ECEN 3021 Experimental Methods-II

Design Problem:
You are a staff engineer in the Filter Design Division of MegaMoron Communications, Inc., the world's premier communications design company. You have been assigned to assist a company Research and Development (R&D) program that has been underway for the past two years. Background: It is a well-known fact that most commercial and government organizations require senior managers to undergo a full frontal lobotomy. With the recent development of an electronic mental telepathy integrated circuit by MegaMoron R&D, an IC that requires implantation into the brain, in early 2003 the marketing department identified a possible product niche and convinced management to proceed. Qualified surgeons would be approached about inserting this Brain Utility Logical Link integrated circuit (a.k.a. BULL chip) into brains undergoing a full frontal lobotomy. Initial test subjects have complained about a high frequency hiss when using their newly implanted BULL chips. Investigation has revealed that the 10-15 KHz mental telepathy band has excessive noise compared with the 0-10 KHz region. Staff engineers have decided that if the telepathy signal to be transmitted is boosted (pre-emphasized) in the 10-15 KHz region, and the same region is attenuated (de-emphasized) at the receiver, the signal energy in that region will be unchanged and the additive noise will be reduced to a tolerable level. Figure 1 shows a block diagram of the current situation. A block diagram of the proposed solution is shown in Figure 2. You have been tasked to design the pre-emphasis filter.
Telepathy Signal (f)

+
f (KHz)

Received Signal (f)

f (Khz) Noise (f) .03 10 15 20

.03

15

Figure 1) Current Situation

10 20 f (KHz)

You have approximately two weeks to complete the project. Attend your normal lab sections to work on the design. When your filter is complete, have the lab instructor test the performance. Your final report is due within two working days of your lab section's scheduled "Project Demo" posted on the ECEN3021 web site.

Electrical & Computer Engineering Oklahoma State University

ECEN 3021 Experimental Methods-II

Pre-emphasis Filter (f) 3 1 f (KHz) 0 10 15

De-emphasis Filter (f) 1 1/3 15 f (KHz)

.03 Noise (f)

10

Telepathy Signal (f)

Filtered Output (f) f (KHz)

Figure 2) Proposed Solution

f (Khz)

10

20

f (KHz) .03 15

.03

15

Project Requirements
You should design your circuit before coming to lab, and verify it in PSpice or Matlab (it is not necessary to do both). Circuit design (including a complete circuit diagram) and verification must be presented to the TA before beginning the testing of the circuit in the laboratory. Be prepared to explain your design process and the circuit to the TA. The circuit will be tested by measuring the attenuation at various frequencies. Your pre-emphasis filter will be judged by how it matches the ideal gain values of Figure 2 at the frequencies of 70, 1000, 5000, and 9000 Hz (target value is a gain of 1), 11,000, 12,500, and 14,000 Hz (target value is a gain of 3), and 16,000 and 18,000 Hz (target is a gain of 0). The quality of your filter will be judged with the following performance measure: Error Magnitude = | Measured Gain Target Gain |. The summation will be taken at the nine frequencies noted above. The smaller the value of the Error Magnitude, the better the circuit.

Rules of Engagement:
Work with your regular lab partner. Treat your project as if it were proprietary corporate information, i.e. do not disseminate your design in any manner to the competition. Doing so, and getting caught, will get anyone "fired" (i.e. an F for the course). Make your final report short and sweet. The project report should contain Matlab or Pspice results that verify the filter operation, a paragraph or two explaining how the filter works, and a brief description as to how you designed it. A long running commentary of your derivation is not necessary. Experimental results should also be described. Include graphs of the experimental frequency response, and provide the value of the Error Magnitude that your filter achieved. Explain any discrepancies between experimental results and the pre-lab. Provide suggestions for improving your filter.

Electrical & Computer Engineering Oklahoma State University

ECEN 3021 Experimental Methods-II The designer(s) of the best design in all the 3021 sections will receive 15 extra credit points and a door prize. The 2nd best designer(s) will receive 12.5 points, and the 3rd best designer(s) will receive 10 points. All remaining designs with an Error Magnitude less than the class average will receive 5 points extra credit.

Reference material:
Electric Circuits, Nilsson and Reidel, Chapters 14-15. Application notes available on the Internet from semiconductor manufacturers such as TI.

Electrical & Computer Engineering Oklahoma State University