EECS3451 -- Signals and Systems

Chapter 5 – Continuous-Time Filter

(Textbook: Ch. 7)

Topics Covered
• Filter classification
• Non-ideal filter characteristics
• Examples of CT filter
• Design of CT lowpass filters using Matlab

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Topics Covered
• Filter classification
• Non-ideal filter characteristics
• Examples of CT filter
• Design of CT lowpass filters using Matlab

Continuous-time filters
• An ideal frequency-selective filter is a system that passes a
pre-specified range of frequency components without any
attenuation but completely rejects the remaining frequency
components.

• Filter classification:
1. Lowpass filters

2. Highpass filters

3. Bandpass filters

4. Bandstop filters

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Characteristic of Continuous-time filters
• The transfer function of an ideal lowpass filter is:
ì A 0 £ w £ wc
H LP = í
î0 w > wc
where ωc is the cut-off frequency

Characteristic of Continuous-time filters

• The transfer function of an ideal highpass filter is:
ì0 0 £ w £ wc
H HP = í
î A w > wc
where ωc is the cut-off frequency

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Characteristic of Continuous-time filters
• The transfer function of an ideal bandpass filter is:
⎧A ω c1 ≤ ω ≤ ω c2
⎪
H BP = ⎨
⎪0 ω < ω c1 and ω > ω c2
⎩
where ωc1 and ωc2 are referred to as the lower cut-off and
higher cut-off frequencies

Characteristic of Continuous-time filters

• The transfer function of an ideal bandstop filter is:
⎧0 ω c1 ≤ ω ≤ ω c2
⎪
H BS = ⎨
⎪A ω < ω c1 and ω > ω c2
⎩
where ωc1 and ωc2 are referred to as the lower cut-off and
higher cut-off frequencies

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Topics Covered
• Filter classification
• Non-ideal filter characteristics
• Examples of CT filter
• Design of CT lowpass filters using Matlab

Non-ideal filter characteristics

• The gains of the practical filters within the pass and stop
bands are not constant but vary within the following limits:

Passband 1− δ p ≤ H (ω ) ≤ 1+ δ p
Stopband 0 ≤ H (ω ) ≤ δ s
• The transition bands of non-zero bandwidth are included in
between the pass and stop bands of the practical filters.
Consequently, the discontinuity at the cut-off frequency of
the ideal filters is eliminated.

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Non-ideal lowpass filter
H lp (w)

1+ dp

1- d p

pass band transition stop band

band

ds
w
0 wp ws

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Non-ideal highpass filter

H hp (w)

1+ dp

1- d p

stop band transition pass band

band

ds
w
0 ws wp

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Non-ideal bandpass filter
H bp (w)

1+ dp

1- d p

stop pass band stop

band I band II

ds2
d s1
w
0 w s1 w p1 w p 2 ws 2

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Non-ideal bandstop filter

H bs (w)

1 + d p1 1 + d p2
1 - d p1 1 - d p2

pass stop pass

band I band band II

ds
w
0 w p1 w s1 ws 2 w p 2

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Cut-off Frequency
• The cut-off frequency (ωc) is defined as the frequency for
which the transfer function magnitude is decreased by the
factor 1 2 (0.7071 or -3dB) from its maximum value:

1
H (wc ) = H max
2

where Hmax is the maximum magnitude of the transfer

function

• At the cut-off frequency, the average power delivered by a

filter circuit is one-half the maximum average power. Thus
ωc is also called the half-power frequency.
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Activity 1

8
Activity 1 Solution

Topics Covered
• Filter classification
• Non-ideal filter characteristics
• Examples of CT filter
• Design of CT lowpass filters using Matlab

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An Example of a Lowpass Filter
R
• Transfer function
+ +
1
H (w ) = x(t) C y(t)
1 + jwCR _ _

1
H (ω ) =
2
1+ (ωCR)
⎯ω⎯
=0
→ H (ω ) max = 1

• The cut-off frequency is then determined as:

1
wc =
CR
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An Example of a Highpass Filter

