Active LowyPass Filter Design

EDWARD J. FOSTER

Abstract-The characteristics of Bessel, Butterworth, and Cheby- practice. Three approximations to the ideal filterwill be
shev filters are briefly reviewed. The “Rauch” RC active low-pass briefll; discussedinthispaper.ThesearetheButter-
filterconfiguration is described and design formulae are obtained.
worth, Bessel, and Cheb3-shev filters. Each approaches
Tables of normalized capacitor values are provided for Bessel, But-
terworth,and 24 dB, t 1 dB, dB,and t 3 dB Chebyshev the characteristic of t h e ideal filter in a different \yay,
filters. Two examples indicate the use of the tables. and each has its area of use.

INTRODUCTIOT Butterworth Class

L OW-PASS FILTERS are familiar devices with n-ide- The Buttern-orth filter is derivedfromlocatingthe
spreadandvariedapplications. I n oneformor
another they are usedin taking measurements,
forrestrictingnoise,forcarriersuppressionafterde-
poles of the network in accordance with the zeros
theButterworthPolynomial.Thenormalizedtransfer
function ( T T * ) is of the fornl:
of

modulation,andas a crossovernetwork,tomention
justa fewapplications.Frequently,thesefiltersare T*
designed in a “hit-or-miss” manner n-ithout due atten- 1 C27L

tion to the phase and amplitude characteristics of the \\-here n is the number of poles in the net\\-orlr, and w is
finisheddevice. the ratio of frequency of interest to cutoff frequent!,.
The synthesis of a lox\--pass filter is a relatively sim- From the transfer function i t is apparent that the out-
ple buttime-consumingprocess. T h e designengineer p u t a t t h e cutofffrequency 1) is always - 3 dl3
has had the benefit of normalizedtablesfor LC filter donm from that a t w 0, regardless of the number of
design with various characteristics for quite some time.‘ poles.Also, bytakingthederivative of thetransfer
T h e LC filter has several dralvbacks, hen-ever. Although function, it is seen that the slope of the response curve
capacitors can readily be combined and bridged to one is zero a t w 0. For this reason the Butter\\-orth filteris
percentforbreadboard Lvork, it is moredifficultto calledamaximallyflatanlplitudefilter.Similarly, at
combine inductors because of mutual coupling effects, cutoff (w l), the slope of the response curveis n/2),
and there is usually a general lack of a variety of values showing that the rate of attenuation increases directly
in thenormallaboratory.Furthermore,inductorsare \vith the number of poles. It can be shou-n that beyond
pronetonoisepickup. X t lo^ frequencies,especially, cutoff the filterresponsefalls a ta n approximatel).
i t is difficult to procure inductors \\-ith sufficient Q to constant dB/octave. It is also possible to shoTv t h a t
make a filter from the design charts. Finall!,, the active the larger the numberof poles, the flatter the amplitude
R C filter is smaller, n-eighsless, andfrequentlycosts response throughout the entire pass band. The response
less than its LC equivalent. of the Buttern-orth class of filters is shown in Fig. 1.
The advantages of the active RC filter \\-arrant its T h e phasecharacteristics of theButtern-orthfilter
consideration.Theavailability of inexpensivesmall arenotverylinear.Thetimedelaythusvariesasa
operationalamplifiermodulespermitstherapidand function of frequency.Thefilter’sresponseto a step
simpleconstruction of anactivelon--passfilter. T o function exhibits an overshoot and some ringing. The
simplify the design I\-ork, it has been found feasible to amount of overshoot is relatedtothenumber of
tabulatecalculatedcomponentvaluesinnormalized poles---greater astheorder of the filterisincreased.
form. This paper contains tables n.hichgive the com- Typically, a four-pole Butterworth filter !\-ill exhibit an
ponentvaluesforButterlvorth,Bessel,and d B , 11 percentovershoot.The rise time of the output is i:;
1 d B , 1 2 dB, and 5 3 dB Chebyshev active 1on.-pass good, hon-ever, and increases rather slo~v1y with increas-
filters. ing order.? Figure 2 sh0u-s the response of afive-pole
FILTEK CHXK.~C,~.EKIS.TICS Butterworth filter to a square wave at 2/15 the cutoff
frequency.
T h e ideallo\\--passfilter Tvith unitytransmission
below and zero transmission above a certain frequency, Bessel c‘luss
with no phase shift in the pass band, is unattainable in Forcertainapplications,thenonlinearphasechar-
acteristics of the Butterworth filter and the subsequent
Manuscript received May 24, 1965. Presented at the 1965 IEEE overshootareintolerable.Attentionshouldthenbe
International Convention.
The author is with CBS Laboratories, Stanford, Conn.
L. \Veinberg, Net.*tork Analysis andSynthesis. ch. 13. New 2 For a table of rise time and overshoot for the Butterworth filter
S o r k : McGraw-Hill, 1962. through n=5, cf. IYeinberg, ibid., p. 506.

