Electronic filter

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Television signal splitter consisting of a high-pass filter (left) and a low-pass filter (right).
The antenna is connected to the screw terminals to the left of center.

Electronic filters are electronic circuits which perform signal processing functions,
specifically to remove unwanted frequency components from the signal and/or to
enhance wanted ones. Electronic filters can be:

• passive or active
• analog or digital
• high-pass, low-pass, bandpass, band-reject (band reject; notch), or all-pass.
• discrete-time (sampled) or continuous-time
• linear or non-linear
• infinite impulse response (IIR type) or finite impulse response (FIR type)

The most common types of electronic filters are linear filters, regardless of other aspects
of their design. See the article on linear filters for details on their design and analysis.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 History
• 2 Classification by technology
o 2.1 Passive filters
 2.1.1 Single element types
 2.1.2 L filter
 2.1.3 T and π filters
 2.1.4 Multiple element types
o 2.2 Active filters
o 2.3 Digital filters
o 2.4 Other filter technologies
 2.4.1 Quartz filters and piezoelectrics
  2.4.2 SAW filters
 2.4.3 BAW filters
 2.4.4 Garnet filters
 2.4.5 Atomic filters
• 3 The transfer function
• 4 Classification by transfer function
• 5 Classification by topology
• 6 Classification by design methodology
o 6.1 Direct circuit analysis
o 6.2 Image impedance analysis
o 6.3 Network synthesis
• 7 See also

• 8 External links and references

[edit] History
The oldest forms of electronic filters are passive analog linear filters, constructed using
only resistors and capacitors or resistors and inductors. These are known as RC and RL
single pole filters respectively. More complex multipole LC filters have also existed for
many years and the operation of such filters is well understood with many books having
been written about them.

Hybrid filters have also been made, typically involving combinations of analog amplifiers
with mechanical resonators or delay lines. Other devices such as CCD delay lines have
also been used as discrete-time filters. With the availability of digital signal processing,
active digital filters have become common.

[edit] Classification by technology

[edit] Passive filters

Passive implementations of linear filters are based on combinations of resistors (R),

inductors (L) and capacitors (C). These types are collectively known as passive filters,
because they do not depend upon an external power supply.

Inductors block high-frequency signals and conduct low-frequency signals, while

capacitors do the reverse. A filter in which the signal passes through an inductor, or in
which a capacitor provides a path to ground, presents less attenuation to low-frequency
signals than high-frequency signals and is a low-pass filter. If the signal passes through a
capacitor, or has a path to ground through an inductor, then the filter presents less
attenuation to high-frequency signals than low-frequency signals and is a high-pass filter.
Resistors on their own have no frequency-selective properties, but are added to inductors
and capacitors to determine the time-constants of the circuit, and therefore the
frequencies to which it responds.
The inductors and capacitors are the reactive elements of the filter. The number of
elements determines the order of the filter. In this context, an LC tuned circuit being used
in a band-pass or band-stop filter is considered a single element even though it consists of
two components.

At high frequencies (above about 100 megahertz), sometimes the inductors consist of
single loops or strips of sheet metal, and the capacitors consist of adjacent strips of metal.
These inductive or capacitive pieces of metal are called stubs.

[edit] Single element types

A low-pass electronic filter realised by an RC circuit

The simplest passive filters consist of a single reactive element. These are constructed of
RC, RL, LC or RLC elements.

The quality or "Q" factor is a measure that is sometimes used to describe simple band-
pass or band-stop filters. A filter is said to have a high Q if it selects or rejects a range of
frequencies that is narrow in comparison to the centre frequency. Q may be defined for
bandpass and band-reject filters as the ratio of centre frequency divided by 3dB
bandwidth. It is not commonly employed with higher order filters where other parameters
are of more concern, and for high-pass or low-pass filters Q is not normally related to
bandwidth.

[edit] L filter

An L filter consists of two reactive elements, one in series and one in parallel.

[edit] T and π filters

Low-pass π filter

High-pass T filter

Three-element filters can have a 'T' or 'π' topology and in either geometries, a low-pass,
high-pass, band-pass, or band-stop characteristic is possible. The components can be
chosen symmetric or not, depending on the required frequency characteristics. The high-
pass T filter in the illustration, has a very low impedance at high frequencies, and a very
high impedance at low frequencies. That means that it can be inserted in a transmission
line, resulting in the high frequencies being passed and low frequencies being reflected.
Likewise, for the illustrated low-pass π filter, the circuit can be connected to a
transmission line, transmitting low frequencies and reflecting high frequencies. Using m-
derived filter sections with correct termination impedances, the input impedance can be
reasonably constant in the pass band[1].

[edit] Multiple element types

Multiple element filters are usually constructed as a ladder network. These can be seen as
a continuation of the L,T and π designs of filters. More elements are needed when it is
desired to improve some parameter of the filter such as stop-band rejection or slope of
transition from pass-band to stop-band.

