Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 1

REV 01 ; March 2, 2005.

Physics 15b, Lab 6: The Op-amp: applying it to build a radio

Due Friday, April 15, 2005 (this is a two-week lab).
Note that you may have to come in to help lab, for at least the second week of this two-week lab: you will need
access to an antenna, which we provide in the lab. You will also need a second op amp (LF356) for the first lab. We
will try to provide that at lecture, but if you miss it there, you’ll need to get one at help lab.
Help labs as usual, in both weeks.
Attachment: LF156/356 Data Sheet

1 Purpose

1. To introduce you to the operational amplifier (op-amp), used as a voltage amplifier, and then as a current
amplifier.

2. To apply an op amp, along with passive components (inductor, diode, capacitors, resistors) to make an AM
radio.

2 Background

Voltage Amplifiers, Current Amplifiers

Voltage amp

A voltage amplifier is designed so that the voltage out of the device, Vout , is equal to the product of the voltage in,
Vin , times some gain factor. This allows you to convert a weak, barely measurable signal to a strong, easily measured
signal.

Current amp

A current amplifier presents an idea that is probably less congenial to you: we are accustomed to signals that are
voltages rather than currents 2 . Sometimes, however, we need to boost only current, not voltage. That turns out to be
the case in the second stage of the this lab, where we want to use headphones to listen to a signal that is not so much
small as feeble—incapable of driving the headphones without our help.
1
Revisions: radio merged into existing Lab 6, mutual inductance exercise cut (10/04); typo corrected, p. 6: multiplier is 10−9 rather than
109 ; add suggestion to plug in N/length in place of n ∗ N , equation 10 (4/13/04).
2
You may be protesting, ’Aren’t they equivalent? Doesn’t Ohm’s Law say we can convert one into the other?’ Well, yes, we can. But we
often strive to send signals that are almost purely voltages, so as to minimize power expenditure; so, the distinction is not empty. Much less
often, we do send signals as currents (and minimizing voltage, in that case, would conserve power.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 2

2.1 Characterizing a Voltage Amplifier

DC Gain, AC Gain

DC Gain Roughly, you can determine the DC gain of an amplifier by applying a voltage, Vin , to the input of the
amplifier and then measuring the Vout that results. In the ideal case, the DC voltage gain, GDC , of the amplifier is
simply Vout / Vin . Unfortunately, real amplifiers often don’t know zero in when they see it: they are said to include
a “voltage offset,” so that when presented with an input of zero volts they think they see Vof f set. They then proceed
to amplify that delusion. If you applied zero volts to such an amplifier, the output would go not to zero but to Vout =
GDC • Vof f set . Thus, measuring DC gain accurately requires measuring Vout for a series of Vin , or at least for both
positive and negative Vin .

AC Gain AC gain–GAC –is easier to measure, since Vof f set is not involved. GAC is just ∆V ∆VIN . In laboratories,
OU T

an AC test signal is usually produced by a “signal generator,” a device that typically produces square waves, triangle
waves, and sine waves with tunable amplitude and frequency. We hope that many of you will come to help lab and
use these nice devices as you do this lab; but we certainly don’t require you to do so. If you do the first week’s
experiment in your room, you will not be able to observe and measure the amplifier’s AC behavior.

rms Voltage Incidentally, when we speak of a.c. voltages or currents, we mean those read on your meter, which
V0
are “root mean square” (abbreviated rms). For a sine wave with amplitude V0, the rms voltage is √ 2
. The rms
voltage is the steady voltage–DC– that would deliver the same power as this time-varying waveform.
If you come in to help lab and use a signal generator to drive your amplifier with a small sinusoid, you can use an
oscilloscope to watch both input and output, and thus to infer voltage gain. Your VOM will be able to measure the
rms voltage out, if it is a volt or so. You will discover whether your meter is sensitive enough to measure VIN .

2.2 Operational Amplifiers

Your amplifier will be constructed from an integrated circuit called an op-amp (for operational amplifier 3 ), symbol-
ized by the triangular box in the sketch below. It usually has a very high input impedance, and very large “gain.”

Note on several flavors of “gain” You will find that the notes, below, speak of “gain” in three senses, so we should
warn you of this—and we should try to use subscripts to keep these senses apart.

• “gain”, without subscript is just the general concept. By definition, it’s the ratio of output amplitude to input
amplitude (and “amplitude” is just a fancy way to say “size” or “magnitude”);

• GDC is gain for a steady input signal;

• GAC is gain for time-varying signals; in the discussion below, GDC and GAC both will describe a property of
the bare integrated circuit that you use (not a property of the complete circuit, in which that “bare” circuit is
wired with particular feedback circuitry);
3
Why this strange name? I think it is because the op amp was conceived as a device that would do mathematical ”operations” (integration,
division, etc.). Now it is used much more generally, and only rarely for the sort of analog computing envisioned by those who named it.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 3

• Gbare−op−amp is the clumsy locution we will use when we want to refer to that concept without specifying
whether we intend gain for DC or AC signals.
• Gclosed−loop is the gain of the op amp as wired with particular feedback circuitry; it is circuit gain, rather than
a property of the bare integrated circuit.