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1965 LOW-PASSFOSTER: ACTIVE FILTERS 105

Fig. 2. Response of five-pole Butterworth filter to square

wave at 2/15 cutoff frequency. Fig. 4. Responsecomparison of five-polefilters.

given to a filter derived from the Bessel Polynomials. function of theorderandfor n> 3 is givenapproxi-
T h e Bessel filterexhibitsmaximallyflattimedelay mately by:
(linear phase) and so is sometimes used as a time delay
network. The cutoff frequency of the filter is not the 0 - 3 dB 40.69315(2% 1) (3)
3 dB down pointas with the Butterworth filter, but is The linear phase characteristics of the Besselfilter
defined in terms of the zero frequency time delay t o as: provide step function response with less than one per-
cent overshoot. However, the amplitude response in the
a" pass band is monotonically decreasing rather than flat.
Furthermore, the rateof fall beyond cutoff is less for the
I t can be shown that the time delay is very nearly Bessel filter than the Butterworth. This produces step
constant up to a frequency which is a function of the function response witha longer rise time. Figure3 shows
number of poles. Thus, the product of time delay and the response of a five-pole Bessel filter to a square wave
bandwidth, over which the time delay is constant, is a t 2/15 the cutoff frequency.
fixed for a particular order. Increasing the number of Chebyshev Class
poleswillallow theproducttoincrease.Typically, a
four-pole Bessel filter will exhibit a time delay constant T h e final class of filters to be discussed are those de-
within one percent out to approximately twice the de- rived from the Chebyshev Polynomials. These are char-
sign cutoff frequency of the filter.3 acterized by an equal magnitude ripplein the pass band
I t was mentioned that at the designcutoff frequency and maximum rateof fall beyond cutoff. The sum of the
of the Bessel filter,theamplituderesponse was not number of maxima and minimain the pass bandis equal
-3 dB down. It is frequently useful in the design of a to the orderof the filter (see Fig. 4).The responseof the
filter toknow W-BdB, thelocation of the half power filter a t t h e cutoff frequencyis always thatof a minimum.
point.Forthistype of filter,the -3 dBpoint is a Thus a Chebyshev filter with 2 1 dB ripples will be 1
dB down at cutoff, whereas the same filter with 3 dB
For a table of thetimedelayconstancy of Bessel filtersup
ripples will be -3 dB down at cutoff independent of n.
through 11 poles,
\Veinberg,
cf. ibid.,p. 502. The
Chebyshev cutoff frequency
then
agrees
with
the

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Buttertvorth cutoff frequencyonlyforthe + 3 dB
ripple case. In general the -3 dB point will be a t

n-here: E is the ripple parameter.

