Lecture #6

Biomedical Signal Analysis

Filters (Background)
Concepts of Filters
Introduction to Filters
Active Filters

Fawad Hussain Khan(BME @ NICVD Karachi).

1 11/04/2024
 Filters
Background:

. Filters may be classified as either digital or

analog.

. Digital filters are implemented using a digital

computer
or special purpose digital hardware.

. Analog filters may be classified as either

passive or
active and are usually implemented with R, L,
and C
components and operational amplifiers.
 CONCEPTS

 A “Ideal Electronic Filters” allow distortionless

transmission of a certain band of frequencies and suppress
all the remaining frequencies of the spectrum of the input
signal.
 The frequency spectrum is a representation of amplitude
versus frequencies of this signal.

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What is filter?

Filter is a circuit that passes a

specific range of frequencies
while rejecting other
frequencies.

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 Introduction to Filters
What is passive filter /active filter ?
 A passive filter consists of passive circuit elements
such as capacitors, inductors and resistors .
 An active filter uses active devices such as op-
amps combined with passive elements.

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 Introduction to Filters
The passive elements
provide frequency
selectivity.
 The active devices
provide voltage gain, high
input impedance and low
output impedance.

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 Filters
Background:

. An active filter is one that, along with R,

L, and C
components, also contains an energy
source, such
as that derived from an operational
amplifier.
. A passive filter is one that contains only R, L, and
C components. It is not necessary that all three be
present. L is often omitted (on purpose) from
passive filter design because of the size and cost
of inductors – and they also carry along an R that
must be included in the design.
Differentiate between passive
filter and active filter
 Active Filter
- These Make use of the active device and
resistor and capacitor. No inductor is used.
- As no inductor is used, circuit becomes compact
and less in weight even at low frequencies.
- It require dual power supply.
- Input impedance is high.
- As the output impedance is low, it can drive the
low impedance load.
 Active Filter
- Load is isolated from the frequency determine network. So
variation in load does not affect the characteristic of the filter.
- It is possible to increase the gain.
- Parameters like gain, pass band, cut off frequency can be
adjusted.
- High frequency response is limited by gain band width product
and slew rate.
- Variation in power supply voltage affects the output voltage.
- Feedback through common supply rail may cause oscillations
 Passive Filter
- These make use of the passive components like inductor,
capacitor, resistor etc.
- Circuit becomes bulky and costly especially for low
frequency because size of the inductor increases at lower
frequency.
- It does not need power supply.
- Input impedance is less which loads the source.
- Output impedance is more so it can not drive the low
impedance load.
 Passive Filter
- Load is not isolated from the frequency determining
network so variation in load may affects the characteristic
of filter.
- It is not possible to increase the gain.
- It is not possible to adjust the parameters.
- No restriction at high frequency.
- No power supply is used. So output us not affected.
- No such problem arises.
 Application of Passive Filter
1)Low Pass Filter
- Electronic low-pass filters are used to drive
subwoofers and other types of loudspeakers
, to block high pitches that they can't
efficiently broadcast.
- The tone knob found on many
electric guitars is a low-pass filter used to
reduce the amount of treble in the sound
Application of Passive Filter
1) High Pass Filter
- Rumble filters are high-pass filters applied to
the removal of unwanted sounds near to the
lower end of the audible range or below. For
example, noises.
- High-pass filters are also used for AC coupling
at the inputs of many audio amplifiers, for
preventing the amplification of DC currents
which may harm the amplifier, rob the
amplifier of headroom, and generate waste
heat at the loudspeakers voice coil.
Application of Passive Filter
1)Band Pass Filter
- An analogue electronic band-
pass filter is an RLC circuit (a
resistor–inductor–capacitor
circuit). These filters can also be
created by combining a
low-pass filter with a
high-pass filter.
Application of Passive Filter
1) Band Stop Filter
- Narrow notch filters (optical) are used in
Raman spectroscopy, live sound reproduction (
public address systems, or PA systems) and in
instrument amplifiers (especially amplifiers or
preamplifiers for acoustic instruments such as
acoustic guitar, mandolin,
bass instrument amplifier, etc.) to reduce or
prevent audio feedback, while having little
noticeable effect on the rest of the frequency
spectrum (electronic or software filters). Other
names include 'band limit filter', 'T-notch filter',
'band-elimination filter', and 'band-reject filter'
 Types of filters

Four basic types of filters:

 1. LOW PASS FILTER 3. BAND PASS FILTER

 2. HIGH PASS FILTER 4. BAND STOP FILTER

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 Types of filters

Low Pass Filter (LPF) High Pass Filter (LPF)

Pass all frequencies Pass all frequencies

below cutoff frequency above the cutoff
and reject all frequency and reject all
frequencies above cutoff frequencies below the
frequency cutoff frequency

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 Types of filters

Band Pass Filter (BPF) Band Stop Filter ( Notch)

Passes all frequencies Reject all frequencies

within a band of within a band of
frequencies and reject all frequencies and passes
other frequencies all other frequencies
outside the band. outside the band.