The op amp’s “gain”—whether GDC or GAC —is the ratio of the amp’s output Vout to the voltage difference between
its two input terminals, V+ and V− . (An op amp is said to be a “differential amplifier,” or “difference amplifier,”
because of this behavior.)
Op amp gain is typically very large: better than > 105, at low frequencies (it falls off with increasing frequencies)
. Gbare−op−amp ain varies a great deal even among identical op amps, and varies somewhat with temperature and
frequency—so good circuit designs are insensitive to the exact value of op amp gain.

The op-amp is almost never used simply as shown above (”open loop”), since the output would be excessive: it
would almost-surely be “pinned” at one or the other of the supply voltages, ( V+ or V− ) since the gain is so high.
(Even if Vin = (V+ − V− ) =0, the op amp will amplify it’s own Vof f set and hit one of the supply limits.) Op amps are
intended to be used “closed loop,” instead: that is, they are to be used with negative feedback. The negative feedback
returns a portion of the output to the inverting input. (see below). When this is done, the gain of the circuit is almost
entirely determined by external resistors, capacitors, and inductors independent of Gbare−op−amp .
Negative feedback sounds bad, but in control systems it gives stability. Consider a simple control system, the
thermostat in a room. When the temperature goes down, the thermostat sends a negative feedback signal to the
furnace which makes the temperature go back up. If the feedback were positive, an increase in temperature would
lead to a further increase in temperature until something gave out (e.g. the boiler burst) or until the system hit a
limit (the temperature would level off when the house dissipated as much heat as was being put into it). You may
remember that the voltage regulation by the LM317 chip in your low voltage power supply results from negative
feedback.
In analyzing op-amp circuits with negative feedback it is useful to make two approximations, sometimes referred to
as the GOLDEN RULES4 :
I. Op amp inputs draw no current (this is a consequence of the amp’s high input impedance; in the ideal case, we
assume this impedance is infinite).

II. Vout will try to adjust so that V− = V+ . (this is a consequence of the amp’s high gain, Gbare−op−amp ; in
the ideal case, we assume this gain is infinite. In reality, the two inputs are not quite driven to equal voltages;
instead, V− = V+ .. to within (VOU T / Gbare−op−amp )–typically microvolts.
4
The rules date from the 1920’s, but they were christened “Golden” by Horowitz and Hill, in their text, The Art of Electronics (1989). If
you get a taste for electronics, in this course, you may want to take Paul Horowitz’s course called Laboratory Electronics , Physics 123. End
of first plug.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 4

Note: the names and labels for the two input terminals, V− and V+ sometimes cause confusion. Please notice what
these terminals are not!

• they are not power supply terminals. Power supply connections usually are not shown on diagrams of
operational-amplifier circuits; but the op amp’s power supplies must always be driven. This connection is
omitted from the drawings because it is thought to go without saying.

• They are not indications of a secret battery or battery-equivalent that lies within the integrated circuit!

Perhaps those wrong notions would not have occurred to you; but it won’t hurt to be warned away from such
misconceptions.

To understand how these rules can be used to derive the relationship between Vout and Vin , consider one of the
simplest op amp circuits, the inverting amplifier, which is shown below.

The inverting input (that is, the op amp terminal, V− , not the circuit-input, over at the left edge of the figure) sits at
0 Volts. This point in the inverting amp circuit is often called “virtual ground,” because it’s at ground potential, but
permits useful tricks that ordinary ground does not permit). It’s at 0 Volts because of Golden Rule II.
The current going in toward that point, Iinput , is the same as the current flowing through the feedback resistor (Why?
Golden Rule I!). So, the output voltage relative to the input voltage (what we call the circuit’s “voltage gain”) is just
the ratio of the resistors passing these equal currents. The minus sign in the expression for Gclosed−loop reminds us
that the circuit inverts. You can think of it as a sort of see-saw: if the input goes up, the output goes down, and vise
versa: that’s inversion. If you like, you can push the see-saw analogy still farther: if the sections of the seesaw on the
two sides of the fulcrum are unequal, then a small motion on the short side, for example, can produce a big swing
on the long side: that’s gain > 1.
You’ll notice–as we’ve suggested already–that the gain expression, shown just below the circuit diagram, makes no
mention of the op amp’s own gain, Gbare−op−amp (a property of the particular device used in the feedback circuit).
So long as this gain is large–much larger than the circuit gain the feedback equation predicts–we don’t care just what
the value of Gbare−op−amp is. That’s one of the beauties of op amp circuits.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 5

Exercise : Use a similar argument to show that for the non-inverting amplifier shown below Vout = Vin • (1 +
Rf eedback /Rdivide ). It is this non-inverting amplifier configuration that you will build in this lab.

