. Use TIMEFREQ function to
measure the amplitude of the response of the lter and compare that to the amplitude of
the input by nding the ratio of the output amplitude to that if the input. Choose enough
steps so that you get a clear picture of the response of the lter. Repeat step 3.
6) Apply the signals in steps 2 and 4 to the lter and observe the outputs. Since the lter
is designed to expect 50 resistance at its input and output, loading should not occur.
Repeat 3.
January 31, 2013 DRAFT
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V. THEORY AND PRACTICE
A. Signals and Spectrum
1) Theory: Without the loss of generality, we concentrate on power signals, where power of
the signal is nite. That is, for a signal x(t) the power, given by
P = lim
T
1
T
_ T
2

T
2
|x(t)|
2
dt, (1)
is nite. Note that such signals possess innite energy. Power signals, in general, do not have
to be periodic, although periodic signals (almost always) have nite power levels. For instance,
random signals do not exhibit any periodic behavior and yet have, for the most part, nite power.
One can also dene the energy signals as signals where
E = lim
T
_ T
2

T
2
|x(t)|
2
dt (2)
(the energy of the signal) is nite. By denition of power, then the energy signals have zero
power. For most communication systems, we focus on transmitted power, and hence power
signals are of particular importance. For this reason, in this experiment, we exclusively deal
with power signals. In theory, you have learned that spectrum of a signal x(t) (or its Fourier
Transform) is given by
X (f) = FT {x(t)}
=
_

x(t) e
j2ft
dt (3)
where f denotes frequency in Hz. In practice, there is a fundamental issue with this representa-
tion; that is, we require ALL values of the signal (from to ). For most cases, this luxury
is not afforded to us, and furthermore, the computation of the integral given an x(t) in practice
will require innite delay. Hence, one has to devise a practical means of estimating the spectrum
of an observed signal using nite values of the signal.
a) dBv: In order to have a common means of representing signals and the fact that most
signals in this lab are voltages, we use decibel (dB) scale. In particular, we use dB voltage (dBv)
that is given by
20 log
10
V rms
DRAFT January 31, 2013
5
where V
rms
(root-mean-square) is given by
V
rms
=

_
lim
T
1
T
_ T
2

T
2
|V (t)|
2
dt
Note that we have used 20 and not 10 log of the enclosed as dB scale is used to deal with power
(square of voltage) and not voltage. This metric may also be used when the measured value is
the spectrum of the signal.
2) Practical Considerations: In a practical scenario, we only have access to the values of the
signal over an interval of time of length T sec. Furthermore, in modern systems, we sample the
analog signal to form its digital counterpart. Let the sampling rate be f
s
=
1
Ts
Hz. From the
Nyquist rate, we understand that
f
s
2f
max
(4)
where f
max
is the signicant bandwidth of the signal. At this time, we do not have a clear idea
as how to nd f
max
from the description of the signal. We will tackle this problem shortly.
Given the above formulation, we have access to following samples of the signal:
x[N] , x[N + 1] ..., x[0] , ..., x[N 1] , x[N]
where N =
T
2Ts
.
The question is whether we can get an approximate estimate of the spectrum of x(t) using
the sampled values. Note that we have an understanding on how to select T
s
, but the selection
of T (or N) is somehow left to us. A cursory observation suggests that one has to select a large
N in order to obtain a desirable accuracy. We will verify this observation next. Now, taking the
discrete FT (DFT) of the samples (this is done in matlab using the FFT function),
X [m] =
N

n=N
x[n] e
j
2nm
2N+1
; m = N, 1, ..., N (5)
The question that remains is to determine the relationship between X [m] and X (f). We can
show that
FT
_
x (t)
N

