Design and Applications of the Hall Network

by Kenneth A. Kuhn
July 4, 2011

This is the original submission of an article I wrote that was published Jan. 31, 2012 in the online
version of Electronic Design. See http://electronicdesign.com/analog/rediscover-truly-tunable-
hall-network . This is a deep link and may get moved from time to time. If the link does not work
then go to http://www.electronicdesign.com and do a search for "hall network". The published
version has a different title and some minor edits in style.

Introduction

The Hall network (Reference 1) is a notch filter related to the twin-tee but has the feature
of being tunable over a wide frequency range using a single potentiometer. In its passive
form the notch bandwidth is broad but active electronics can narrow the response and
extend the network to other applications. This article provides complete design
information for the Hall network and presents three one-pot tunable applications; a notch
filter, a band-pass filter, and a low-distortion sine-wave oscillator.

Hall network description and information

The Hall network is a third-order RC circuit (Figure 1). R1 and R2 are the split portions
of the tuning potentiometer which typically includes series end resistors to prevent
adjustment all the way to zero resistance where the network ceases to function. Signals at
frequencies well below the notch pass through R3 and signals at frequencies well above
the notch pass through the three capacitors. At the notch frequency the separate paths
have equal transmission magnitudes but opposite phase and so sum to zero. Figure 2
shows an example frequency response plot for a 1 kHz notch frequency. The phase
response is approximately zero degrees at the notch.

R3

C1 C2 C3

Ein Eout
R1 R2
CW

TUNE
1. Original Hall network in its simplest representation
R1 and R2 are the left and right portions of the potentiometer

1
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network

2. Frequency Response of Hall network

Although the overall response is very broad, typical for passive RC circuits, the notch is
very deep.

The math (Reference 2) is arduous because the network is third order and has bridged
nodes. Patient application of standard circuit methods eventually produces the three
important equations. Equation 1 gives the general transfer function of the network.
Eout(s) R1R2R3C1C2C3s3 + R1R2(C1C2 + C2C 3+ C1C3)s2 + [R1(C1 + C2) + R2(C2 + C3)]s + 1
-------- = -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1)
Ein(s) R1R2R3C1C2C3s3 + [R1R2(C1C2 + C2C3 + C1C3) + R3C3(R1C1 + R1C2 + R2C2)]s2 + [R1(C1+C2 )+ R2(C2+C3) + R3C3]s + 1

Equation 2 gives the notch frequency in Hz and is correct only if R3 is the required value
per Equation 3.

1
F (2)
2 R1 R2 C1C2  C2C3  C1C3 

For the general case of C3 = C1 and C1 = K * C2, then to achieve infinite null the required
value of R3 is given by Equation 3. For applications where the notch depth must be as
deep as possible use a small series potentiometer to fine tweak R3 to compensate for
component tolerances. Once R3 is fine tweaked it does not need further adjustment for
any tuning setting. Note that R3 affects tuning but should not be used for tuning.

2
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network

R3 
K  2K  1  R  R2  (3)
1
K

As a historical reference, in 1955 Mr. Hall only indicated that C3 equals C1 (the math
confirms that ideally those would be matched as that is important for the circuit to work
properly over its tuning range) but said nothing about the relationship of C2. In his 1968
book, Waveform Measurements (Reference 3), Rufus P. Turner illustrated an active band-
pass filter using the Hall network with C1 = C3 = 10C2. That ratio has been used in a few
other places where the Hall network has shown up. In his 1975 article in Ham Radio
(Reference 4) concerning two applications of the Hall network, Courtney Hall (no
relation to the designer) used all three capacitors the same value and noted that they
should all be matched for optimum notch depth. The only known commercial use of the
Hall network is as a tunable band-pass filter for the 1961 General Radio product, Type
1232-A Tuned Amplifier and Null Detector (References 5 and 6). An examination of the
manual for this instrument reveals that all capacitors are the same value. This product is
still sold today by IET Labs, Inc. (http://www.ietlabs.com/) as part of the GenRad 1620
Capacitance Bridge. The minimum notch bandwidth (i.e. highest Q) occurs when all
capacitors are the same value (K = 1) and that ratio is used for all examples in this article.

