Circuit Analysis and Design
Filters
Electronics II 1
Topologies and Design
ACTIVE FILTERS
Electronics II 2
What is a Filter?
A filter is a device that passes signals at certain frequency ranges while
preventing the passage of others
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Applications
Filter circuits are used in a wide variety of applications.
In the field of telecommunication:-
band-pass filters are used in the audio frequency range (0 kHz to 20 kHz) for modems
and speech processing. High-frequency band-pass filters (several hundred MHz) are
used for channel selection.
In power lines:-
System power supplies often use band-rejection filters to suppress the 60-Hz line frequency
and high frequency transients.
In Computers:-
Data acquisition systems require anti-aliasing low pass filters
Electronics II 4
Active Filters
At high frequencies (> 10 MHz), filters consist of passive components
such as inductors (L), resistors (R), and capacitors (C).
At lower frequencies (1 Hz to 1 MHz), the inductor value becomes very
large and the inductor itself gets quite bulky, making economical production difficult.
In these cases, active filters become important.
Active filters are circuits that use an operational amplifier (op amp) as the active device in
combination with some resistors and
capacitors to provide an LCR-like filter performance at low frequencies
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Filters with Voltage Follower
But what about loading effects?
High Pass Low Pass
One pole filters with 20dB/decade slope!
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Modern Filter Design
Filter Types
Famous filter types are Butterworth, Chebyshev (and Inverse Cheby),
Bessel and Elliptic filters.
We will only study Butterworth and Chebyshev filters
They vary in their pass-band, cutoff and skirt selectivity (attenuation)
responses
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Modern Filter Design
Butterworth Filter
1. Flattest pass-band ripple with no ripple, see plot
2. Medium Q (selectivity)
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Modern Filter Design
Chebyshev Filter
1. pass-band flatness is not critical and can accept some defined ripple
2. High Q (high selectivity) where steeper initial descent into the stop-band
is required
Electronics II 9
Modern Filter Design
Butterworth Vs. Chebyshev Filter
Classwork V: Simulate using ADS or Matlab
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Quality Factor Q
The quality factor Q is an equivalent design parameter to the filter order n.
Instead of designing an nth order chebyschef low-pass, the problem can be expressed as
designing a Chebyschef low-pass filter with a certain Q.
For band-pass filters, Q is defined as the ratio of the mid frequency, fm, to the bandwidth
at the two –3 dB points:
f centre
Q
f 2 f1
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Design Equations for f3dB bandwidth and filter order N
1
f 3 dB
2RC
1
Av
2N
f
1
f 3dB
Filter Design: Low pass prototype
A cascade of second-order low-pass filters. The transfer function of a
single stage is:
For a first-order filter, the coefficient b is always zero (b1=0), thus yielding:
The first-order and second-order filter stages are the building blocks for higher-
order filters. Often the filters operate at unity gain (A0=1) to reduce the
stringent demands on the op amp’s open-loop gain.
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Cascading Filters and Filter Order
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First Order LPF
First-Order Non-inverting Low-Pass Filter with Unity Gain
1
f 3dB
2RC
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2-Pole Low-Pass Butterworth Filter:
Sallen-Key Topology(unity gain opamp)
Note doubled roll-off
R1 R2
x Y
C 3 2C 4
s j
C 3 1.414C
C 4 0.707C
Apply KCL at nodes x and y with Vy=Vo yields transfer function. But for LPF
make “conductance's” to allow signal to pass
Vo(s) G1G 2
T ( s) What happens at s=jω=0?
Vi( s) G1G 2 sC 4(G1 G 2 sC 3)
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2-Pole High-Pass Butterworth Filter
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3-Pole Low Pass
Butterworth
Filters
High Pass
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4-Pole
Butterworth
Filters
Low Pass
We are NOT
cascading 2
two pole
sage!
High Pass
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Butterworth Filter Tables LPF
R1 R2 R3 R4 C1 C2 C3 C4
R C
2-Pole 1.414C 0.707C
R R
3-Pole 3.546C 1.392C 0.202C
R R R
4-Pole 1.082C 0.9241C 2.613C 0.3825C
R R R R
Electronics II 20
Butterworth Filter Tables HPF
R1 R2 R3 R4 C1 C2 C3 C4
R C
2-Pole 0.707R 1.414R C C
R R R
3-Pole 3.546 1.392 0.2024 C C C
R R R R
4-Pole
1.082 0.924 2.613 0.382 C C C C
Electronics II 21
2nd Order Sallen-Key Bandpass
Butterworth Filter
The Sallen-Key band-pass circuit has the following transfer function:
To set the mid frequency of the band-pass,
specify fm and C and then solve for R:
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Band-Rejection Filter Design
A band-rejection filter is used to suppress a certain frequency
rather than a range of frequencies.
To set the mid frequency of the band-pass, specify fm and C, and then solve for R
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References
Thomas Kugelstadt, Active Filter Design Techniques, Texas Instruments
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