International Conference on Communication and Signal Processing, Apri[ 3-5, 2014, India
Reconfigurable and Low Complexity Variable
Digital Filter Design
K. Kowsick Prasad and c. Annadurai
Abstract: This paper describes a reconfigurable hardware
Implementation for variable low pass, high pass, band pass and
band stop FIR filters. The proposed implementation is based on
a MUX based structure for various tap selection, and LUT based
approach to select required configurations for each responses .In
this way the arithmetic complexity will be reduced. The warped
filters, obtained by replacing each unit delay of a digital filter
with an all-pass filter, which are widely used for various phase
shifting and time delay applications. However, warped filters
require first-order and second order all-pass transformation to
obtain variable low-pass or high-pass responses, band pass or
band stop responses. Here we combine warped filters with the
coefficient decimation technique. The proposed architecture is
verified through functional verification with the
coefficients or filter structure.
Keywords-Coefficient decimation, FDA, variable digital
filter (VDF), warped filter.
I.IN TRODUC T[ON
Tthe cut-off frequency I?l: and filter coefficients. From the
HE design of Variable digital filter (VDF) depends upon
past, several methods are used to design VDF; however one
of the most efficient methods is warped filter design which
can be obtained by replacing each unit delay of a digital
filter with the all-pass structure of an appropriate order. Cut­
off frequency of the warped digital filter can be changed by
changing the filter coefficients. This design of Warped filters
find its application in audio processing such as loudspeaker
equalization, linear prediction, spectrally modifying an audio
signal ,echo cancellation, detection of band-pass signals in
broadband signals, and so on. Depending on the application,
digital filters with variable low-pass, high-pass, band-pass, or
band-stop responses can be designed. [n some application
finite-impulse response (F[R) filters are preferred over
infinite-impulse response (IIR) filters, because IIR
techniques require high precision both in design and in
actual operation.
K.Kowsick Prasad is with Department of ECE ,SSN
college of Engineering, Chennai
(e-mail: kowsick@gmail.com)
C.Annadurai is with Department of ECE ,SSN college of
Engineering ,Chennai
(e-mail: annaduraic@ssn.edu.in)
978-1-4799-3358-7/[4/$31.00 ©2014 [EEE
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[n [5], the concept of warped filters is extended to kautz
filter for audio equalizer applications, which proves that the
warped FIR filters are better than traditional FIR filters. In
[7], adaptive notch filters are designed using the warping
technique to detect band-pass signals that are immersed in a
broadband signal. These adaptive filters are obtained by
using reduced second-order transformation with arbitrary
centre frequency operations and they provide fixed­
bandwidth band-pass responses. [n [8], a filter bank with
variable low- pass, band-pass, and high-pass filters are
filter designed using warped filters with different filter
coefficients for low-power digital hearing aids.
Due to the linear phase characteristics, VDF find its
application in communication field. The design complexity
of VDFs can be reduced by coefficient decimation.Similarly,
many different numbers of approaches is available for VDF
design. They include transformation approaches, Farrow
structure-based approaches, and frequency response
masking-based approach. Farrow structure varies the
frequency response of the filter by varying the fractional
delay [[]-[4]. Frequency response masking is an efficient
scheme for the finite impulse response filter with sharp
transition band [5]. However, filters designed using this
technique can only adapt to a finite set of cut-off
frequencies fc .Digital filters with variable cut-off
frequencies Ie are required In many channelization
applications where the operating mode of the system
changes dynamically. So it is desirable to design a filter
having fc values controlled by the single parameter. The
proposed filter and relation between the filter coefficients
is presented in section II, section III describes the relation
between the filter coefficients and fc.Design example and
simulation results are shown in section III.
[I.PROPOSED VDF
Most of the Variable digital filter design is based on the
basic principle that the cut-off frequency and the transition
bandwidth can be changed by moditying the filter
coefficients. The values of filter coefficients depend upon
the impulse response which in turn decides the fc cut-off
frequency of F[R filter. Also the length of the impulse
response depends on the total number of delays in the F[R
filter which decides the transition bandwidth of the filter.
+-IEEE
Advancing Technology
for Humanity
1260
 -a+z-1
A(Z) = (1)
l-az-1
The VDF designs in [2]-[6] can be obtained by updating
the filter coefficients or expressing it in polynomial forms. G(Z) = H(A(z)). (2)
However, the desired fc and transition bandwidth is obtained
by changing the delay of the FIR filter. In many real time Band pass filter is obtained by multiplying the control
applications it is desirable to change the value of fc with parameter a with the impulse response and the bandwidth of
minimum overhead of complexity. This can be achieved by the filter is control by the decimation factor M. Fixed
fixed coefficient filter design and changing only the value of bandwidth band pass responses at an arbitrary center
the delays which in turn alters the length of the impulse frequency are obtained using the reduced second order
response. The proposed approach results in the digital filter transformation given as [1].
with variable cut-off frequency.
G(z) = H(B(z)) (3)