NON-INVERTING AMPLIFIER

Vinput +

- V output

R feedback
R divide

There is a great variety of op-amps, with different specialized features. Yours is called an LF356, and mainly uses
junction transistors . Its inputs, however, are field effect transistors, which pass only very small leakage currents.
The input resistance (the resistance to ground which the LF356 presents to the input voltage) is astronomical: ap-
proximately a million megohms (1012 ohms) at DC. The gain, Gbare−op−amp , is approximately 105 at DC (the gain
falls with frequency; it begins to fall at just a few tens of Hertz and drops all the way to one at a few MHz). The
data sheet (actually a lot of “sheets”!) is attached, if you want to know more about the device. For those of you
who want a definitive, yet readable, book on electronics, including the op-amp, an excellent reference is The Art of
Electronics, by Horowitz and Hill. There are many copies on campus. Try almost any grad student who works in a
lab where there are electronics (is there a lab without electronics?).

3 Procedure

Part One: first week

3.1 Creating a +-4 V supply.

An op-amp is normally used with symmetric positive and negative power supplies (e.g, it can run between +5V and
-5V). We can get away with a trick using your low voltage power supply which is set at eight volts. We will use a
voltage divider to provide a voltage halfway between the LVPS’ extremes (which are about 8V apart).

Preliminary Rail Splitter: resistive divider

Figure 1: Preliminary rail-splitter

Then we have made an audacious move: we have defined the center point of the resistive divider as “ground:” as
the zero reference for all voltages in the circuits that we are about to build. For some applications—involving very
small currents—this divider would suffice. But it does not suffice for our purposes: even a modest current flowing to
or from this “ground” would displace it somewhat. (In electronics jargon, we would say that the ground terminal’s
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 6

“output impedance” is big, so that small currents produce substantial voltage drops. Its output impedance is 8.2k
parallel 8.2k (the R’s of the divider), or about 4k Ω.5

Improved Rail Splitter: resistive divider helped by an op amp

It turns out to be easy to correct the vice of this preliminary splitter: an op amp can make this home-made “ground”
stable. You will need to get a second LF356 to do this (we’ll have these at help lab, at least). Here’s the little circuit:

Figure 2: Op amp improves simple rail-splitter

Here, the op amp provides more current than the 8.2k resistors can. It allows our ground to carry tens of milliamps of
current without any appreciable disturbance of the voltage at ground. The op amp is said to “lower the impedance”
of the 8.2k...8.2k divider: from 4k down to a few milliohms!

Warnings on using your home-made ground

• do not connect this ground back to either terminal of the transformer; some of your predecessors in past terms
did this—blowing fuses and disabling their transformers. Neither of the transformer’s outputs sits at ground;
both jump about.

• Do not connect this ground to either terminal of the filter capacitor that follows your rectifier. Our new
definition of ground puts the ends of that capacitor at ±4V , not ground.

3.2 Wire the Op-Amp Circuit

Solder or Breadboard?

Here you face a choice: you can build your op amp circuits by soldering on your perf board, or you can build the
circuits on the plastic breadboard strip. The former scheme is better if you hope to hand down the circuit to your
children. The breadboard method is quicker, and works fine.
5
Here, we’re using the “Thevenin model” for the voltage divider. You’ll find lots of lore on Thevenin in any electronics text, including our
favorite, Horowitz and Hill.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 7

Pinout of the op amp integrated circuit

This part comes in a “DIP” package (“dual inline package”). Here’s how the pins are labelled, and how you would
plug it in, if you used a breadboard:

Figure 3: Op amp in its DIP package: pinouts

If You Choose Soldering:

Mount the eight-pin socket for your op-amp, without the i.c. plugged in, by pushing its leads through your perfboard.
Note that the socket has a mark next to one corner pin. This marks pin #1. Put the socket relatively near the bridge
rectifier of your low voltage power supply, so as to leave a large area of the perfboard available for later projects.
But leave enough room to bend the socket leads over to hold the socket down. Spread the corner leads out to give
more clearance for soldering. Do a neat job, so you can trouble shoot it easily, and so it will stay reliably soldered
together.