n=N
(t nT
s
)
_
|
f=
m
T
=
N

n=N
x[n] FT { (t nT
s
)}
=
N

n=N
x [n] e
j2fnT
s
|
f=
m
T
=
N

n=N
x[n] e
j
2nm
2N+1
= X [m] (6)
January 31, 2013 DRAFT
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Hence, X [m] seems to be the value of the FT of the delta-sampled analog signal at f =
m
T
.This
was a long, but very instructive step. Note that since we have access to X [m] ; m = N, N +
1, .., N, we have access to the spectrum at step frequencies of
1
T
Hz. Hence, the total length
of the observation sets the minimum frequency spacing (resolution). For an application where a
given frequency resolution is desired, one can determine the value of T by setting the desired
resolution to
1
T
. This answers the second question (that is, how do I choose T?). Finally, using
convolution in frequency, and assuming that N is fairly large,
X [m] FT
_
x(t)

n=
(t nT
s
)
_
|
f=
m
T
=
1
T
s
X (f) c

n=

_
f
n
T
s
_
|
f=
m
T
=
1
T
s

n=
X
_
f
n
T
s
_
|
f=
m
T
(7)
where c denotes convolution. Realizing that X (f) = 0 for |f| >
1
2Ts
= f
max
X [m] =
1
T
s
X
_
m
T
_
=
1
T
s
X
_
m
f
max
N
_
; m = N, ..., N (8)
Hence, X [m] is a scaled version (scaled by
1
Ts
) of the spectrum of x(t) at m
fmax
N
. In other
words, if one slices the spectrum of x(t), which is dened over [f
max
, f
max
] , into 2N + 1
samples, then X [m] denotes the mth sample of the spectrum. Once again, the frequency spacing
is
fmax
N
.
B. Bandwidth
In the above analysis, we require a knowledge of f
max
(or bandwidth) by observing the
spectrum of the signal. Given the FT of a signal, there are a number of ways to dene f
max
.
Note that f
max
is the one-sided bandwidth of a baseband (low pass) signal. For the case of
bandpass signals, the same argument can be used to dene bandwidth when the bandpass signal
is converted into its baseband version.
1) 3-dB bandwidth: In this denition, f
max
= f
3dB
is a frequency that satises
10 log
10

X (f
3dB
)
X (f
ref
)

2
= 3 (9)
This denition makes the assumption that the spectrum is centered at f
ref
(a reference point in
the spectrum). Typically, f
ref
= 0. That is, X (f) is assumed to be the spectrum of a baseband
DRAFT January 31, 2013
7
signal. This denition is not used in communication systems frequently. Instead, other metrics
may be dened. For instance, one can dene bandwidth as a frequency that satises the following:
10 log
10

X (f
max
)
X (f
ref
)

2
= (10)
where > 3 (in dB) is dened by user.
2) 90% bandwidth: It is common to dene the 90% bandwidth f
90%
as follows:
_
f
90%
f
ref
|X (f)|
2
df
_

f
ref
|X (f)|
2
df
= 0.9 (11)
Once again, for the baseband signal f
ref
= 0, while for bandpass signals, which are double-
sideband, the bandwidth is dened as 2f
max
(2f
3dB
or 2f
90%
). The bandwidth remains as f
max
for the single-sideband case. We caution the reader that 2f
max
is not the maximum bandwidth
of a bandpass signal from the sampling point of view. In fact, if the bandpass signal is dened
as a modulated signal about f
c
(carrier frequency), then the maximum frequency of the signal
for the purpose of sampling is f
c
+ f
max
(f
max
is the maximum frequency of the baseband
version). In practice
1
, however, a bandpass signal is not directly sampled. Instead, the signal is
rst down-converted to its baseband equivalent (direct conversion receivers) before sampling. In
that event, the above denitions can be used to dene bandwidth.
C. Systems
Filters will be used in this experiment to study linear systems. In this experiment, we focus on
the design of lters using passive components only. Such lters can be realized for frequencies
ranging from baseband to RF/Microwave bands. In general, there are two forms of lter response;
maximally at and equal ripple.
1) Maximally Flat (MF): An nth order low-pass lter is considered to have a maximally at
response if its system function satises the following relationship:

H (f)
H (0)

2
=
1
1 +k
2
_
f
f
c
_
2n
(12a)
1
Although it is a common practice to down covert a bandpass signal to its baseband version, some modern receivers use
bandpass sampling techniques whereby the bandpass signal is sampled directly.
January 31, 2013 DRAFT
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-140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
10
20
30
40
Frequency (Hz)
Power Loss in dB
n=8
n=4
n=3
Fig. 1. Maximally Flat lter responses (-10 log
10