Tuning and Q characteristics

The tuning characteristic (Equation 4 and Figure 3) is very shallow near the middle of the
potentiometer and very steep near the ends. This curve was derived by a modified
version of Equation 2 where R1 was replaced with a tuning factor (TF) that varies from 0
to 1 as the pot is rotated from full counter-clockwise to full clockwise and R2 is replaced
with 1 – TF as follows. The 0.5 factor normalizes the minimum frequency at the center
of pot rotation to 1.0.

0.5
Fnormalized  (4)
TF  1  TF 

3
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network

3. Hall network tuning characteristic

Note that tuning is symmetric about the middle point of the potentiometer

The Q (resonant frequency divided by the -3 dB bandwidth) of any passive RC network

is low. With three identical capacitors the Q of the Hall network is a maximum of 0.177
when the tuning factor is 0.5 and decreases to zero when the tuning factor is 0.0 or 1.0
(Equation 5). Although active electronics can increase Q up to a practical maximum of
several tens, the best results for applications requiring high Q will be when the tuning
factor is in roughly the 0.1 to 0.9 range.

Q  0.25 TF 0.0 <= TF <= 0.5 (5a)

Q  0.25 1  TF 0.5 <= TF <= 1.0 (5b)

Design for tuning range

Since the tuning curve is symmetric about the mid point of R1 + R2 it makes sense to add
resistances (Figure 4) to either side of the potentiometer to limit the adjustment range to
the region between 0.5 and 1.0. By symmetry the 0.5 to 0.0 region could have been used

4
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network
alternatively but it makes more intuitive sense to the author to pick the right side of the
plot.
R3

C1 C2 C3

RA RB
Ein RP Eout
(R1) (R2)

CW

TUNE

4. Modified Hall network with end resistors to limit tuning range to right hand portion of
Figure 3

Depending on the application, the tuning ratio (the maximum divided by the minimum
desired frequencies over the full range of the potentiometer) might range from 1.1 or less
up to a practical maximum of about 4 with a linear potentiometer. High tuning ratios
must utilize the steep portion of the tuning curve (Figure 3) and become impractical as
tuning is very compressed at the high end. Special taper potentiometers can extend the
practical tuning ratio to over ten.

The choice of starting point on the tuning curve affects tuning linearity. For any tuning
ratio, starting at 0.5 maximizes the tuning non-linearity. Using higher starting points
reduces tuning non-linearity although a point of diminishing returns is reached at around
0.7. With a starting tuning factor of 0.7 tuning ratios less than about 1.2 result in fairly
linear tuning and tuning ratios up to around 3 are not excessively compressed at the high
end.

The starting point in determining the end resistors is to establish the tuning factor range.
For good results, choose the starting or low tuning factor (TFlow) to be around 0.7 when
the potentiometer wiper is at the full counter-clockwise position and then use Equation 6
to calculate the required high tuning factor (TFhigh) to achieve the desired tuning ratio
when the wiper is at the full clockwise position. Equation 6 was derived from Equation 4
by first normalizing the result to unity for TFlow and then solving the resulting quadratic
equation for TFhigh with Equation 4 set to the desired tuning_ratio.

4  TFlow  1  TFlow 
1 1
tuning _ ratio 2
TFhigh  (6)
2

With the extreme tuning factors known the next step is to determine a good resistance for
the potentiometer, RP. Equation 7 was empirically derived to provide a geometric center
estimate for a practical resistance for potentiometer based on experience that for a given

5
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network
frequency there is a range of R and C values that provides good results. Frequency is
nominally the geometric center of the tuning range in Hz but can be any frequency within
the tuning range as there is broad flexibility in using the result.

300,000
RP  (7)
Frequency

Choose a convenient value for potentiometer, RP, between roughly one-fourth to about
four times the geometric center value from Equation 7. The end resistors, RA and RB, are
then calculated as follows.