Filter control
Where
parameter B(z)= _Z-l x A(z)

M controls the bandwidth where lal < 1 and M can

Low pass
filter be any positive integer.
coetlicients
Variable filter
design with low B. Relation between cut-offfrequency and transition
Noisy input complexity bandwidth.
signal
The prototype filter consider is low pass filter with original
cut-off frequency weO (= 2 rrfeo) ,by multiplying with control
parameter a we get desired set of coefficients. From the a
Fig.1 variable digital filter block diagram.
value desired cut-off frequency can be obtained Wca given by
the mathematical relation
A.Design o/the Proposed VDF
a = - cos ( feenter x Pi ). (4)
The first step in the filter design is to determine filter
coefficients for original cut-off frequency fc . Let us consider
For FIR filter with the fixed coefficients, the product of
an Nth-order low-pass prototype filter H(z) with cutoff
transition bandwidth TBW and length of the filter responses
frequency WeO (= 2n feo) and coefficients ho, hI, . . ., hn.
N is always a constant
Keeping the filter coefficients fixed, the cut-off frequency
TBWD x N D = Constant. (5)
can be varied by introducing an control parameter a. The
value of a varies between 0 and 1 because the filter
Desired cut-off frequency can be calculated from the original
coefficients are fractional values. Convolution of these
cut-off frequency using the following relation.
fractional values with the input data are more complex results
in run time errors,that can be minimized by introducing delay JFeD =!i
D (6)
values ranging between 0 and 2 with constant increment
factor of 0.5 as shown in Fig 2. From equation (6), it is clear that desired cut-off frequency
decrease with increase in D. So by pre-calculating, D value
Input Output for desired fc pass band frequency and stop band frequency
�--���--------�----��
of the model filter is obtained

III. DESIGN EXAMP LE

Fig.2 Single multiplier structure A(Z).
Low-pass filter with variable frequency responses are
obtained using filter transformation as given by (1).
In this design example, band pass filter with variable
frequency responses is obtained from fixed coefficient
method. At first low pass filter coefficients are extracted from
filter design automation FDA tool fig 3.The cut-off frequency
and band width of the prototype filter are 0.5 and 0.6,
corresponding centre frequency obtained from equation (4).

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 �11l F"t.rO .. iyn &. An.lyo" Tecl- [unNI.,l.fd."J
Fi'" Edit A�lysil 1••gdJ: ViN; Window Help II Filter Visualization Tool· Figure 2: Magnitude Response (.. , leJ�OO
Cl � iii o!I�1 "'Ii' fi' X I.:J I lid 5] 003 It! � IIl � CIlI � O I>J01 '? File Edit Analysis In.sert Vif!W Debug Desktop Window Help III X �

a.o&�a/i"OOOUB8ao."/i
D �C9.1 � ID T' '" "{l)I�� "EE ITl E3 r5l[Q]
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t Sc<w.,..... I -20