[edit] Active filters

Active filters are implemented using a combination of passive and active (amplifying)
components, and require an outside power source. Operational amplifiers are frequently
used in active filter designs. These can have high Q, and can achieve resonance without
the use of inductors. However, their upper frequency limit is limited by the bandwidth of
the amplifiers used.

[edit] Digital filters

A finite impulse response filter

Digital signal processing allows the inexpensive construction of a wide variety of filters.
The signal is sampled and an analog to digital converter turns the signal into a stream of
numbers. A computer program running on a CPU or a specialized DSP (or less often
running on a hardware implementation of the algorithm) calculates an output number
stream. This output can be converted to a signal by passing it through a digital to analog
converter. There are problems with noise introduced by the conversions, but these can be
controlled and limited for many useful filters. Due to the sampling involved, the input
signal must be of limited frequency content or aliasing will occur. See also: Digital filter.

[edit] Other filter technologies

[edit] Quartz filters and piezoelectrics

In the late 1930s, engineers realized that small mechanical systems made of rigid
materials such as quartz would acoustically resonate at radio frequencies, i.e. from
audible frequencies (sound) up to several hundred megahertz. Some early resonators were
made of steel, but quartz quickly became favored. The biggest advantage of quartz is that
it is piezoelectric. This means that quartz resonators can directly convert their own
mechanical motion into electrical signals. Quartz also has a very low coefficient of
thermal expansion which means that quartz resonators can produce stable frequencies
over a wide temperature range. Quartz crystal filters have much higher quality factors
than LCR filters. When higher stabilities are required, the crystals and their driving
circuits may be mounted in a "crystal oven" to control the temperature. For very narrow
band filters, sometimes several crystals are operated in series.

Engineers realized that a large number of crystals could be collapsed into a single
component, by mounting comb-shaped evaporations of metal on a quartz crystal. In this
scheme, a "tapped delay line" reinforces the desired frequencies as the sound waves flow
across the surface of the quartz crystal. The tapped delay line has become a general
scheme of making high-Q filters in many different ways.

[edit] SAW filters

SAW (surface acoustic wave) filters are electromechanical devices commonly used in
radio frequency applications. Electrical signals are converted to a mechanical wave in a
device constructed of a piezoelectric crystal or ceramic; this wave is delayed as it
propagates across the device, before being converted back to an electrical signal by
further electrodes. The delayed outputs are recombined to produce a direct analog
implementation of a finite impulse response filter. This hybrid filtering technique is also
found in an analog sampled filter. SAW filters are limited to frequencies up to 3 GHz.

[edit] BAW filters

BAW (Bulk Acoustic Wave) filters are electromechanical devices. BAW filters can
implement ladder or lattice filters. BAW filters typically operate at frequencies from
around 2 to around 16 GHz, and in may be smaller or thinner than equivalent SAW
filters. Two main variants of BAW filters are making their way into devices, Thin film
bulk acoustic resonator or FBAR and Solid Mounted Bulk Acoustic Resonators.

[edit] Garnet filters

Main article: Yttrium iron garnet filter

Another method of filtering, at microwave frequencies from 800 MHz to about 5 GHz, is
to use a synthetic single crystal yttrium iron garnet sphere made of a chemical
combination of yttrium and iron (YIGF, or yttrium iron garnet filter). The garnet sits
on a strip of metal driven by a transistor, and a small loop antenna touches the top of the
sphere. An electromagnet changes the frequency that the garnet will pass. The advantage
of this method is that the garnet can be tuned over a very wide frequency by varying the
strength of the magnetic field.

[edit] Atomic filters

For even higher frequencies and greater precision, the vibrations of atoms must be used.
Atomic clocks use caesium masers as ultra-high Q filters to stabilize their primary
oscillators. Another method, used at high, fixed frequencies with very weak radio signals,
is to use a ruby maser tapped delay line.
[edit] The transfer function
The transfer function of a filter is the ratio of the output signal to that of the input signal
as a function of the complex frequency :

with .

The transfer function of all linear time-invariant filters generally share certain
characteristics:

• Since the filters are constructed of discrete components, their transfer function
will be the ratio of two polynomials in , i.e. a rational function of . The order of
the transfer function will be the highest power of encountered in either the
numerator or the denominator.
• The polynomials of the transfer function will all have real coefficients. Therefore,
the poles and zeroes of the transfer function will either be real or occur in
complex conjugate pairs.
• Since the filters are assumed to be stable, the real part of all poles (i.e. zeroes of
the denominator) will be negative, i.e. they will lie in the left half-plane in
complex frequency space.

The proper construction of a transfer function involves the Laplace transform, and
therefore it is needed to assume null initial conditions, because

And when f(0)=0 we can get rid of the constants and use the usual expression

An alternative to transfer functions is to give the behavior of the filter as a convolution.

The convolution theorem, which holds for Laplace transforms, guarantees equivalence
with transfer functions.