H(f)
H(f)

2
) for different values of n with a
cut-off frequency of 100 Hz.
Note that the response of this lter meets its cut-off point (i.e.,

H(fc)
H(0)

2
=
1
1+k
2
) at f
c
regardless
of the value of n.Also, if one selects k = 1, the cut-off point coincides with the 3 dB point.
This lter provides a at response in the pass-band (see Fig. 1). Therefore, the design reduces
to choosing a value for n so that a given level of out of band rejection can be accommodated.
2) Equal Ripple (ER): For this lter, the response of the lter suffers distortion in the pass-
band in the form of ripples, while the out of band response decays at a rate higher than that of
the MF lter. For this lter, the response is given by

H (f)
H (0)

2
=
1
1 +k
2
T
2
n
_
f
f
c
_ (13)
where
T
2
n
(x) =
_
_
_
cos (ncos
1
(x)) |x| 1
cosh
_
ncosh
1
(x)
_
|x| > 1
The ripple in this case is denes as (T
2
n
(x) 1)
ripple=10 log
10
_
1 +k
2
_
In this case, the lter response uctuates between 1 and
1
1+k
2
. Unlike MF lter, one has to choose
a small k to prevent non-negligible distortion in the pass-band. Typically, k is dened by the
DRAFT January 31, 2013
9
maximum tolerable ripple in the pass-band. The response of this lter is depicted in Fig. 2.
-140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
10
20
30
Frequency (Hz)
Powe rLoss in dB
n=8
n=4
n=3
Fig. 2. Equal Ripple lter responses (-10 log
10

H(f)
H(f)

2
) for different values of n with a cut-off
frequency of 100 Hz with k
1
= 1 (3 dB ripple).
Note that ER lter provides a signicantly large rate of decay outside the pass-band as compared
to the MF lter at a cost of distortion in the pass-band.
3) Linear Phase (LP): Linear phase lters are required to have an amplitude response that
remains constant over the passband while the phase of the response, i.e., H (f), is supposed
to be kf with k denoting a design constant.
4) Filter Realization:
a) Low-pass lter (LPF): So far, we have discussed LPFs with a cut-off frequency of 1
Hz.In practice, we are required to design lters with an f
c
other than 1. In Fig. 5 depicts a
prototype structure, consisting of capacitors, inductors, and resistors, which can realize any of
the responses discussed above (we refer to this as prototype). The values of the elements can
be determined using Tables 1-3 (see Refs. [1] and [2]). However, note that the table is designed
for 2f
c
= 1 (this must be taken into account when frequency scaling is performed). The main
advantage of this implementation is that it allows one to design lters up to RF/Microwave
frequencies (GHz range).
b) Frequency scaling: If the desired low-pass lter cut-off frequency is f
c
Hz, then the
values of the frequency scaling is k
f
= 2f
c
. Then, the elements are changed according to the
January 31, 2013 DRAFT
10
Fig. 1. Table 1. The protoype lter values for 2fc = 1 for maximally-at lter.
Fig. 2. Table 2 (a). The protoype lter element values for 2f
c
= 1 for equal-ripple (0.5 dB) lter.
DRAFT January 31, 2013
11
Fig. 3. Table 2 (b). The protoype lter element values for 2fc = 1 for equal-ripple (3 dB) lter.
Fig. 4. Table 3. The protoype lter element values for 2fc = 1 for maximally-at time-delay (linear phase) lter.
January 31, 2013 DRAFT
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Fig. 5. A LPF prototype with 2fc = 1.
following:
C
C
k
f
(14)
L
L
k
f
(15)
c) Magnitude Scaling: Further scalings can be performed to adjust the values of the
components without changing the lter response. If a scaling of k
a
is applied, all components
must be scaled according to the following:
C
C
k
f
k
a
(16)
L
k
a
L
k
f
(17)
R k
a
R (18)
Since the lter prototype expects a source with 1 impedance, and majority of sources present
a 50 impedance, an amplitude scaling of k
a
= 50. To avoid the impact of loading, we may
use voltage-followers (single op-amps). It is important to note that the amplitude scaling must
DRAFT January 31, 2013
13
be applied at the last stage of the design and that the amplitude scaling process remains the
same for all types of lter design.
Example 1:
Design a low-pass, maximally at lter with a cut-off frequency of 1 MHz. Assume that the
cut-off point is at 3 dB. The lter must provide a minimum power attenuation of 20 dB at 2
MHz.
Solution:
3 dB cut-off k
2
= 1. We now have to nd a value for n such that
10log
10
1
1 + (2/1)
2n
20 n = 4
will insure the proper attenuation.Using Table 1, we have the following value for
g
1
= 0.7654, g
2
= 1.8478,
g
3
= 1.8478, g
4
= 0.7654, g
5
= 1.
Since the prototype lter is design for
c
= 1 rad/sec, one requires k
f
= 2(10
6
). Also, since
we desire to terminate the circuit to a 50 , we choose k
a
= 50. The resulting values are
R
0
= 50 , C
1
=
0.7654
210
6
50
= 2.43 nF,
L
2
=
1.8478
210
6
50 = 14.70 H, C
3
=
1.8478
210
6
50
= 5 .88 nF,
L
4
=
0.7654
210
6
50 = 6 H, and R
5
= 50 .
This circuits is shown in Fig. 6. Note that, in this design, the circuit expects a 50 source
and terminates into a 50 load, which will result in no loading effect if the preceding as well
as following sections expect 50 loads. The response of this lter is simulated using PSpice
and shown in Fig. 7, which meets the spec. The voltage depicted is -20 log
10
(V
out
). We use a
factor of 20 since we deal with voltage levels and not power levels in PSpice.
January 31, 2013 DRAFT
14
Fig. 6. A MF-LPF with a cut-off (3 dB) frequency of 1 MHz and 20 dB of attenuation at 2 MHz.
d) High-pass lter (HPF): In the case of high-pass lter design, a low-pass lter with 2f
c
of 1 is designed (see above example). Then, the inductors and capacitors are modies as follows:
L C