-40

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�� -80

'2 -100
il'
:i -120

-140

-160

·180
o 0.1 0.2 6.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
Fig.3 FDA tool for low pass filter coefficient extraction
Normalized Frequency (x;: radlsample)

The difference between coefficients of different responses

are nonnalized and multiplied to the input data which ranges Fig.S Variable band pass responses
between 0 to I, for our design specification it is approximated
to 0.15 .Since the control parameter value is taken as positive,
the desired cut-off frequency is greater than the original cut­ Since VDFs are used In many signal processing
off frequency. Thus the desired fc can be varied anywhere application, the proposed filter design is extended to audio
between 0.01 to 0.99.Filter taps are selected on the basis of processing application with sampling rate is 4x 105 .Also
decimation factor value which control bandwidth of the band digital telemetry filter is designed without changing the filter
structure ,thus reduces area and power consumption [10].
pass filter .

variable bandpass
II Filter Visualization Tool· Figure 2: Magnitude Response (... �[]JJ�
File Edit Analysis Insert Vi.". Debug Desktop Window Help I� X M=1
.,.
M=2
D�[9.I�IDT''''''.(;llI�� "rnITlBr5I[gJ -5 --M=3
--M=4
[6j)0 � � � IT] J � [l;a) 0 [§J 0 -10
!g ·15
, , �- -20
... � .....� .... � . ...� ..
, ,

·26 .

, , , I '§, -25
ro

, E -30
�6
, I I I I I ,

m ... � .....� .... � .....� ... , ,

- - - - ..
.,
. - - - - � - - - -_.- - - _ � ..

" " , ,, , ,,
, ,

�
.g ·80
,
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, -35
___ J _____ '- ____ J _____ '- __ _
, , I I , , ,,
•••••'••••• 1 •••••'••••• 1 •••

, ,
" , , , , , ,

t, -40
:;; ; ; ; : ; ; t ;
, , , I "

.�
"
-100 ---- ---------- ----- ----- ---------- ---------- ---

, I I I " "

·126

:::;:::::f::::;:::::;:::: :::::::::::i:::::::::::i:::'
, , " I " .

·146
-50-0.5 -OA -0.3 -0.2 -0.1 0.1 0.2 0.3 OA 0.5
Normalized frequency, Hz
·166

Fig.6 VDF for audio processing application

6.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 6.S
Normalized Frequency (x:: radlsample)
Fig.4 variable low-pass responses using decimation
Full control over the Bandwidth for the band pass filter
provided by control parameter and decimation factor as
explained in design of warped digital filter [ll].similarly for
our proposed system desired response can be obtained from
prototype low pass filter having original frequency.fig 5
shows variable band pass filter response with centre
frequency and bandwidth by varying the control parameter a
and decimation factor M.
6.6 6.7 0.8 6.9
Using modelsim simulation is carried out fig 6 and code is
written in verilog language. Multiplexer based tap selection
for variable filter to implement decimation is verified .Entire
design is synthesized using Altera quartus- II for real time
performance analysis. Generally the complexity of the FIR
filter design lies in number of coefficient multiplication
Hence, it requires a large number of memory and area
consumption as compared to DA based approach where only
shift and add method is used for multiplication.

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 [3 ] K.H.Chen and TD Chiueh, "A low-power digit-based reconfigurable
FIR filter," IEEE Transaction on Circuits System II, vol.53, pp.617-
621 ,Apr.2006.

[4]M.Y.Navitha, M.Z.Kurian and G.Koteswara Roa, FPGA

Implementation of digital Telemetry filter," International journal of
Computer science and Electrical Engineering vol. I,pp 61 -65, 201 2.

[5] P. Lowenborg and H. Johansson, "Minimax design of adjustable

bandwidth linear-phase FIR filters,"IEEE Transaction on Circuits
System I, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 431 -439, Feb. 2006.

[6] RMahesh and A.P Vinod , "New Reconfigurable Architectures for

Implementing FIR Filters with Low Complexity," IEEE Transaction
CAD for International Circuits, vol. 29, pp.275-288,May. 201 1 .