RP
Rtotal  (8)
TFhigh  TFlow

R A  Rtotal  TFlow (9)

RB  Rtotal  1  TFhigh  (10)

For the examples in this article a Hall network was designed to tune from 750 to 1,500
Hz which is a tuning ratio of 2. TFlow was chosen to be 0.7 and TFhigh computed to be
0.944. The geometric center for RP computed to be about 9.5-kΩ so a 10-kΩ
potentiometer was chosen. Rtotal computed to be 40,917 ohms, RA computed to be 28,642
ohms, and RB computed to be 2,291 ohms. RA was rounded to a standard value of 27-kΩ
and RB was rounded to a standard value of 2.2-kΩ. The actual tuning ratio was computed
(Equation 11) to be 2.01 with these values. If the rounded resistor values produce a
tuning ratio too different from desired then adjust RB up or down a standard value as
needed. The tuning curve is shown in Figure 5.

RA RP  RB 
tuning _ ratio  (11)
RA  RP RB

6
Design and Applications of the Hall Network

5. Tuning curve for example Hall network

Although tuning is non-linear, it is not too bad.

7
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network

Design for capacitors

For three identical capacitors Equations 2 and 3 for the notch frequency and R3 simplify
to Equations 12 and 13.

1
F (12)
2 3R1R2  C

R3  6R1  R2  (13)

The required capacitance (Equation 14) for each of the three capacitors is calculated by
inverting Equation 12 and noting that at the minimum notch frequency (full counter-
clockwise of the potentiometer), R1 = RA and R2 = RP + RB.

1
C (14)
2FNOTCH _ MINIMUM 3R A RP  RB 

For the minimum frequency of 750 Hz the capacitance computed to be 6.75 nF which
was rounded to the standard value of 6.8 nF.

From Equation 13 the value for R3 for theoretical infinite notch computed to be 6 *
(27,000 + 10,000 + 2,200) = 235,000 ohms which could be rounded to the standard value
of 240-kΩ for applications where optimum notch depth is not required. For the circuits
in this article R3 was 220-kΩ in series with a 50-kΩ series potentiometer and adjusted for
optimum notch depth. The completed design (Figure 6) is now ready to be used in three
useful applications.

NOTCH DEPTH OPTIMIZE

R4
R3 50 K
220 K CW

C1 C2 C3
6.8 nF 6.8 nF 6.8 nF

RA RB
27 K 2.2 K
Ein RP Eout
10 K
(R1) (R2)

CW

TUNE

6. Hall network used for all examples in this article

Tunes from 750 Hz to 1,500 Hz

8
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network

Active tunable notch filter

Figure 7 shows an active tunable notch filter with the ground terminal of the Hall
network bootstrapped with adjustable positive feedback from the output. The positive
feedback factor (PFF) varies from 0 when R6 is at full counter-clockwise to 1.0 when R6
is at full clockwise. Increasing the positive feedback factor boosts the Q of the circuit
thus narrowing the notch bandwidth. The resulting Q is the basic Hall network Q at the
given tuning factor (Equation 5) multiplied by the Q boost factor (Equation 15). The
practical maximum for Q is around 30 as adjustment for higher values becomes very
touchy.

NOTCH DEPTH OPTIMIZE

R4
R3 50 K
220 K CW

Ein
U1 C1 C2 C3
6.8 nF 6.8 nF 6.8 nF
U2
R5
10 K Eout
RA RB
27 K 2.2 K
RP
10 K
(R1) (R2)

CW
TUNE CW
1 POSITIVE
U3 FEEDBACK
0 FACTOR
R6
10 K

7. Active notch filter

Positive feedback is applied to bootstrap ground end of Hall network to increase Q.

1
QBOOST _ FACTOR  (15)
1  PFF

Unfortunately, notch depth in a physical circuit becomes shallower with increasing Q

even with the best setting of the optional Notch Depth Optimize adjustment. The
mathematical model does not show this effect. Although not proven, it is suspected that
small phase lags in U2 and U3 are a contributing factor and some kind of phase
compensation would improve operation. For the prototype circuit the measured null
depth at 1 kHz with PFF = 0 was -54 dB and was -45 dB with PFF = 0.9.

