Complex impedance. In sinusoidal steady state write physical voltage and electric current as real parts of and . The electrical impedance is a ratio of phasors; its magnitude gives the voltage-to-current amplitude ratio and its argument gives their phase difference. It is measured in ohms.
For an ideal capacitor, and . Consequently , givingWith this time convention the voltage lags the electric current by .
Bridge output. The original diagram has and in parallel in the upper-left arm, and and in series in the lower-left arm. The point labelled is connected to the upper supply node. Set the lower supply node to zero, so . Assuming the measured output draws negligible electric current, the two voltage dividers giveTheir difference is thereforeThe reactive-arm electrical impedances are
Balance. Setting and cross-multiplying gives . For this Wien bridge,The right-hand side must be the real number . Equating imaginary and real parts givesPositive capacitances require . In the equal-component case and , this reduces to
Band-pass output and phase. Preserve the requested voltage polarity: . Since ,Put . The equal-component ratio is , so the Wien bridge band-pass response isAt finite positive frequency, its imaginary part vanishes exactly when . ThusThe magnitude is maximal there and tends to zero at both frequency extremes, as expected for a band-pass filter.
A convenient continuous, unwrapped wave phase isIt decreases from as , passes through at , and tends to as . A principal-value plot instead jumps from to at resonance; both represent the same phasor. Reversing the output to would shift the phase by and make the resonant ratio , but that is a different output polarity from the one printed.
Wien bridge band-pass response 2026-10-18
Use the equal-component Wien bridge with upper-left parallel arm and lower-left series arm. Let be the left arm junction, the upper input node, and the upper-minus-lower input electric potential difference. With , the unloaded transfer ratio is the displayed expression. Its band-pass filter magnitude is , maximal at with . One continuous wave phase is , tending from at low positive frequency to at high frequency. Reversing the measured output polarity multiplies by and shifts its phase by without changing its magnitude.