R
• Transfer function
jw + +
H (w ) = x(t) L y(t)
R
jw + _ _
L
w when ω = ∞
H (w ) = ¾® H (w ) max = 1
¾
2
æRö
w +ç ÷
2

èLø
• The cut-off frequency is then determined by:
1 wc R
= ¾® wc =
¾
2 æRö
2 L
wc2 + ç ÷
èLø
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Bandpass filter
• A bandpass filter has two cut-off frequencies. Another
important parameter that characterizes a bandpass filter is
the center frequency ωo (or called the resonant frequency)
H(ω)
passband
A

ω1 ωo ω2 ω
• The center frequency is defined as the frequency for which
a filter circuit’s transfer function is purely real (i.e no
imaginary component).
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An Example of Bandpass Filter

L C
• Transfer function
R + +
H (ω ) =
1 x(t) R y(t)
R + jω L +
jωC _ _

R
=
⎛ 1 ⎞
R + j ⎜ω L − ⎟
⎝ ωC ⎠

• The center frequency is defined as the frequency for which

a filter circuit’s transfer function is purely real (i.e no
imaginary component). Hence:
1 1
wo L - ¾® wo =
=0¾
wo C LC
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An Example of Bandpass Filter (2)

• At ωo, no voltage drop across L and C, this implies Y(ω) =

X(ω) or :

H (w ) max = H (wo ) = 1
L C

+ +
x(t) R y(t)
_ _

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An Example of Bandpass Filter (3)

• The magnitude of the transfer function is:
1
H (w ) =
2
æ 1 ö
ç wL - ÷
è wC ø
1+
R2
• At the two cut-off frequencies:
2
⎛ 1 ⎞
⎜ω c L − ⎟
1 1 ⎝ ω cC ⎠
H (ω c ) = = →1+
⎯⎯ 2
=2
⎛ 1 ⎞
2
2 R
⎜ω c L − ⎟
⎝ ω cC ⎠
1+
R2 24

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An Example of Bandpass Filter (4)
• Hence:
2
⎛ 1 ⎞
⎜ω c L − ⎟
⎝ ω cC ⎠
1+ =2
R2
• The two cut-off frequencies are:
2
R æ R ö æ 1 ö
wc1 = - + ç ÷ +ç ÷
2L è 2 L ø è LC ø
2
R æ R ö æ 1 ö
wc 2 = + ç ÷ +ç ÷
2L è 2 L ø è LC ø
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Topics Covered
• Filter classification
• Non-ideal filter characteristics
• Examples of CT filter
• Design of CT lowpass filters using Matlab

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Four Types of CT Filter Implementation
• Butterworth filters
• Type I Chebyshev filters
• Type II Chebyshev filters
• Elliptic filters

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Butterworth Filter
1
1+ dp H (w) =
w 2N
1 1+ ( wc
)
1- d p

pass band stop band

ds
w
0 wp ws

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Type I Chebyshev Filter
1+ dp
1
1- d p

pass band stop band

ds
w
0 wp ws

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Type II Chebyshev Filter

1+ dp
1
1- d p

pass band stop band

ds
w
0 wp ws
30

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Elliptic Filter

1+ dp
1
1- d p

pass band stop band

ds
w
0 w p ws
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Filter Specifications
• A set of lowpass filter specification is given by:

Passband corner frequency: 0 ≤ ω ≤ωp

Stopband corner frequency: ω > ωs

Passband ripple: 20log10 δ p

Stopband attenuation: 20log10 δ s

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Steps to Design Butterworth Filter
• Step 1: Determine the order N and cut-off frequency of the
filter based on given filter specifications.

In Matlab: [N,Wc]=buttord(wp,ws,Rp,Rs, ‘s’)

Where N, Wc are filter order and cutoff frequency; wp and
ws are passband and stopband corner frequencies, Rp
and Rs are passband and stopband ripples in dB; ‘s’
specifies that a CT filter in Laplace domain.