The operational amplifiers used for this example were TL084 although most any op-amp
would work fine. When the Positive Feedback Factor is zero (R6 at full counter-
clockwise) the circuit is simply the standard Hall network with unity gain buffers. As the

9
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network
potentiometer is turned clockwise the notch width narrows until at unity positive
feedback the circuit has no filtering and might oscillate. Except for the notch region this
circuit has unity gain for any setting of the Tuning control or Positive Feedback Factor.

Active tunable band-pass filter

A band-pass filter is formed by subtracting the output of the notch filter from the input
(Figure 8). For best results resistors R7, R8, R9, and R10 should be matched.

R7
10 K
U4 BAND-PASS
OUTPUT
R8
10 K
NOTCH DEPTH OPTIMIZE
R4
R3 50 K R10
220 K CW 10 K

Ein
U1 C1 C2 C3 R9
6.8 nF 6.8 nF 6.8 nF 10 K
U2
R5 NOTCH
10 K OUTPUT
RA RB
27 K 2.2 K
RP
10 K
(R1) (R2)

CW
TUNE CW
1 POSITIVE
U3 FEEDBACK
0 FACTOR
R6
10 K

8. Band-pass and Notch Filter

Note that the band-pass is formed by subtracting the notch output from the input.

A useful characteristic of this band-pass filter is that the peak response at resonance is 1.0
independent of Q as set by the Positive Feedback Factor. This means that as Q is
adjusted signals at the resonant frequency remain unchanged in amplitude while the
amplitude of signals at frequencies away from resonance varies. The notch output is
simultaneously available. The Q of the band-pass is identical to that of the notch.

One-pot tunable low-distortion sine wave oscillator

A low-distortion one-pot tunable sine wave oscillator (Figure 9) is constructed by

combining the Hall network with the light bulb from Bill Hewlett’s famous oscillator
(References 7 and 8). The resistance of the lamp filament increases with the thermally
averaged rms voltage across it (Figure 10) and is used to control the positive feedback

10
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network
gain to the correct level. The thermal time constant of the filament is long compared to a
half-cycle of oscillation so its resistance remains constant throughout the oscillation
waveform – an important characteristic for low distortion. Before oscillation commences
there is no voltage across the lamp filament so its cold resistance is relatively low. Thus,
the positive feedback path voltage divider gain to the U1 non-inverting input is relatively
high. The negative feedback path gain at the notch frequency is very low. Since the
positive feedback path gain exceeds the negative feedback path gain the system poles are
in the right-half s-plane and oscillation grows exponentially. The lamp filament then
heats with the increasing oscillation voltage across it. Heating causes its resistance to
increase thus reducing the positive feedback path gain and the system poles shift
leftwards.

There are two effects of this thermal control loop. (1) Oscillation stabilizes at the
amplitude where the positive and negative feedback path gains are equal and the system
poles are exactly on the jw axis. (2) The amplitude is regulated by the filament
resistance-voltage characteristic as there is a unique voltage that results in equal feedback
gains.

CM8-3995

CW
+15
R5 3 U1
2.7 7 TLE2071
6 NOTCH DEPTH OPTIMIZE SINE WAVE
R6 OUTPUT
10 K R4
2 R3 50 K
4 CW
220 K
-15
C1 C2 C3
6.8 nF 6.8 nF 6.8 nF

RA RB
27 K 2.2 K
RP
10 K
(R1) (R2)

CW
TUNE

9. Low-distortion sine wave oscillator

The lamp filament resistance forms a voltage divider with R5 in the positive feedback
path that increases voltage division with oscillation signal.

Bill determined that a good operating point on the lamp resistance-voltage curve is in the
lower power region where the change in resistance with applied voltage is high as this
provides high stabilization gain. A further advantage of this operating level is that the
thermal time constant of the filament is long compared to higher operating voltages so
distortion is lower. His oscillator used a 120 volt, 3-watt lamp operating at about 7 Vrms.
Correspondingly, the lamp (Chicago Miniature 8-3995, 130 V, 20 mA in a common T-

11
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network
3¼ miniature bayonet base) in this application was chosen to operate at about 7 Vrms.
The lamp produces no visible light at this low power level.