=
L
k
f
C L

=
1
Ck
f
That is, an inductor with inductance L is replace by a capacitor with the capacitance
L
k
f
while a
capacitor with capacitance C is replaced with an inductor with inductance
1
Ck
f
. Note that L and
C are values before frequency scaling. Following this step, one can use k
a
(amplitude scaling)
to get more desirable values.
e) Band-Pass Filter (BPF) and Band-Stop Filters (BSF): A slightly different approach is
used in these cases. For this case, the prototype circuit, which is designed to meet certain out of
band rejection level, is mapped directly. For a band-pass lter, one has to dene the following: f
0
,
f
1
, and f
2
(see gure on page 16). Note that f
1
= 80 Hz and f
2
= 120 Hz are the cut-off points
(in this case 3 dB) about the center frequency f
0
. In general, the response of a maximally-at
DRAFT January 31, 2013
15
Fig. 7. Response of the LPF with cut-off frequency of 1 MHz and 20 dB of attenuation at 2 MHz.
band-pass lter (MF-BPF) can be expressed as

H (f)
H (0)

2
=
1
1 +k
2
_
2

|f|f
0
(f
2
f
1
)

_
2n
(19a)
where f
0
, f
1
, and f
2
were dened above. Note that, in this case, f
c
=
f
2
f
1
2
is the cut-off
frequency for the equivalent low-pass lter.
January 31, 2013 DRAFT
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-140 -120 -100 -80 -60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
10
20
30
40
Frequency (Hz)
Power Loss in dB
n=4
n=3
n=2
Maximally Flat band-pass lter responses (-10 log
10

H(f)
H(f)

2
) for different values of n with
f
0
= 100 Hz, f
1
= 80, and f
2
= 120 Hz.
Let us dene
=
f
2
f
1
f
0
(20)
may be viewed as the % bandwidth of the lter. Now, once an equivalent low-pass prototype
is designed, we perform the following mappings on all inductor and capacitors (note that each
component is mapped onto either a series or a parallel combination of two components):
L inductor L

