Butterworth filter

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The Butterworth filter is one type of electronic filter design. It is designed to have a frequency response which is as flat as mathematically possible in the passband. Another name for them is 'maximally flat magnitude' filters.

Contents

Origin of name

The Butterworth type filter was first described by the British engineer Stephen Butterworth (in his paper "On the Theory of Filter Amplifiers", Wireless Engineer (also called Experimental Wireless and the Radio Engineer), vol. 7, 1930, pp. 536-541. Image:Butterworth filter bode plot.png Image:Butterworth orders.png Image:Butterworth II Order LPF.png

Overview

The frequency response of the Butterworth filter is maximally flat (has no ripples) in the passband, and rolls off towards zero in the stopband. When viewed on a logarithmic Bode plot, the response slopes off linearly towards negative infinity. For a first-order filter, the response rolls off at −6 dB per octave (−20 dB per decade). (All first-order filters, regardless of name, are actually identical and so have the same frequency response.) For a second-order Butterworth filter, the response decreases at −12 dB per octave, a third-order at −18 dB, and so on. Butterworth filters have a monotonically decreasing magnitude function with ω. The Butterworth is the only filter that maintains this same shape for higher orders (but with a steeper decline in the stopband) whereas other varieties of filters (Bessel, Chebyshev, elliptic) have different shapes at higher orders.

Compared with a Chebyshev Type I/Type II filter or an elliptic filter, the Butterworth filter has a slower roll-off, and thus will require a higher order to implement a particular stopband specification. However, Butterworth filter will have a more linear phase response in the passband than the Chebyshev Type I/Type II and elliptic filters.

Transfer function

Like all filters, the typical prototype is the low-pass filter, which can be modified into a high-pass filter, or placed in series with others to form band-pass and band-stop filters, and higher order versions of these.

The magnitude squared frequency response:

<math>\left |H(\omega)\right|^2 = \frac {1}{1+\left(\frac{\omega}{\omega_c}\right)^{2n}} = \frac{1}{1+\epsilon^2\left(\frac{\omega}{\omega_p}\right)^{2n}}</math>

here, n = order of filter
ωc = cutoff frequency = -3dB frequency
ωp = passband edge frequency
1/(1 + ε2) = band edge value of |H(ω)|2.
Since H(s)H(-s) evaluated at s = jω is simply equal to |H(ω)|2, it follows that
<math>H(s)H(-s) = \frac {1}{1+\left (\frac{-s^2}{\omega_c^2}\right)^n}</math>

The poles occur on a circle of radius ωc at equally spaced points

<math>\frac{-s^2}{\omega_c^2} = (-1)^{\frac{1}{n}} = e^{\frac{j(2k+1)\pi}{n}}</math>
k = 0, 1, 2, ....., n-1

and hence,
<math>s_k = \omega_ce^{\frac{j\pi}{2}}e^{\frac{j(2k+1)\pi}{2n}}</math>
k = 0, 1, 2, ...., n-1

The magnitude of the frequency response of an nth order lowpass filter can be defined mathematically as:

<math> G_n(\omega) = \left | H_n(j \omega) \right | = {1 \over \sqrt{ 1 + (\omega / \omega_\mathrm{c}) ^ {2 n}} } </math>

where G is the gain of the filter, H is the transfer function, j is the imaginary number, n is the order of the filter, ω is the angular frequency of the signal in radians per second, and <math>\omega_\mathrm{c}</math> is the cutoff frequency (−3 dB frequency).

Normalizing the expression (setting the cutoff frequency <math>\omega_\mathrm{c} = 1</math>), it becomes:

<math> G_n(\omega) = \left | H_n(j \omega) \right | = {1 \over \sqrt{ 1 + \omega ^ {2 n}} } </math> Image:Butterworth II Order LPF Bode Plot.png

Maximally Flat Magnitude Filter

the first (2n-1)th derivatives of g are zero for ω = 0. This means that

the rate of change of gain with respect to ω is zero i.e., the gain is constant with ω.

Hence Butterworth filters are also called maximally flat filters.
The derivation has been tagged. Comments

High Frequency Roll Off

<math>Template:\left = {20n}{log_{10}{\omega}}</math>

Hence, the high frequency roll off = 20n dB/decade

Filter Realization

Image:Butterworth Cauer 1 form.PNG The Butterworth filter having a given transfer function can be realised using Cauer - 1 form:
kth element is given by: <math>C_k = 2 \sin \left [\frac {(2k-1)}{2n} \pi \right ]</math>; k = odd
<math>L_k = 2 \sin \left [\frac {(2k-1)}{2n} \pi \right ]</math>; k = even

Normalized Butterworth polynomials

nFactors of Polynomial <math>B_n(s)</math>
1 <math>(s+1)</math>
2 <math>s^2+1.414s+1</math>
3 <math>(s+1)(s^2+s+1)</math>
4 <math>(s^2+0.7654s+1)(s^2+1.8478s+1)</math>
5 <math>(s+1)(s^2+0.6180s+1)(s^2+1.6180s+1)</math>
6 <math>(s^2+0.5176s+1)(s^2+1.414s+1)(s^2+1.9318s+1)</math>
7 <math>(s+1)(s^2+0.4450s+1)(s^2+1.247s+1)(s^2+1.8022s+1)</math>
8 <math>(s^2+0.3986s+1)(s^2+1.111s+1)(s^2+1.6630s+1)(s^2+1.9622s+1)</math>

Comparison with other linear filters

Here is an image showing the Butterworth filter next to other common kind of filters obtained with the same number of coefficients:

Image:Electronic linear filters.svg

As is clear from the image, the Butterworth filter rolls off more slowly than all the others but it shows no ripples.

See also

es:Filtro de Butterworth fr:Filtre de Butterworth it:Filtro Butterworth pt:Filtro Butterworth zh:巴特沃斯滤波器