10. Plot of resistance versus voltage for the CM8-3995 lamp

Note that the change in resistance with applied voltage is high at low voltages and
decreases for higher voltages

A Texas Instruments TLE2071 was chosen for U1 because it is capable of higher than
typical output current to drive the lamp and also features wider than typical bandwidth.
The amplifier gain at the oscillation frequency is many hundreds so the gain-bandwidth
product of the amplifier must be sufficiently high – typically over one thousand times the
oscillation frequency.

Because of the low resistances in the positive feedback path it is important that the
ground impedance in the circuit be very low. Otherwise the high gain at the oscillation
frequency will amplify small voltage drops across the ground to the point that it may be
difficult to set the oscillation amplitude. Depending on the particular ground impedance
and connections the circuit might oscillate to the full rail-rail output voltage of U1
independent of the setting of R6 or might have a hysteresis effect where the circuit either
oscillates or not depending on the setting of R6 but no setting will stabilize the amplitude
at a desired level. One quick (but should not be permanent) remedy short of improving
the ground system should these problems occur is to tweak R4 off of the theoretical ideal

12
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network
value as this will make the notch shallower thus requiring less gain for oscillation. Each
of these problems was experienced with various prototype versions of the oscillator.
However, the circuit works very well if constructed properly.

The initial setting of R6 should be full clockwise as this will insure that oscillation starts
although the waveform will be clipped at the op-amp rails (use a higher resistance for R5
if oscillation does not start.). Then adjust R6 counter-clockwise until the output
amplitude is a sine wave about 20 Vpp. The thermal servo system of the filament is
under-damped so the amplitude will fluctuate for a number of seconds before stabilizing.
The ultra low distortion sine wave (less than 0.003%) is worth the wait.

For different designs, choose a lamp with a rated voltage around twenty, give or take,
times the target rms output voltage. Choose a lamp with the lowest rated current for a
given voltage to ease current drive requirement of the op-amp. Then determine the
resistance of the filament at the target operating voltage. Choose R5 to be roughly in the
range of one three-hundredth to one thousandth of that filament resistance. Use R6 to fine
adjust the operating point. Be sure the op-amp has sufficient output current to drive the
lamp peak current and a large signal gain-bandwidth product at least a thousand times
higher than the frequency of oscillation.

An undesirable characteristic of this circuit is that the sine wave amplitude varies with
tuning. This is because the transfer gain of the Hall network at the notch frequency
varies with tuning. For stable oscillation the positive feedback factor must also vary by
the same amount. This means that as the Hall network transfer gain decreases the
oscillation amplitude must increase to cause the positive feedback factor to decrease by
the same amount – i.e. the resistance of the filament must increase. Depending on the
tuning range and specific values of the components the amplitude variation with tuning
could range from ceasing to oscillate to clipping at the op-amp power rails. R6 can
always be adjusted to compensate but that is inconvenient. The lamp stabilized oscillator
is attractive for its simplicity if the tuning range is narrow or to be permanently set at a
specific frequency.

The only way to obtain stable oscillation amplitude over a wide frequency range is to use
an electronic servo system to control the gain instead of the lamp. This approach
achieves almost the low distortion of the lamp circuit while rapidly settling to the
amplitude set point. Because of the much higher impedances in the positive feedback
path, this circuit is practically immune to the ground impedance issues of the lamp
version. A sample circuit (Reference 9 and Figure 11) was adapted from the amplitude
control for the Hewlett-Packard model 239A oscillator.

13
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network
R3
240 K

C1 C2 C3
6.8 nF 6.8 nF 6.8 nF

RA RB
27 K 2.2 K
RP
10 K
+15
(R1) (R2) U1
2 7
TLE2071
CW 6 Eout
TUNE
3 D1
4 1N4148
-15

CW R11
R4 R3 D2 R9 R10 100
51K 10K 5.1V 499K 499K

C4
0.1 UF +15 C6
R7 2 0.33 UF
C5 R8 8
47K
R5 0.1 UF 100K
6 1
10K R14
U2A 20K
7 3
4 +15
TL072
R6 VREF
U2B 5 -15
Q1 10K
J310 TL072 R13
10K

11. JFET controlled sine-wave oscillator

The JFET is used in its ohmic region as a voltage controlled resistor to manage positive
feedback.