The rate of attenuation of a Chebyshev filter beyond
cutoff is initially greater than6n dB/octave and depends
upon the allowed ripple in the pass band as well as the
number of poles. Greatest initial slope is obtained for
large allowed ripple and large The phase character-
istics of the Chebyshev classof filters are even more non-
linear than the Butterworth. -4s the allowed ripple and
thenumber of poles is increasedtoprovidesharper
cutoff,thephasecharacteristicsbecomeincreasingly
nonlinear. Fig. 5. Schematic three-poleRauchfilter.
Comparison of Classes
Figure 4 compares the attenuation characteristics of polynomialcoefficients(interms of theresistorand
the three filter classes. For a given order, the cutoff is capacitorvalues)totheroots of the Bessel,Rutter-
sharper as one proceeds from the Bessel to the Butter- north,orChebyshevpolynomials.Byspecifyingthe
worthtotheChebyshev.Thephasecharacteristics resistorsandthedesiredcutofffrequencytheseequa-
become increasingly nonlinear in the same order. Thus, tions can be solved for the capacitors. The filter design
the choice of filter type must be predicated upon the is thus complete.
relativeimportance of amplitudeandphaseresponse Under the assumption that the amplifier gain is very
for theparticularapplicationinvolved.One will also large,nodalanalysis of Fig. 5 yields the follo\\-ing
find t h a t t h e difficulty in fabrication increases n-ith the transfer function:G
sharpness of cutoff desired. Thus, in an LC filter the
required Q’s and the spread of inductance and capaci-
tancevaluesare n-orsefor a high-orderlarge-ripple
Chebyshev filter than for a Buttern-orth. In the active
filter this reflects as a large spead in capacitor values
and more stringent amplifier requirements.
ACTIVE Low-PASSFILTER
COYFIGUKATION
’There are several configurations in which an active
low-pass filter may be constructed. The one to be de- It can be shown that ( 5 ) hasonerealpoleandtwo
scribedinthispaper introducedbyRauch4and imaginary poles symmetrically placed about the real axi
frequently is referred to as a “Rauch” filter. This con- Thetransferfunction of a filterhavingpoles at
figuration allows filters to be designed n-ith an insertion D,and (-A + j B ) can be written as:
gain. In addition, the large amount of feedbackused
reducesdriftbelov-thatexperiencedwithemitter- 1
____.__I
follower-coupledunity-gainfilters. (6)
[ p ( - A + j B ) I F ( - A -jB)I[P Dl
Figure 5 shows the schematic of a three-pole Rauch
filter. I t is desired that the transfer function of the net- where has been set equal to 1 for normalization. This
n-ork beexpressed as a constantdividedby a poly- can be expanded to:
nomial. T h e coefficients of the polynomial can then be
equated to thecoefficients of the Bessel, Butterworth, or 1
Chebyshev polynomial forcing the transfer function to (71
p3+(2A+D)p2+(2AD+A2+B3jp+(A2+BZ)D
assume the characteristics of the desired filter.
This procedure is most readily carried out by finding Comparing ( 5 ) and ( 7 ) , the coefficients of the powers of
the roots of the polynomial in terms of its coefficients. p are equated, and a set of equations relating cornbina-
Then the roots of the transfer equation polynomial can tions of resistorandcapacitorvalueswiththepole
be equated to the roots of the desiredpolynomial as locations is found. These equations are
found from the tables.G Equations result, relating the
6 G. J. Martin, “Low Passiinalog Filter Design,” I l e l e m . Cons.
A f . H. Sicholsand L. Rauch, Radio Telemetry. New Vork: pp. 181-185, 1958. (The reader is cautioned that equations ( 6 ) , (12),
IViley, 3956, p. 396. and (17) appear incorrectly in this paper. These equations are used
\Veinberg, o p . cit. [1],ch. 11. herein in their corrected form.)

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1965 LOW-PASS
FOSTER: ACTIVE FILTERS 107

Equation 22 is solved for Y in the normal manner. Sub-

stituting ( l l ) ,( 1 2 ) , and (19) into (8) yields
A2Y A1X K1. (23)
Thus:

which is solved for X .

Substituting (ll)-(l3), (18), and (21) into yields
Thus, there are three equations in seven unknowns.
A , B , and D correspond to the pole locations desired, A5XYZ K3. (25)
and is the cutoff frequency. Generally, the gainof the Thus:
filter a t d cis important. By specifyingR1,R2, and R4, this
characteristiciscontrolled.Threeequationsinthree
unknowns(thecapacitors)remain.Knowingthe pole
locations and the cutoff frequency, the set of equations
can be solved and the filter design is complete. If the Having found X , Y,and in terms of the pole locations,
the cutoff frequency,andtheresistorvalues,the
resistors are specified in advance, the solution is simpli-
capacitor values are given by (11)-( 13). The component
values for a three-stage filter are thus found.
Figure 6 shows a two-pole active filter of the same
type. Proceeding in an identical manner, this solutionis
given by the equations:

where

and the pole locations are a t

T h e A , areconstantsdeterlninedbytheresistors, Capacitor values can thus be found in terms of chosen

while the K , describe the pole locations desired. PIaking resistor values and desired pole locations for two-pole
these substitutions in (8)-(10) and eliminating and z, and three-pole configurations. I t should be noted that x
the following cubic equation in Y is obtained: thetwo-poleconfigurationyields a conjugatepair of
polesin thecomplexplane(Fig. 7 ) . Thethree-pole
2K1 pole a plus conjugate
pair configuration
a yields on the
Y3 Y*
A2 (Fig. axis real be I t can
8). sholvn t h a t a five-pole
filter consisting of two conjugate pairs plus a real pole
A 4 K 3 K 1 K 2 A 1 ] 0, (22) may be designed by assigning one of the conjugate
A3A6 AZ2A3 two-pole
a configuration
pairs
to remaining
the
and