[edit] Classification by transfer function

Main article: transfer function

Filters may be specified by family and passband. A filter's family is specified by certain
design criteria which give general rules for specifying the transfer function of the filter.
Some common filter families and their particular design criteria are:

• Butterworth filter - no gain ripple in pass band and stop band, slow cutoff
• Chebyshev filter(Type I) - no gain ripple in stop band, moderate cutoff
• Chebyshev filter(Type II) - no gain ripple in pass band, moderate cutoff
• Bessel filter - no group delay ripple, no gain ripple in both bands, slow gain cutoff
• Elliptic filter - gain ripple in pass and stop band, fast cutoff
• Optimum "L" filter
• Gaussian filter - no ripple in response to step function
 • Hourglass filter
• Raised-cosine filter

Generally, each family of filters can be specified to a particular order. The higher the
order, the more the filter will approach the "ideal" filter. The ideal filter has full
transmission in the pass band, and complete attenuation in the stop band, and the
transition between the two bands is abrupt (often called brick-wall).

Here is an image comparing Butterworth, Chebyshev, and elliptic filters. The filters in
this illustration are all fifth-order low-pass filters. The particular implementation --
analog or digital, passive or active -- makes no difference; their output would be the
same.

As is clear from the image, elliptic filters are sharper than all the others, but they show
ripples on the whole bandwidth.

Each family can be used to specify a particular pass band in which frequencies are
transmitted, while frequencies in the stop band (i.e. outside the pass band) are more or
less attenuated.

• Low-pass filter - Low frequencies are passed, high frequencies are attenuated.
• High-pass filter - High frequencies are passed, Low frequencies are attenuated.
• Band-pass filter - Only frequencies in a frequency band are passed.
• Band-stop filter - Only frequencies in a frequency band are attenuated.
• All-pass filter - All frequencies are passed, but the phase of the output is
modified.

The family and passband of a filter completely specify the transfer function of a filter.
The transfer function completely specifies the behavior of a linear filter, but not the
particular technology used to implement it. In other words, there are a number of
different ways of achieving a particular transfer function when designing a circuit. A
particular pass band filter can be obtained by transformation of a prototype filter of that
class.

[edit] Classification by topology

Electronic filters can be classified by the technology used to implement them. Filters
using passive filter and active filter technology can be further classified by the particular
electronic filter topology used to implement them.

Any given filter transfer function may be implemented in any electronic filter topology.

Some common circuit topologies are:

 • Cauer topology - Passive
• Sallen Key topology - Active
• Multiple Feedback topology - Active
• State Variable Topology - Active
• Biquadratic topology biquad filter - Active

[edit] Classification by design methodology

Linear analog electronic filters

Network synthesis filters[hide]

• Butterworth filter
• Chebyshev filter
• Elliptic (Cauer) filter
• Bessel filter
• Gaussian filter
• Optimum "L" (Legendre) filter
• Linkwitz-Riley filter

Image impedance filters[hide]

• Constant k filter
• m-derived filter
• General image filters
• Zobel network (constant R) filter
• Lattice filter (all-pass)
• Bridged T delay equaliser (all-pass)
• Composite image filter
• mm'-type filter

Simple filters[hide]

• RL filter
• RC filter
• RLC filter

• LC filter
edit

Historically, linear analog filter design has evolved through three major approaches. The
oldest designs are simple circuits where the main design criterion was the Q factor of the
circuit. This reflected the radio receiver application of filtering as Q was a measure of the
frequency selectivity of a tuning circuit. From the 1920s filters began to be designed from
the image point of view, mostly being driven by the requirements of telecommunications.
After World War II the dominant methodology was network synthesis. The higher
mathematics used originally required extensive tables of polynomial coefficient values to
be published but modern computer resources have made that unnecessary.[2]

[edit] Direct circuit analysis

Low order filters can be designed by directly applying basic circuit laws such as
Kirchoff's laws to obtain the transfer function. This kind of analysis is usually only
carried out for simple filters of 1st or 2nd order.

RL filter frequency response

[edit] Image impedance analysis

Main article: Composite image filters

This approach analyses the filter sections from the point of view of the filter being in an
infinite chain of identical sections. It has the advantages of simplicity of approach and the
ability to easily extend to higher orders. It has the disadvantage that accuracy of predicted
responses rely on filter terminations in the image impedance, which is usually not the
case.[3]

Constant k filter response with 5 elements

Zobel network (constant R) filter, 5 sections

m-derived filter response, m=0.5, 2 elements

m-derived filter response, m=0.5, 5 elements

[edit] Network synthesis

Main article: Network synthesis filters

The network synthesis approach starts with a required transfer function and then
expresses that as a polynomial equation of the input impedance of the filter. The actual
element values of the filter are obtained by continued-fraction or partial-fraction
expansions of this polynomial. Unlike the image method, there is no need for impedance
matching networks at the terminations as the effects of the terminating resistors are
included in the analysis from the start.[3]