Table of Contents

Introduction 3
Background 4
Procedure 5
Graph 6
Conclusion 7
Introduction

Filters are essential to the operation of most electronic circuits. Filter is a device or process that
removes unwanted components or features from a transmitted signal. Most often, this means
removing some frequencies and not other to suppress interfering signals and reduce background
noise. Filters are classified according to the functions that they are to perform, in terms of ranges of
frequencies. In circuit theory, a filter is an electrical network that alters the amplitude and/or phase
characteristics of a signal with respect to frequency. Ideally, a filter will not add new frequencies to
the input signal, nor will it change the component frequencies of that signal, but it will change the
relative amplitudes of the various frequency components and/or their phase relationships. Filters
are often used in electronic systems to emphasize signals in certain frequency ranges and reject
signals in other frequency ranges.
Background
The Butterworth filter is a signal processing filter with a pass-band frequency response that is as flat
as feasible (no ripples) and a stop-band frequency response that is zero. Butterworth filters are a type
of digital filter that is extensively employed in motion analysis and audio circuits. They're quick and
easy to utilise. The effect of filtering may be easily understood and predicted because it is frequency-
based. In the spline approaches, choosing a cutoff frequency is easier than determining the error in the
raw data. However, one major drawback of the Butterworth filter is that it achieves pass band flatness
at the expense of a large transition band as the filter transitions from pass to stop band. In addition, it
has poor phase properties. Figure 1 shows the optimal frequency response, also known as a "brick
wall" filter.

NOTE: The higher the Butterworth filter order, the more cascaded stages within the filter design there
are, and the closer the filter gets to the ideal "brick wall" response. In practise, however, this "perfect"
frequency response is impossible to achieve due to significant passband ripple.
Procedure

Freq = 60Hz

Fs=120Hz
Graph
Graph above shows an output of a frequency response with low noise frequencies. Butterworth filter
attenuates frequencies above the pass band frequencies.
Conclusion

This application note demonstrates how to design IIR Butterworth Low Pass Filter using matlab. By
increasing design order, even more noise frequencies can be eliminated from the inputted signal.
Butterworth filters are fast and simple to use. They are frequency-based and the effect of filtering
can be easily understood and predicted.