• Step 2: Determine the coefficients of the numerator and

denominator polynomials.
In Matlab: [num, den]=butter(N, Wc, ‘s’)
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Steps to Design Butterworth Filter

• Step 3: Determine the transfer function H(s) of the filter.

In Matlab: H=tf(num,den)

• Step 4: Plot the magnitude spectrum

In Matlab: [H,w]=freqs(num,den); plot(w, abs(H))

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Example of Butterworth Filter Design
• Given the following specifications, design a Butterworth
filter in Matlab.

Passband corner frequency: 0 ≤ ω ≤ 5radians / s

Stopband corner frequency: ω > 20radians / s

Passband: 0.8 ≤ H (ω ) ≤ 1
Stopband: H (ω ) ≤ 0.2

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Example of Butterworth Filter Design

From given specifications, we can find: Wp=5, Ws=20

Rp = −20log10 0.8 = 1.9382dB

Rs = −20log10 0.2 = 13.9794dB

[N,Wc]=buttord(Wp,Ws,Rp,Rs,’s’)
à N=2, Wc=9.0360;
[num,den]=butter(N,Wc,’s’)
ànum=[0 0 81.6497]; den=[1.000 12.7789 81.6497];
Ht=tf(num,den)
àHt=81.65/(s^2+12.78s+81.65);
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Example of Butterworth Filter Design
[H,w]=freqs(num,den);
Plot(w,abs(H));

1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
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Steps to Design Type I Chebyshev Filter

• Step 1: Determine the order N and natural frequency of
the filter based on given filter specifications.

In Matlab: [N,Wn]=cheb1ord(wp,ws,Rp,Rs, ‘s’)

Where N, Wn are filter order and Chebyshev natural
frequency; wp and ws are passband and stopband corner
frequencies, Rp and Rs are passband and stopband
ripples in dB; ‘s’ specifies that a CT filter in Laplace
domain.

• Step 2: Determine the coefficients of the numerator and

denominator polynomials.
In Matlab: [num, den]=cheby1(N, Rp,Wn, ‘s’) 38

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Steps to Design Type I Chebyshev Filter
• Step 3: Determine the transfer function H(s) of the filter.

In Matlab: H=tf(num,den)

• Step 4: Plot the magnitude spectrum

In Matlab: [H,w]=freqs(num,den); plot(w, abs(H))

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Steps to Design Type II Chebyshev Filter

• Step 1: Determine the order N and natural frequency of
the filter based on given filter specifications.

In Matlab: [N,Wn]=cheb2ord(wp,ws,Rp,Rs, ‘s’)

Where N, Wn are filter order and Chebyshev natural
frequency; wp and ws are passband and stopband corner
frequencies, Rp and Rs are passband and stopband
ripples in dB; ‘s’ specifies that a CT filter in Laplace
domain.

• Step 2: Determine the coefficients of the numerator and

denominator polynomials.
In Matlab: [num, den]=cheby2(N, Rs,Wn, ‘s’) 40

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Steps to Design Type II Chebyshev Filter
• Step 3: Determine the transfer function H(s) of the filter.

In Matlab: H=tf(num,den)

• Step 4: Plot the magnitude spectrum

In Matlab: [H,w]=freqs(num,den); plot(w, abs(H))

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Steps to Design Elliptic Filter

• Step 1: Determine the order N and natural frequency of
the filter based on given filter specifications.

In Matlab: [N,Wn]=ellipord(wp,ws,Rp,Rs, ‘s’)

Where N, Wn are filter order and natural frequency; wp and
ws are passband and stopband corner frequencies, Rp
and Rs are passband and stopband ripples in dB; ‘s’
specifies that a CT filter in Laplace domain.

• Step 2: Determine the coefficients of the numerator and

denominator polynomials.
In Matlab: [num, den]=ellip(N, Rp,Rs,Wn, ‘s’)
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Steps to Design Elliptic Filter
• Step 3: Determine the transfer function H(s) of the filter.

In Matlab: H=tf(num,den)

• Step 4: Plot the magnitude spectrum

In Matlab: [H,w]=freqs(num,den); plot(w, abs(H))

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