The peak of the sine wave is detected by components D1, R11, and C6. R11 limits peak
capacitor charging current from the op-amp to prevent distortion. The output of U2A is
the control error voltage which is the detected peak voltage minus twice the reference
voltage (VREF = 5 volts for this example) at the non-inverting input. Thus, at zero error
the peak sine wave output voltage is twice the reference voltage plus the diode drop or
about 10.6 volts for this example. U2B is a proportional plus integral controller that
applies a variable gate bias to JFET Q1 which operates in its ohmic region as a voltage
controlled resistor. The integral gain is 1/(R8*C5) and the proportional gain is R7/R8. R7
is used to adjust the damping and is a compromise between not too under-damped and
low distortion. Ideally, the channel resistance of Q1 would be constant throughout a
cycle of oscillation but the resistance is modulated by the ripple voltage on C6 amplified
by the proportional gain. The lowest distortion occurs when R7 is as small as can be
tolerated (i.e. lowest proportional gain and lowest damping) so that the settling time when
changing frequencies is not too oscillatory. Zener D2 limits the voltage swing of U2B to
the gate control range of Q1. The zener voltage may need to be adjusted depending on
the characteristics of a particular JFET.

14
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network
A type J310 JFET was used for this example but most any JFET should work well with
appropriate adjustments to R4 and perhaps D2. The channel resistance is high when the
gate-source voltage is near pinch-off and low when the gate-source voltage is near zero.
The required attenuation factor in the positive feedback path of U1 is many hundreds and
is divided into two parts. Part one consists of the voltage division of potentiometer, R3,
and part two consists of the voltage division between R4 and the resistance of the JFET
channel. Breaking the attenuation into two parts enables a single relatively low resistance
potentiometer value to be used to scale R4 up to whatever feedback resistance is required.
If the oscillation amplitude is below the set-point then the error output voltage of U2A is
positive which then drives the output of U2B negative resulting in a high channel
resistance for Q1. This makes the positive feedback factor relatively high thus causing
the oscillation amplitude to increase until the error voltage is zero.

In the ohmic region of operation, the resistance of the JFET channel is fairly linear for
small voltages across the channel less than a few tenths of a volt positive or negative. C4,
R5, and R6 form an AC voltage divider that couples half of the small signal at the drain of
the JFET to its gate to significantly improve linearity for low distortion (Reference 10).

The adjustment range of potentiometer, R3, is divided into three regions:

 Oscillation will not occur if R3 is too counter-clockwise. U2B will drive the JFET
gate bias towards pinch-off in an attempt to maximize the gain.

 Oscillation amplitude will not be controlled and the peaks may go into clipping if
R3 is too clockwise. U2B will drive the JFET gate bias positive in an attempt to
minimize the gain.

 Between the excessive conditions is a zone where the oscillation amplitude is

controlled and sine wave amplitude is independent of the R3 setting. The
optimum setting for lowest distortion is at the onset of where the output of U2B
starts to quickly go negative. This should be checked over the entire tuning range
and R3 adjusted for best compromise so that the output of U2B is always near zero
volts preferably not positive more than a tenth of a volt or so. The resistance of R4
has to be selected based on the characteristics of the particular JFET. The useful
adjustment range will be very narrow if R4 is too small. The circuit will not
oscillate if R4 is too large. Although there is broad leeway, a good value for R4 is
such that the optimum adjustment of R3 is about one-third to one-half up from the
ground end. This value has to be experimentally determined.

The distortion of both circuits was measured at 1 kHz using an H-P model 3580A
spectrum analyzer. The amplitude of the fundamental was adjusted to be at the 0 dB
reference level. The sweep range was 0 to 10 kHz and the resolution bandwidth was 30
Hz. With the lamp version no harmonic was visible above the instrument noise floor 90
dB below the reference level. Thus, distortion is less than 0.003 percent. The JFET
version showed a slight indication at the second harmonic.

