1. Active Filters - Introduction Filters are circuits that are capable of passing signals within a band of frequencies while rejecting or blocking signals of frequencies outside this band. This property of filters is also called “frequency selectivity”. Filter circuits built using components such as resistors, capacitors and inductors only are known as passive filters. Active filters on the other hand often employ transistors or op-amps in addition to resistors and capacitors Advantages of Active Filters over Passive Filters: 1. Active filters can be designed to provide required gain, and hence no attenuation as in the case of passive filters 2. No loading problem, because of high input resistance and low output resistance of op-amp 3. Active Filters are cost effective as a wide variety of economical op-amps are available.Applications: Active filters are mainly used in communication and signal processing circuits. They are also employed in a wide range of applications such as entertainment, medical electronics, etc. Most commonly used active filters: Low pass filters High pass filters Band pass filters Band reject filters =o So Each of these filters can be built using op-amp as the active element and resistors and capacitors as the passive elements (frequency selective part). Better filter performance is obtained by employing op-amps with higher slew rates and higher gain-bandwidths. The filtering behaviour of the circuit is best represented by the frequency response characteristics of the circuit, which shows the variation of the filter circuit gain with respect to operating frequency.2. Basic Filter Responses Low Pass Filter Characteristics Mo. Gain, |“ Gain, yy 1 1;>-——— al ty F 0 f, Pass ‘Stop “Pass Stop band band band band (a) Ideal Filter (b) Practical Filer Fig 8.1 Low Pass Filter, Frequency Response A low pass filter has a constant gain (usually unity) from 0 Hz (DC) to a high cut-off frequency, f,,. At f, (also called as cut-off or critical frequency), the gain is down by 3 dB (in other words the gain drops to 0.707 times its maximum value). The frequencies between 0 Hz and f,, Hz are known as the pass band frequencies, whereas the range of frequencies beyond 1, are called stop band frequencies. The filter gain decreases considerably in the stop band region.