Whichever Way You Build It:

Wire the circuit as shown below—but without yet installing the op amp itself —and draw a diagram in your notebook
of the circuit as you have connected it.
The numbering scheme for the integrated circuit (i.c.) leads is shown on the LF356 op-amp data sheet, for the “N”
Suffix, on page 3-6 of the data sheets. This picture is a top view looking down on the i.c. If you use a socket, put
a number 1 mark at the correct corner of your socket as seen from below, where you will wire to it. This will help
a lot in avoiding wiring errors. The end of the op amp with pin 1 is marked by a little half-circle on the top of the
package, or by a dot near pin 1.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 8

3.3 Don’t Plug in the Op-amp Yet

Turn on the power and adjust it to about 8 V. Here is the circuit—but recall that we ask you to postpone plugging in
the op amp. We’re just setting up its test bed, here.
+4V
3 + 7
6
18 LF356
2
- 4
-4V

240k Vout

2.4k

0V

Figure 4: DC amplifier

3.4 Check Out

Still without plugging in the op-amp, check the voltage with respect to ground at all the pins of the socket, or at the
equivalent positions in the breadboard, if you are breadboarding. Be sure the ground point drawn near the LF356 is
connected to the ground point between the two 360 ohm resistors (or to your classier ground, if you used a second
op amp to produce it). You can use a short wire held by a clip lead to connect to the socket leads. Only the power
supply pins, 7 and 4, should be non-zero, and they should be at about +4 and -4 volts. Pins 2 and 3 should have
resistances to ground of 2.4K and 18 ohms. Pin 6 should measure 240K to ground.

3.5 Plug in Op-amp

Now you are ready to plug in the LF356. Turn off the power while you insert it . You will probably have to gently
squeeze the pins closer together to match the socket or breadboard spacing. Be sure to note the end of the integrated
circuit that has pins 1 and 8, and line it up correctly. Then plug in the LF356. After you plug it in, it is good to have
your voltmeter on the 5 volt scale, measuring from pin 6 (the amplifier output) to ground. Then turn on the power. If
all is well, the amplifier output will be a small voltage, its magnitude less than 0.5 volts (its sign is not predictable).
Most mistakes make the amplifier output go to the plus or minus power supply voltage. If you see this, turn off the
power and check your wiring. Be sure that the midpoint of your two 360 ohm resistors (or the “ground” produced
by your op amp circuit of section 3.1) is connected to the ground of your amplifier circuit.

3.6 Determine Gain (Gclosed−loop )

Determine the voltage gain of your amplifier (Gclosed−loop ) by applying a small input voltage to pin 3. You can do
this conveniently by connecting an 8.2k-ohm — 18-ohm resistive divider, as shown below, and then applying the
full power supply voltage to the free end of that 8.2k resistor, as shown in the figure just below. Calculate the input
voltage you expect from the voltage divider formed by the 8.2k and 18 ohm resistors, when you apply an input of
+4V or -4V. Calculate the expected gain, given the resistor values of your amplifier.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 9

+4V
8.2k 3 + 7
±4V LF356
6
18 2
(clip lead)
- 4
-4V

240k Vout

2.4k

0V

Here is the procedure, in case it helps to see it spelled out:

• Connect the left end of the 8.2k to the +4V supply (use a clip lead), and note Vout . Since you have calculated
what the voltage at the non-inverting input (pin 3) should be, you can infer the circuit’s gain ( Gclosed−loop ).
In fact, the circuit’s Gclosed−loop is likely to be extremely close to what you calculate it to be (limited by the
resistor errors); but a DC error is mixed with the true signal that the op amp sees at its + terminal.

• Disconnect the left end of the 8.2k from the positive supply, and connect it, instead, to the -4V supply. Again
note Vout. Probably its magnitude is not just the same as what you saw for a positive input. If it is not, you are
seeing the effect of the op amp’s DC − of f set error.

• Ground the left end of the 8.2k resistor, and note Vout . From this value, knowing the circuit’s Gclosed−loop ,
you can infer the op amp’s VOF F SET (which is defined as the difference-voltage you’d need to apply to its
two input terminals, in order to persuade the deluded op amp that its inputs are at the same voltage—or call it
just “the size of the op amp’s misconception about the levels of its two input voltages”).

Compare your measured (or perhaps we should call it inferred-) Vof f set against the Vof f set specified on the LF356’s
data sheet.
Here’s a reminder of the voltages we’d like you to measure or calculate:

8.2k connected to... Calculated V-in V-out observed

+4V (note measured value of nominal 4V) ________ V-out: ________
-4V (ditto) ________ V-out: ________
ground ________ V-out: ________

Stopping Point? This would be a reasonable stopping point, if you plan to do this lab over a two-week period.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 10

Part Two (second week)

Note: this lab will require a visit to ’help’ lab: you’ll not be able to do this in your room, if you have only the usual
15b parts and equipment.

4 AM Radio Receiver (fun!)

Believe it or not, you now have met all the elements required for a simple radio—excepting only an inductor,
necessary if we are to select a single broadcast station, rather than listen to all of them, mixed! A few pages on,
below, you will supply that missing link: you will wind an inductor by hand.
A simple radio of the sort you’ll make needs just a few elements:

• a tuning arrangement (unless one station happens to be overwhelmingly stronger than all the others; not likely);

• a way to “demodulate” the signal: that is, to detect the information that is broadcast, peeling it away from the
uninteresting “carrier,” a higher-frequency oscillation that is used to help the information to travel;

• a way to let this relatively-feeble signal do enough work to make a signal audible to you (the earliest and
simplest radios used no amplifier at all; but you’ll need one, because you’ll listen with conventional “low-
impedance” headphones, of the sort used with a walkman or diskman: these won’t work with a feeble source.