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 Passive Analog Filters
Background: Four types of filters - “Ideal”

lowpass highpass

bandpass bandstop
 Passive Analog Filters
Background: Realistic Filters:

lowpass highpass

bandpass bandstop
 Passive Analog Filters
Low Pass FilterConsider the circuit below.

R +
+
V I C VO
_
_

Low pass filter circuit

1
VO ( jw) jwC 1
 
Vi ( jw) R 1 1  jwRC
jwC
 Passive Analog Filters
Low Pass Filter

0 dB
-3 dB . Bode

1/RC  Passes low frequencies

Attenuates high frequencies

1
x
0.707 Linear Plot

0 1/RC 
 Passive Analog Filters
High Pass FilterConsider the circuit below.

+
C
+
Vi R
_ VO

High Pass Filter

VO ( jw) R jwRC
 
Vi ( jw) 1 1  jwRC
R
jwC
 Passive Analog Filters
High Pass Filter

0 dB
. -3 dB
Passes high frequencies
Bode

1/RC Attenuates low frequencies

1/RC 

1
0.707 x.

Linear

0 1/RC 
 Passive Analog Filters
Bandpass Pass FilterConsider the circuit shown below:

C L
+
+
Vi R VO
_
_

When studying series resonant circuit we showed that;

R
VO ( s) s
 L
Vi ( s) s 2  R s  1
L LC
 RLC Band stop Filter
Consider the circuit below:

R +
+ L
Vi VO
_
Gv (s ) C


The transfer function for VO/Vi can be expressed as follows:

2 1
s 
Gv ( s )  LC
R 1
s2  s 
L LC
 RLC Band Stop Filter
Comments
This is of the form of a band stop filter. We see we have complex zeros
on the jw axis located

1
j
LC

From the characteristic equation we see we have two poles. The poles
an essentially be placed anywhere in the left half of the s-plane. We
see that they will be to the left of the zeros on the jw axis.

We now consider an example on how to use this information.

 Basic Active Filters
Low pass filter

R fb

+ R in +
Vin
_ VO
_
 Basic Active Filters
High pass

R fb

C Rin
+
V in +
_ VO
_
 Basic Active Filters

Band pass filter

R1 C2

C1 R2 R fb
R1 R2
Ri
+
V in
_ +
VO
_
 Basic Active Filters
Band stop filter
C1

R1
R1

R fb

R2 Ri
+ C2 +
Vin VO
_
_
 Amplifier Gain
the gain of an amplifier can be said to be the relationship
that exists between the signal measured at the output
with the signal measured at the input. There are three
different kinds of Amplifier Gain, Voltage Gain, (Av),
Current Gain (Ai) and Power Gain (Ap)
 Cutoff Frequency
The cutoff frequency is defined
as the frequency at which the
ratio of the (Output/Input) has a
magnitude of 0.707. This
magnitude, when converted to
decibels using Eq. 1 is equal to –
3dB, often referred to as the 3dB
down point.
 Frequency Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the difference between the
upper and lower frequencies in a contiguous
set of frequencies. It is typically measured in
hertz, and may sometimes refer to passband
bandwidth, sometimes to baseband
bandwidth, depending on context.
 Passband Bandwidth
Passband bandwidth is the difference
between the upper and lower
cutoff frequencies of, for example, an
electronic filter, a communication channel, or
a signal spectrum. In case of a low-pass filter
or baseband signal, the bandwidth is equal
to its upper cutoff frequency.
PB - PassBand
SB - StopBand
Low Pass Filter High Pass Filter

Band Pass Filter

 Pole/Order
A pole is nothing more than an RC circuit
N-pole filter  contains n-RC circuit.
Single-Pole Low/High Pass Filter
Two Poles Filter / 2nd Order
Three-Poles Low Pass Filter
Two-Stages Band Pass Filter
Two-Stages Band Pass Filter