=
L
2f
0

in series with capacitor C

=

2f
0
L
(21)
C inductor L

=

2f
0
C
in parallel with capacitor C

=
C
2f
0

(22)
Magnitude scaling may then be applied to get to the 50 input/output impedances. For band-
stop lter (where the response is the inverse of the band-pass response), we need to perform the
following transformation:
L inductor L

=
L
2f
0
in parallel with capacitor C

=
1
2f
0
L
(23)
C inductor L

=
1
2f
0
C
in series with capacitor C

=
C
2f
0
(24)
DRAFT January 31, 2013
17
For the equal-ripple band-pass lter (BER-BPF) case,

H (f)
H (0)

2
=
1
1 +k
2
T
2
n
_
2

|f|f
0
(f
2
f
1
)

_ (25a)
A similar procedure can be used to design the ER-BPF as well. Note that we need to rst identify
f
c
for the equivalent LPF in order to determine n. Once n is found and the prototype lter is
obtained, the above transformations can be used to nd the nal circuit. In the ensuing example,
we design an ER-BPF using the above procedure.
Example 2:
Design an ER-BPF with maximum ripple of 0.5 dB with a center frequency of 1 GHz and
10% bandwidth ( = 0.1). Assume that the lter provides an attenuation of 30 dB at |f f
0
| =
3(f
0
f
1
) = 3 (f
2
f
0
).
Solution
The above implies that f
1
and f
2
are located symmetrically about f
0
. Also, = 0.1. In this
case,
f
c
=
f
2
f
1
2
=
f
0
2
= 50 MHz
for the low-pass equivalent lter. The requirement of
|f f
0
| = 3(f
0
f
1
) = 3 (f
2
f
0
)
is identical to having an equivalent low-pass lter with a power attenuation of at least 30 dB
at f = 3f
c
(three times the cut-off frequency). Also, a ripple of 0.5 dB leads to k
2
= 10
0.05

1 =0.122. Realizing that

10 log
10
1
1 + 0.122 cosh
2
_
ncosh
1
(3)
_ = 30.7 dB ( 30)
for n = 3 (you can use trial-and-error to get this number as the value of n is an integer, which
is limited to a small range of [2, 8] for most practical problems), we can now implement the
low-pass lter as a 3rd order lter. This implies that for the low-pass prototype (see Table 2)
circuit we have two resistors (g
0
= g
4
= 1), two capacitors (g
1
= 1.596 and g
3
= 1.5963), and
one inductor (g
2
= 1.0967). Performing the transformations stated above, we get the following
components:
L

1
= 0.498 nH in parallel with C

1
= 50.8 pF,
L

2
= 87.27 nH in series with C

2
= 0.29 pF,
January 31, 2013 DRAFT
18
Fig. 8. A ER-BPF with the center frequency of 1 GHz, 10% bandwidth, 0.5 dB of passband ripple, and an attenuation of 30
dB at 3 times the cut-off frequency.
L

3
= 0.498 nH in series with C

3
= 50.8 pF.
This circuit along with its response are shown in Figs. 8 and 9. Note that the lter power
attenuation (-20 log
10
_
Vout
max(V
out
)
_
) meets the design specication. That is, the power attenuation
increases to 3 dB at (1 +

2
)f
0
=1.05 GHz, i.e., cut-off point, and exceeds 30 dB at 3f
c
point
(that is f = f
0
+ 3f
c
= 1.15 GHz).
VI. REFERENCES
1) David Posar, Microwave Engineering, 3rd ed. , John Wiley and Sons, 2005 (chapter 8).
2) G. L. Matthaie, L. Young, and E. M. T. Jones, Microwave Filters, Impedance-Matching
Networks, and Coupling Structures (Dehham, Massd: Artech House, 1980).
DRAFT January 31, 2013
19
Fig. 9. The response of an ER-BPF with the center frequency of 1 GHz, 10% bandwidth, 0.5 dB of passband ripple, and an
attenuation of 30 dB at 3 times the cut-off frequency.
January 31, 2013 DRAFT