To make this exercise fun, you’ll need a strong source of radio signals: that requires a pretty good antenna (or a poor
antenna whose signal has been amplified for you by someone who knows how to make a high-frequency amplifier).
We get a strong signal in our teaching lab by running about 50 feet of wire from the window of the lab to a fire
escape on the next building. The antenna is nothing fancy: just an old piece of wire, insulated from the fire escape
by a piece of string. It gives us almost a volt in amplitude.
If you looked (with a scope) at the signal coming from the antenna, it would look something like the image below,
left; after selection with a resonant circuit, the signal would look like the image below, right. The 60Hz noise
(radiated by the power lines in the room) is gone; that much is apparent. You cannot see a second benefit: the
“carriers” of other radio stations also have been eliminated from the muddle of frequencies that came in on the
antenna.

Figure 5: Raw radio signals: straight from antenna, and then after selection with a resonant LC

You may also notice another feature of these two images—quite remarkable: the amplitude of the “carrier” has
grown, thanks to the addition of the LC tuning circuit: not only is the LC selective; it also boosts the amplitude 6 of
the signal that interests us.
6
...though not the power: that’s the job of the amplifier you are about to apply in this exercise.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 11

Detecting and “demodulating” an AM radio signal In order to detect an AM (”amplitude modulated”) radio
signal, you need to do two tasks:

• select a particular radio station’s “carrier” frequency, at approximately 0.8MHz to 1.2 MHz:
• ...then detect the audio signal that rides this carrier.

You can do the “detection” as follows:

• rectify the signal;

• ...then low-pass filter this rectified signal.

The output of your circuit will be a small audio signal: less than a volt, but audible on an ordinary speaker, and
downright annoying when heard through headphones.

5 Select one Broadcast “Carrier” Frequency

Radio signals are transmitted at frequencies that travel much better than the rather low-frequency information that
is to be “carried.” The higher frequency is called the “carrier;” it is said to be “modulated” by the information or
“signal” that it carries. Garden-variety, old-fashioned radio uses carrier frequencies of around 1MHz (1 million
cycles per second). This kind of broadcast—now about 100 years old–is “AM” radio (“AM” means “amplitude
modulated;” very soon you’ll be reminded what that means).
Since many radio stations broadcast at frequencies close to 1MHz the first stage of a simple radio receiver is a
“tuner”—a circuit that tries to select out one among the many broadcasts. The stations are assigned carrier frequen-
cies spaced 10kHz apart—not very far, relative to 1MHz—so one needs a tuner that is very sensitive to frequency
variation. You will use a parallel LC circuit to pick out a single broadcast. This parallel LC puts an inductor and a
capacitor in parallel, forming the lower leg of a frequency-dependent voltage divider. The circuit severely attenuates
frequencies other than its favorite frequency. After a look at this circuit, and a calculation that should let us know
about what L and C values we want, we’ll move on to winding the necessary inductor (the “L”).

5.1 A “Resonant Circuit”” RLC

Current and voltage are out of phase in a capacitor ( I = Cdv/dt) and in an inductor (V = Ldi/dt). In C and
L current and voltage are out of phase in opposite senses: current leads voltage in the cap, lags it in the inductor 7
This complementary relation between the behaviors of L and C allows combinations of L’s and C’s to produce
interesting—and sometimes startling—results.

Impedances of C and L

The “complex” impedances of L and C express this opposed phase relation with the sign of the “i” in the formulas
for the impedance of C and L (Purcell, p. 314):
XC = −i/ωC = −i/2πf (1)
7
If “lead” and “lag” puzzle you, picture a sinusoidal voltage applied to a C, for example: I hits a maximum where the voltage is crossing
zero, climbing toward its maximum. In other words, the peak I comes before the peak V : current leads voltage.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 12

XL = iωL = i ∗ 2πf ∗ L (2)

Series LC Here’s a circuit that can exploit the complementary frequency responses of L and C: an LC “trap”8 :

Figure 6: LC “Trap”: a voltage divider that kills a narrow range of frequencies

The circuit is a voltage divider, and the lower section sums the impedance of an L with a C. The opposed signs
of the i’s let the sum go to zero at some frequency: Xsum = (−i/ωC) + (iωL). This sum goes to zero where
(1/ωC) = (ωL), or ω 2 = 1/(LC), at the frequency known as the “resonant frequency.” (See Purcell, §8.1, p. 298,
introducing resonance, discussing the response of an RLC circuit to a transient disturbance; §8.2 discussing the
driven resonant circuit, like ours.)
At the resonant frequency, VOU T /VIN goes to zero for ideal components; in practice, it will at least show a pro-
nounced dip at fresonant . So the circuit can cut out a narrow range of frequencies.