Fig.7 low pass filter simulation result [7] Sarita Chouhan an d Yogesh Kumar, " Low power Design o f FIR
filters,"lnternational journal of advanced technology and Engineering
lowSumma'Y Research vol.2,pp 59 - 67,May 201 2.

Row Status SuccessfU-TuePi!g2711:32:382013

[ 8] S. C. Chan, C. K. S. Pun, and K. L. Ho. "A new method for designing
OJartus ll VerW1 &.id 132 0212512009 SJ Web
9.0 Edtion
FIR filters with variable characteristics," IEEE transaction on signal
Revision Name r.ebo.Jfer
Top4evel ErUy N;ne FllTER_mp processing vol. II,pp 274- 277,Feb.2004.
F<ITiy Cydme II
Me!�reqXemerts Yes
Total logic elemerts 12,847/33.216(39'4) [9]S.M Badave and A.S Bhalchandra, "Multiplierless FIR Filter
Tota! combimlionalftx1ctios
n 12,8J3/13.216(39 ·4)
Implementation on FPGA," International Journal of Information and
DedicCJtedJoojc�sters 146133 2
, 16 « 1"4)
Tot<JIregisiers 146 Electronics Engineering .vol.2 pp 456-459,2012.
Total pm 571312(184)
Toial vitual pins o
Totalmemorybls 0/483.840(0'4) [IO]Tian Bo Oengn, "Hybrid structures for Low complexity varibale
ErOOedded�9-bielemerts 10/70(14'4)
ToiaiPLu 0/4(0'4)
fractional Delay FIR Filters," IEEE Transaction on circuit and systems
Device EP2C35F484C6 voL57 ,pp 897-91 0,Feb.201 O.
Tmin!lModeIs

[ll] U.Nithirochananont ,S.Chivapreecha and K.Dejhan, "An FPGA based

implementation of variable fractional delay filter," IEEE international
conference on signal processing and its application, pp 1 04 -107, Mar
2009.
Fig.8 variable low pass filter synthesis result

1 2 ] Yongzhi Liu and Zhiping Lin, "On the Applications of the Frequency­
Building DA based approach; filters can adapt more taps to Response Masking technique in Array Beamforming,"lnternational
journal on Circuits systems and Signal processing vol.25,No.2 ,pp201 -
be used which can increase performance of filtering. By
224, 2006.
using various alpha values with special addressing, the
efficiency and filter response will be changed, both input [1 3 ] Zaka ullah sheikh and O.Gustafsson, "Linear programming design of
signals and real time filter coefficients will be pre processed coefficient decimation FIR filters," IEEE Transaction on circuits and
systems vol.59,pp 60-64,Jan 201 2.
and analysed for response changes.
[1 4]Zhangwen Tang,Jie zhang and hao min, "A high- speed,
programmable ,CSO coefficient FIR filter," IEEE Transaction on
consumer electronics ,vol. 48 ,no.4,pp 824-827,Nov 2002.
IV. CONC LUSION

A new efficient Variable FIR filter architecture has been

presented in this paper using proposed MUX based bypass
representation. Filter coefficients has been passed into next
tap based on the predefined values stored in LU Ts. The
partial products of all possible sub coefficients and input data
have been calculated in each block and results are distributed
on filter taps to compute multiplication. The proposed VDF
FIR filters based on CDM technique were designed and
synthesized using QUAR TUS II EDA tool.

REFERENCES

[I] A.Makur and S. Mitra, "Warped discrete-Fourier transform: Theory and

applications," IEEE Transaction on Circuits System I, Fundamental
Theory Application,vol. 48, no. 9, pp.l086-1 093 , Sep. 200l.

[2] Janusz Biernat and Stainslaw ./., "Fast and energy efficient Constant
coefficient FIR Filters Using Residue Number System,"IEEE transaction
on Circuits and system pp 385-390,201 1 .

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