Introduction to Frequency Selective

Circuits

Analog Filters: Passive Filters and Active

CHAPTER-3 Filters
Digital Filters
Digital Filters

IIR Filters

FIR Filters
1
 INTRODUCTION
• In this chapter, we analyze the effect of varying source frequency on circuit voltages and
currents. The result of this analysis is the frequency response of a circuit.

• Although varying the frequency of a sinusoidal source does not change the element types or
their connections, it does alter the impedance of capacitors and inductors, because the
impedance of these elements is a function of frequency.

• As we will see, the careful choice of circuit elements, their values, and their connections to
other elements enables us to construct circuits that pass to the output only those input signals
that reside in a desired range of frequencies.

• Such circuits are called frequency-selective circuits. Many devices that communicate via
electric signals, such as telephones, radios, televisions, and satellites, employ frequency-
selective circuits.

• Frequency-selective circuits are also called filters because of their ability to filter out certain
input signals on the basis of frequency. 2
• Figure 14.1 represents this ability in a simplistic way. To be more accurate, we should note that
no practical frequency-selective circuit can perfectly or completely filter out selected
frequencies.

• Rather, filters attenuate—that is, weaken or lessen the effect of—any input signals with
frequencies outside frequencies outside a particular frequency band.

• We begin this chapter by analyzing circuits from each of the four major categories of filters:
low pass, high pass, band pass, and band reject.

• The transfer function of a circuit is the starting point for the frequency response analysis.
• The transfer function of interest to us will be the ratio of the Laplace transform of the output
voltage to the Laplace transform of the input voltage, or: H(s) = Vo(s)/Vi(s)

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 SOME PRELIMINARIES
• The signals passed from the input to the output fall within a band of frequencies called the
passband.
• Input voltages outside this band have their magnitudes attenuated by the circuit and are thus
effectively prevented from reaching the output terminals of the circuit.

• Frequencies not in a circuit's passband are in its stopband. Frequency-selective circuits are
categorized by the location of the passband.

• One way of identifying the type of frequency-selective circuit is to examine a frequency

response plot.
• A frequency response plot shows how a circuit's transfer function (both amplitude and phase)
changes as the source frequency changes.

• A frequency response plot has two parts. One is a graph of |H(jω)|versus frequency ω. This
part of the plot is called the magnitude plot.

• The other part is a graph of ϴ(jω) versus frequency ω. This part is called the phase angle4 plot.
• The ideal frequency response plots for the
four major categories of filters are shown in
Fig. 14.3. Parts (a) and (b) illustrate the ideal
plots for a low-pass and a high-pass filter,
respectively.
• Both filters have one passband and one
stopband, which are defined by the cutoff
frequency that separates them.
• The names low pass and high pass are derived
from the magnitude plots: a low-pass filter
passes signals at frequencies lower than the
cutoff frequency from the input to the output,
and a high-pass filter passes signals at
frequencies higher than the cutoff frequency.
• Thus the terms low and high as used here do
not refer to any absolute values of frequency,
but rather to relative values with respect to
the cutoff frequency. 5
• The two remaining categories of filters each have two cutoff frequencies.
• Figure 14.3(c) illustrates the ideal frequency response plot of a bandpass filter, which passes a
source voltage to the output only when the source frequency is within the band defined by the
two cutoff frequencies.
• Figure 14.3(d) shows the ideal plot of a bandreject filter, which passes a source voltage to the
output only when the source frequency is outside the band defined by the two cutoff
frequencies.
• The bandreject filter thus rejects, or stops, the source voltage from reaching the output when
its frequency is within the band defined by the cutoff frequencies.
• All of the filters we will consider in this section are passive filters, so called because their
filtering capabilities depend only on the passive elements: resistors, capacitors, and inductors.

• Because many practical filter applications require increasing the amplitude of the output,
passive filters have some significant disadvantages.

• A much greater selection of amplifying filters is found among the active filter circuits, the
subject of next section.
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 LOW-PASS FILTERS
The Series RL Circuit – Qualitative Analysis
• Recall that the impedance of an inductor is jωL.

• At low frequencies, the inductor's impedance is very small compared with the resistor's
impedance, and the inductor effectively functions as a short circuit.

• The term low frequencies thus refers to any frequencies for which ωL << R.

• The equivalent circuit for ω = 0 is shown in Fig. 14.4(b). In this equivalent circuit, the output
voltage and the input voltage are equal both in magnitude and in phase angle.

Figure 14.4: (a) A series RL low-pass filter. (b) The equivalent circuit at ω = 0. and (c) The equivalent circuit at ω7 = ∞.
• At high frequencies, the inductor's impedance is very
large compared with the resistor's impedance, and
the inductor thus functions as an open circuit,
effectively blocking the flow of current in the circuit.

• The term high frequencies thus refers to any

frequencies for which ωL » R.

• The equivalent circuit for ω = ꚙ is shown in Fig.

14.4(c), where the output voltage magnitude is zero.

• Based on the behavior of the output voltage

magnitude, this series RL circuit selectively passes
low-frequency inputs to the output, and it blocks
high-frequency inputs from reaching the output.

• This circuit's response to varying input frequency

thus has the shape shown in Fig. 14.5.
Figure 14.5: The frequency response plot for the series RL
• These two plots comprise the frequency response circuit in Fig. 14.4(a).
plots of the series RL circuit in Fig. 14.4(a). 8
9
 The Series RL Circuit – Quantitative Analysis
We begin by constructing the s-domain equivalent of the circuit in Fig. 14.4(a).

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 (14.11)

(14.12)

Figure 14.6: The s-domain equivalent for the circuit in Fig. 14.4(a). 11
12
TABLE 14.1 Input and Output Voltage Magnitudes
for Several Frequencies

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 LOW-PASS FILTERS
The Series RC Circuit
• The series RC circuit shown in Fig. 14.7 also behaves as a low-pass filter. As we did in the
previous qualitative analysis, we use three frequency regions to develop the behavior of the
series RC circuit in Fig. 14.7:

Figure 14.7: A series

RC low-pass filter. 14
15
16
Figure 14.9: Two low-pass filters, the series RL and the series RC, together with their
transfer functions and cutoff frequencies. 17
18
 HIGH-PASS FILTERS
The Series RC Circuit – Qualitative Analysis

Figure 14.10: (a) A series RC high-pass filter; (b) the equivalent circuit at ω = 0; and (c) the
equivalent circuit at ω = ∞ . 19
20
Figure 14.11: The frequency response plot
for the series RC circuit in Fig. 14.10(a). 21
Figure 14.12: The s-domain equivalent
of the circuit in Fig. 14.10(a). 22
23
24
Figure 14.18: Two high-pass filters, the series RC and the series RL, together with
their transfer functions and cutoff frequencies. 25
act as high-
pass filters.

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