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 mzx TRANSACTIOSS AUDIO SEPTEhIBEIZ/OCTOBEIL

poles to a three-pole configuration. The end result is a

five-polefilter, not a three-pole filter cascaded with a
two-pole filter. Similarly, i t can be shown that since a
six-polefilterconsists of three conjugate pairs (rather
than two conjugate pairs plus two reals) the design may
be subdivided to three two-pole configurations (not two
three-pole configurations), Knowing the pole locations
of any order filter makes it possible to synthesize these
filters by proper assignment to the two-pole or three-
pole building blocks.
AND TABLES
USE OF FORMCIULAS
Fig. 6. Schematic of tlvo-pole Rauch filter.
Once the type of filter and the required number of
polesis determined, the normalized pole locations are
obtained from the tables.? If there is an odd number of
stages, the filter is constructed from a three-pole con-
figuration plus as many two-pole configurations as re-
quiredtoprovidethecorrectnumber of poles.For
even-ordered filters, only the two-pole configuration is
used since there will be no poles on the real axis.
T h e choice of resistor values is arbitrary, subject, of
course, to practical real values of capacitors after solu-
tion.Dependingupontheresistorratios,thedcgain
of the filter can be greater or less than unity. good
-Re startingpoint forchoosingtheresistorvaluesis to
insurethat C = 1/Rm is apracticalcapacitorvalue.
The input impedanceof the filter will be determined by
the resistor values chosen. The output impedance will
be lorn in all cases, since the operational amplifiers have
a large amount of negative voltage feedback from the
output.
In the derivation, assumptionswere made concerning
amplifier gain and phase characteristics. isItimperative
that the open-loop gain of the operational amplifier be
Fig. 7. Pole locationsfortwo-pole configuration. much larger than the filter gain and that the open-loop
gainbemaintained well beyond the cutoff.Thesere-
quirements are most stringent for the Chebyshev filter.
Amplifier quality usually presents the greatest limita-
tion to high-frequency cutoffs.
Tables I--VI givenormalizedcapacitorvalues Tor
Bessel, Butterworth, and -ti dB, 1 d B , k2 d B
and i 3 d B ripple Chebyshev filters of from one to ten
poles. These values have been calculatedfor the case in
whichall resistors are equal. Referring to Figs. 9 and
10, there is no insertion loss for even-ordered filters, and
there is a 6 d B insertion loss for all odd-ordered filters.
The values in the tables are expressed in farads. 'To
removethenormalization,thetabulatednumber is
divided by where R is the chosen resistor value and
is the angular cutoff frequency. The configuration of
Fig. 9 is used for the odd-order filters and thatof Fig. 10
is used for even-order filters.
These tables allow complete design of an active RC
low-pass filter in a matter of minutes for those cases in

Fig. 8. Pole locations for three-poleconfiguration. Weinberg, op. cit. [I], ch.

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 FOSTER: ACTIVE LOW-PASS FILTERS 109

3 0.16085 0.69327 1.19566

4 0,71300 0.12209 0.51792
0.21124
5 0.38836 0.76167 0.08536 0.64525 0.12991
6 0.35308 0.06326 0.59620 0.11943 0.40153 0.15064
7 0.71799 0.25635 0.08515 0.36854 0.09377 0.55852 0.04892

8 0.26844 0.11650 0.52836 0.03908

0.34338
0.07551 0.28819
0.10225
9 1 0.58411 0.26765 0.08560 1-0.32338 0.06211 0.50348 0.03201
0.19826
/-0.06757
10 0.21670 0.09482 0.48248 0.02676 0.22675 0.08719 0.25136 0.07255
0.30699 0.05202

TABLE I1
NORMALIZED CAPACITOR VALUES FILTER
FOK BUTTERWORTH

lv cl c2 c3 c4 c
6 c? C@ ClO
1.00000 1
2
3
2.12132
2.37484
0.47140
2.59100 0.32503
I-
I
4
5
6
3.91969
0.25512
1.62359
0.61592
2.16741
5.79556
4.31481
0.17255
0.21386
2.12132
1.85410
0.47140
0.53935
1.55292 0.64395
I - -I
7 2.10597 6.05620
0.15681 2.40581
0.41566 1.66486
8 1 7.68876 0.13006 2.69993 0.37038 1.80404
)-0.55431
9 2.07749 7.80031 0.12342 3.00000 0.33333 1.95812 0.51069 1.59627 0.62646
10 9.58874 0.10429 3.30404 0.30266 2.12132 0.47140 1.68349 0.59400 1.51870 0.65846

TABLE I11
NORMALIZEDCAPACITORVALUES
FOR FILTER
DB CHEBYSHEV

CI 0
2.86277
2 2.10434 0.31342 I
3 3.37702 4.54081 0.18224

5
4
1731 0.0725813.14475
6
5.58631
8.55417
19.31745
0.10992
0.05060
1- 3.54325
7.07067
0.79185
0.23971 5.17609 1.23057
1
7 7.84492 26.03421 0.03762 9.39149 0.15731 6.49911 0.60607