Parallel LC The parallel LC’s behavior is a little more subtle. Again we make a voltage divider with R on top;
this time we put the LC in parallel—and, as you might expect, the circuit’s behavior is neatly complementary to
that of the LC trap.

Figure 7: Parallel LC: a voltage divider that passes a narrow range of frequencies

In parallel, the impedance of the LC together looks like their product over their sum 9 :

Xparallel LC = XC ∗ XL /(XC + XL) = (−i/ωC ∗ iωL)/(iωL + (−i/ωC)) (3)

That’s kind of a mess; but the denominator looks familiar: the sum of XC + XL , as you know, goes to zero at some
frequency—the “resonant” frequency. And when that happens, the whole expression— Xparallel LC —blows up. If
the inductor and capacitor were ideal, the impedance would become infinite. In life, the impedance becomes very
large compared to what it is at any other frequency. That contrast is useful. It allows one to use a parallel LC to
form a voltage divider that is very sensitive to frequency: a divider that picks out a very narrow range of frequencies,
while attenuating all others.
8
Figure taken from Horowitz and Hill, p. 42.
9
The conductances add simply: 1/Xtotal = 1/XC + 1/XL ; the impedances—the inverses—don’t combine so neatly, as you know from
your experience with resistors.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 13

This is the circuit you will use in your radio, to select one broadcast frequency or “station”. Here’s a sketch of the
scheme:

Figure 8: Homemade radio tuner: hand-wound L, and a few C’s

5.2 Calculate the LC values you want

Your radio tuner circuit should resonate at about 1MHz. Assume you will use a C of about 250pF (250 ∗ 10−12F ).
What L value do you want? Calculate that value. Very soon, you will wind a coil to provide approximately that
inductance.
Ignore R, as you calculate the LC that will resonate at around 1MHz. The R value will not affect the resonant
frequency appreciably. (Incidentally, in our radio, the antenna’s output impedance will stand in the place of the R:
we will install no resistor above the parallel LC.)
L=

6 Wind Yourself an Inductor

An inductor is a wire—usually a coil—that talks to itself: current in the wire develops a magnetic field around the
wire. Increasing current generates a B~ field that opposes the rising current; a diminishing current has the opposite
effect. The inductor likes to keep current from changing; it often is likened to a flywheel, whose inertia opposes a
change in angular momentum much as inductance opposes a change in current.

6.1 Deriving or justifying the expression for Inductance

Inductance is defined as the relation between voltage developed across the inductor and the rate of change of current
in the inductor:
Emf
L≡ (4)
di/dt

We can get to this expression in three steps:

1. emf is proportional to the rate of change of flux (Φ) through a loop (Purcell, pp. 266, 272):

Emf = 1/c • dΦ/dt (5)

Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 14

~ field through the loop (Purcell, p, pp. 265, 272):

2. flux through a loop is the surface integral of the B
Z
Φ= ~ a
Bd~ (6)
S

For a solenoid, the case is simple and tidy: the B ~ field is uniform and in line with the axis of the solenoid. For
this case, this integral is just the BZ field times the area of the loop.

3. the BZ field in the solenoid is proportional to the current and to the number of loops-per-length in the solenoid
that gives rise to the field (n, in the equation below)(Purcell, eqn 45, p. 228) 10 :
4πIn
BZ = (7)
c

Putting these three propositions together, we can solve for L:

Emf 1/c[dΦ/dt = d(BZ )/dt ∗ loop area] 1/c[ d(4πnI)∗loop

c∗dt
area
]
L= = = (8)
dI/dt dI/dt dI/dt

The dI/dt’s divide out, and if the loop has radius r, this equation for the inductance of a single loop in a solenoid
becomes

L = (1/c2)4π 2r2 n (9)

In order to get L in convenient units, Henries, we can sweep the clumsy 1/c2 under the rug, substituting a multiplier
of 10−9 . Then, noting that we have written an equation for the inductance of a single turn or loop of wire, we can
make the formula more useful by including another multiplier, N , describing how many loops our inductor has. N
loops will show a proportionately larger inductance, and the most useful equation for L, then, will be

L(Henries) = (4π 2r2 n) • N ∗ (10−9) (10)

Where the coil has N loops, r is in centimeters, and n is turns per centimeter.

6.2 How Many Loops do we Need?

We need to use the formula for inductance to decide how many loops to wind on a small plastic bobbin. The bobbin
is square: 1/2 inch long, 1/2 inch on a side.