15
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network
There is some interesting history associated with these two oscillator circuits. Bill used
the lamp filament to increase negative feedback to stabilize his Wien bridge oscillator
while the lamp filament in the Hall circuit decreases positive feedback to stabilize the
oscillation. It is also interesting to note that the lamp control is from H-P’s first oscillator
and the JFET control is from H-P’s last purely analog oscillator before digital synthesis
took over in the 1980s.

One question that arises concerning notch type oscillators is how they work at all.
Considering that at the notch frequency the transfer gain is theoretically zero even an
infinite gain op-amp would be insufficient. The solution to this apparent dilemma is that
the net zero phase operating frequency including the small time delay through the op-amp
is not precisely the notch frequency. Thus, there is a finite, albeit small, transmission
through the network. The op-amp then amplifies that small voltage by many hundreds to
produce the sine-wave output.

Conclusion

The Hall network accomplishes the often sought after feat over many years of being truly
tunable over a wide frequency range using a single potentiometer. It is a mystery to the
author why the Hall network did not attain popularity many years ago. Perhaps this
article will provide the Hall network with a new opportunity to become widely known.

Acknowledgement

I would like to give a big personal thanks to the designer of the Hall network, Mr. Henry
P. Hall, now retired from a distinguished career at General Radio and recipient of the
IEEE Joseph F. Keithley Award in Instrumentation and Measurement in 2004, who
graciously provided me with helpful information, inspiration, and encouragement.

References

1. Hall, Henry P., “RC Networks with Single-Component Frequency Control”, IRE
Transactions, Sept. 1955, pages 283 and 284.

2. Kuhn, Kenneth A., Scan of hand derivation of symbolic equations for Hall network as
done during a number of lunch hours in 1979,
http://www.kennethkuhn.com/electronics/hall_network.jpg .

3. Turner, Rufus P., “Waveform Measurements”, Hayden Book Company, New York,
1968, pages 34 and 35.

4. Hall, Courtney, Tunable Notch Filter, Ham Radio Magazine, Communications

Technology, Inc., Greenville, New Hampshire, September, 1975, pp 16 – 20.

16
 Design and Applications of the Hall Network

5. General Radio Company, “Instruction Manual, Type 1232-A Tuned Amplifier and
Null Detector”, West Concord, Massachusetts, 1961, page 23 (schematic diagram).

6. General Radio Company, “The General Radio Experimenter”, July, 1961, West
Concord, Massachusetts, pages 3 – 7. A pdf can be downloaded from
http://www.ietlabs.com/genrad/experimenters/ .

7. Hewlett, William R., “A New Type Resistance-Capacity Oscillator”, Thesis submitted

to Leland Stanford University, Stanford, California, June, 1939.

8. Hewlett-Packard Company, “Operating and Service Manual, Model 200B Audio

Oscillator”, Palo Alto, CA, circa 1955, page 8 (schematic diagram).

9. Hewlett-Packard Company, “Model 239A Oscillator Operating and Service Manual”,

Loveland, CO, 1978, pages 8-9 and 8-10.

10. Evans, Arthur D. “Designing with Field-Effect Transistors”, McGraw-Hill Book

Company, New York, 1981, pages 244 and 245.

Author’s Biography

Kenneth Kuhn is a senior electrical engineer at Xylem Inc. | OI Analytical / CMS Field
Products in Pelham, Alabama and designs electronics for chemical analysis equipment.
He obtained his B.S.E.E. at Auburn University and his M.S.E.E. at the University of
Alabama, Birmingham where he is also on the adjunct faculty teaching evening courses
in electronics. His home electronics shop includes a large collection of vintage Hewlett-
Packard test equipment which can be seen on his virtual H-P museum at
http://www.kennethkuhn.com/hpmuseum. Other interests include taking care of his pet
cats, investing, and listening to and composing modern classical music.

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