10 53.76537 0.01846 18.52607 0.06537 11.89447 0.15809 9.43948 0.44528 8.51547 2.08662

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 110 IEEE TRAXSACTIONS O N AUDIO

TA4BLE IV
VALUESFOR k 1 DB CHEBYSHEV
NORMALIZED CAPACITOR FILTER

CI C2 c3 c4 ~7
I____
ClO
1 1 ,96523
8 - -

2.73290 2 0,33189
3 4.213650.16542
5.84006 i
4 10.74991 0.09430
4.45276 0.80380
I _ _ _ _ I

j 16.55903
6.96287
0.36370
6.40465
0.06063
6
7
24.12312
0,04184
9.77059
32.56056
0.03083
11.71198
0.13066
8.10495
0.53539
8.82966 I 0.20307 6.46376
1.24057

I
I___

8 42.84735
0.02348 15.04589
0.09186 10.05335 8.52282 1.66994 0.29182
12.56629
9 54.04529
0.01857 18.82885 0.06849 12.28964 0.18554 10.01857 0.70112

10 66.92246
0.01500
14.80502 0.12976 23.05954 0.05325 11.74941 0.37553 2.09648 10.599

2 4.65188 0.30365 I I

0.08382
13.16263
0.37195

I .I__
16.31038
0.19106
_ _I____-.____-
I
13.82731
I
I 1.43794
9 0.01165 0.04312 19.92561
0.11869
16.24343 0.48615
20.37988 87.55034 30.52752
10 108.44419 0.00938 37.36735 0.03338 23.99117 0.08208
0.24551 17.17583 1.80307

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1966 FOSTER: ACTIVELOW-PASS FILTERS 111

Fig. 9. Odd-order filter configuration.

1, ic3 I
I- c5 ic9
Fig. 10. Even-order filter configuration.

which equal resistors are permissible. I t should be noted C1 39.23620 lo-’ 0.39236
that each section of the filter is independent. Thus, one 0.02669 lo-’ 266.9 pF
can use different resistor values for different sections as
long as all resistors associated with any any one opera- 14.36163 0.14362 p F
tional amplifier are the same. 0.13344 loW8 1334 pF
10.51340 lo-’ 0.10513 pF
Example I t is desired to design a five-pole Butter-
worth lon--pass filter witha cutoff frequency of wo 1000 1.07107 lo-’ 0.01071 pF
rad/s. T h e filter is constructedinaccordancewiththefirst
Procedure: Fromthetables,thelargest value is three sections of Fig. 10. Three operational amplifiers
4.31481,whilethesmallest is0.21386. Thus, resistor are used. The insertion loss is 0 dB.
values of 10 kQ are suitable.
Therefore, Rwo lo7 which gives COXCLUSIOKS
2.16741 A method has been established for the design of active
F 0.216741 pF low-pass filters in the Rauch configuration. It has been
107
found practical to prepare tables of normalized capacitor
4.31481 valuesforBessel,Butterworth,and d B , t-1 dB,
c
2 7F 0.431481 pF
52 dB,and 1 3 dBChebyshevfilters for theequal
10
resistorcase.Thesetablesprovide a rapiddesignfor
0.21386
c3 - F 0.021386pF filters of up to ten poles and of a n y cutoff frequency.
107 These tables have been used to design several low-
1.85410 pass filters. Csing one percent resistors and capacitors,
F 0.185410 p F the resultant filters have duplicated the characteristics
107
of the desired function within the limitsof experimental
0.53935 error.
F 0.053935 pF
107 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
T h e five-pole filter is constructed from one three-pole The author gratefully acknowledges the interest and
configuration and one two-pole configuration. Thus, two encouragement provided by Frank A. Conlerci of CBS
operational amplifiers are required. The insertionloss is Laboratories.
6 dB.Theconfiguration is the firsttwosections of
Fig.9. REFEREKCES
J. G. Linvill, “RC activefilters,” Pvoc. I R E , vol.42, pp. 555-
Example 2 : Design a six-pole 5 3 dB ripple Chebyshev 564, March 1954.
J. R. Macdonald, “Active,adjustableaudioband-passfilter,”
filter with a cutoff frequency of 000. J . Acoust. A m vol. 29, p. 1348, 1957.
Procedure: Resistor values are chosen at10 kQ. Thus, R. P. Sallen and E. L. Key, “A practical method of designing R C
active filters,” M I T Lincoln Laboratory, Tech. Rept. 50, May 6,
woR lo8which gives 1954.

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