Determine n? If the solenoid were, indeed, infinite we would need to determine n, the number of turns per
centimeter11 . For the present case, however, n is just the total number of turns divided by the length of the coil (in
centimeters). And you can write, in place of “...n) • N ...”, just “...N 2 /(length).”
10
Note that n is not N , the number of turns in the coil that you are to wind. n, instead, describes the field strength. So far, we are still
trying to work our way toward a value for the effect of the solenoid’s field on a single turn.
11
But then the inductor wouldn’t be very useful. What would its value be, in Henries?!
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 15

Some Corrections for the L Formula

Square solenoid: In order to use for this square solenoid the formula we have worked out assuming a cylindrical
solenoid, you need to find the equivalent radius, r, for this bobbin: that is, the r for a cylindrical solenoid with
the same cross-sectional area as the bobbin.
End fields: then another correction—this one much larger: to take account of the reduced B ~ field near the ends of
the solenoid, make a rough estimate using the curves plotted in Purcell’s fig. 6.17, p. 229. Include the effect
of this attenuation of the field, as a multiplier in your corrected formula for L.

Now solve for N : the number of turns you’ll need to wind in order to make an inductor of the value you decided
you needed, back in §2.2, above. N =
NOTE: if your calculated L value is outside the range 50µH to 200µH, look again at your calculation.

Wind the inductor

Use the fine (30-gauge) magnet wire (available at help lab) to wind the inductor on the bobbin. Try to wind a single
layer, but don’t worry too much if you find the wire overlapping itself. When it’s done, solder the two ends to two
of the four pins on the bobbin. This wire is insulated, but uses an insulator that melts and disappears when heated.
You need not scrape it before soldering.

...add the C

Your resonant circuit assumed a C value of 250pF. Use 100pF capacitors to approximate that value, and wire this
C in parallel with the coil, to ground. Note what effective C you get when you put two 100pF’s in parallel; note
what C you get when you put two 100pF’s in series. Later—when the entire radio is assembled—you will need to
experiment to find the best C value: the C that makes the LC resonate at the frequency that gets your favorite radio
station—or the strongest.

7 Build the detector

Recognizing that a 1MHz “carrier” is modulated with low-frequency information—in the range 100Hz to perhaps
10kHz—you might at first think that you could demodulate the signal by simply “low-pass”-filtering the carrier: kill
the 1MHz, keep the 10kHz. That argument may be plausible—but it is wrong.
A low-pass filter that got rid of the 1MHz would get rid of everything, because the 10kHz audio and the 1MHz
carrier are not added but rather multiplied before transmission as AM. So, the 10kHz is no longer present in the
AM; instead, the AM includes the sum and difference of the two frequencies. 12 A simple filter cannot recover the
modulating audio. The symmetry of the carrier signal means that if one kills the carrier, one kills everything: baby
exits with bathwater.
The remedy turns out to be very simple: rectify the combined signal—the modulated carrier—and only then apply
the low-pass filter. Rectification spoils the symmetry of the carrier; the low-passed output no longer averages to zero.
Instead, it reveals the “envelope” of the modulated carrier.
12
See Horowitz and Hill, The Art of Electronics pp. 885-86 (2d ed., 1989), for a brief description of AM modulation, including the “sum
and difference” result.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 16

Here is a scope image of the rectified carrier:

Figure 9: Rectified carrier: before smoothing to find the “envelope”

And below is an image using a much slower sweep, so that the individual cycles of the carrier are not visible. The
upper trace shows the carrier, revealing its variation in amplitude (“Amplitude Modulation”). The lower trace shows
the “envelope” of that modulated carrier. This is the audio waveform that we have been pursuing.

Figure 10: Modulated carrier, and the envelope waveform: demodulated audio signal

By the way: Half-wave vs Full-wave? Your experience in building a power supply might lead you to assume that
you should apply a full-wave rectifier to the carrier, rather than a half-wave. This is a reasonable thought—but not
correct, for two reasons:

• the full-wave bridge works only with “floating” sources like the secondary of a transformer (which was the
source you used when you built your power supply). This is so because neither of the two inputs to the bridge
rectifier may be connected to ground, so long as the output is taken relative to ground—as it is. Your radio
signal cannot “float”: the antenna’s LC circuit needs to have its foot tied to ground.
• you lose no information, by using only one of the two envelopes of the carrier: the two envelopes are symmet-
ric.

For these two reasons, you should use a half-wave rectifier. You met this circuit, on paper, in Lab 5, though you did
not build one, at that time.

7.1 Design the Detector

Design the detector, to do these two operations in succession:

• rectify the signal (use a Schottky diode–1N5711 or similar: its low forward-voltage will let it rectify a signal
of just a few tenths of a volt);
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 17

• ...then low-pass filter this rectified signal.

The output of your circuit will be a small audio signal: less than a volt, but audible on an ordinary speaker, and
downright annoying heard through headphones.
We’ll work our way to a circuit, and then we’ll worry about component values.

A Design, and Choosing R and C Values

Rectifier .

Figure 11: AM demod?: rectify, then low-pass

An R to ground follows the rectifier diode: it is necessary, in order to permit the diode to conduct, when forward-
biased. What value should you choose for R? The concern that governs this choice is the impedance that the
rectifier presents, both at its input, where it is driven by the LC circuit, and at its output, where it is to drive the next
stage—the audio amplifier. Both impedances turn out to be determined by the value of R.
In order not to burden or “load” the antenna and LC circuit excessively, one wants an R that is not too small; in
order to be able to drive the next stage successfully, one wants an R that is not too large. As is usual, in engineering,
we are constrained by opposing desiderata, and we are pressed to a moderate, intermediate solution. Here, we won’t
ask you to calculate an R value. Instead, we’ll decree that 100k Ω is a reasonable choice.

Low-Pass One could place a conventional low-pass filter after the rectifier, as in the circuit at the left, in the figure
above. This circuit would do the job—but it would also require the two R values to step up in the ratio shown,
in order to avoid annoying interaction between rectifier and filter. The circuit below performs just as well, and is
preferable because it keeps the R value lower by a factor of 10. That is useful—reducing the output impedance of
the detector. So, we recommend this circuit.

Figure 12: A better AM demodulator: “leaky peak detector”

Choosing C The C gets charged up to approximately VIN (in fact, it’s VIN −(diodedrop : af ewtenthsof avolt)).
That C voltage—VC —would stay up, if not for the R to ground. We need the R, to make sure that when the carrier
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 18

amplitude shrinks, VC follows the shrinking amplitude down: VC follows the envelope down. 13
What C, then? This circuit is difficult to analyze in frequency-domain terms; luckily, it is straightforward in the
time-domain. All we need to do is make sure that the “time-constant,” RC, is very long (or “slow”) relative to the
period of the“carrier,”, but short relative to the period of the “signal” —the period of the “audio” that we want to
recover. The two frequencies—carrier and audio—are very far apart: ≈ 1M Hz for the carrier vs. under 10kHz for
the audio. So there is very large range of RC values that will keep the one and get rid of the other; you are shooting
at a large barn door, and we doubt that you will miss.

Calculate the filter C Choose an RC product in the suggested range, and then calculate what C you want. You
may not find exactly the calculated value, among the C’s available in lab. Take an (or improvise, using a combination
of the C’s available to you in lab.

8 Amplify the audio, and Listen

Now you have recovered the audio, as we hope you can confirm by watching it on a scope, at help lab. But what
you have recovered is too feeble to drive a speaker or conventional headphone. To convince yourself of this, try
listening to the envelope or audio output directly, grounding one lead from the headphones while touching the other
lead to the audio signal. You should hear nothing—and if you are watching the audio with a scope, as you do this
experiment, you should see that your headphones are killing the audio (severely attenuating it).
Why do the headphones do this to the audio? (It may be useful to know that the impedance of the headphones—
mostly resistive—is in the range 8 to 32 ohms.)

13
If you are accustomed to thinking of decay time as RC, then you might choose to think of the effect of installing the R to ground as
bringing our RC down from infinite time to some modest time.
Phys 15b: Lab 6, Spring 2005 19

8.1 Unity Gain “Amplifier”

On a first hearing, “Unity Gain ‘Amplifier’” sounds like an oxymoron: isn’t an amplifier supposed to make a signal
bigger? Well, yes and no: it needs to make some signal characteristic bigger. But that characteristic need not be
voltage or “amplitude.” In this case, the amplitude is sufficient; it’s the current that is insufficient. The half-volt
or so of demodulated signal would put 10’s of mA of current into the headphones—but the feeble demodulator
output can’t do that. The op amp solves the problem for us: rigged for unity gain (a circuit often called a “voltage
follower”), the circuit does nothing interesting to the voltage, but provides sufficient current to the speaker, without
drawing this current from the demodulator. Instead, the op amp’s output current comes from the power supply.
Here is the circuit:

Figure 13: Op Amp “Voltage follower” lets feeble demodulator drive headphones

The input RC is necessary, in order to eliminate the “DC offset” delivered by the demodulator. The demodulator
output will be somewhat positive, since it comes out of a rectifier, and we don’t want to drive the headphones with
a DC level: a DC level would only displace the moving coil (limiting its range of movement), and heat it. The RC
value is not critical (huge is fine), but the R value must be large, in order not to load the demodulator. Hence the
1M Ω value.

8.2 Listen!

Wire a headphone jack to your amp’s output, plug in headphones, and listen. Now is the time to tune your radio (this
may seem late—but only now can you easily judge when you have found a single, strong station). Try combinations
of 100pF capacitors in parallel with the coil in your LC circuit, deviating from the original nominal C value of
250pF, until you hear something interesting. Don’t be shocked if you sometimes hear a couple of stations, mixed;
your LC is not very selective. You’ll hear the best signal if you can find one of a couple of very strong broadcast
stations: one is conservative talk radio, another is WILD, full of music. Have fun!

(lb6 sp05b.tex.tex; March 2, 2005)

Reminder: Please note 1) time you took to do this lab; 2) names of collaborators, if any.