
9-2
In contrast to filter design by image-parameter meth-
ods, the design of filters by the use
of
modern network
theory is a domain for specialists with digital computers
because of the complex calculations required. There are
sufficient advantages of filter circuits computed by this
method, however, to warrant making some application
of them easy and straightforward. This chapter focuses
on a very limited subset of the limitless possibilities for
low-pass networks and simple transform methods to
allow calculation of high-pass, bandpass, and band-stop
circuits.
The design information is drawn from experience in
the application of modern network theory to the design
of electric wave filters.
As
stated above, only limited
design results are supplied, and a concentrated study of
the cited references
is
essential to gain a working
knowledge of the synthesis process through which these
results were computed. References
1,
4,
and
6
provide
details of the design theory. Reference
5
provides a
concise summary of the theory with graphs and tables
to enable an engineer to compute filter circuits with the
help of a computer program.
Reference
2
provides a much larger tabulation of
Cauer-parameter and Chebyshev filter networks up to
degree
9,
and Saal has also produced another volume
that extends to degree
15.
Reference 3 presents many
practical ideas (drawn from a 25-year career in Europe
and the
USA)
on designing, testing, and manufacturing
filters and mentions two of the computer programs that
are available. Many books and articles written on this
subject since the work of Cauer and Darlington in the
late 1930s are more than worthy of mention here.
However, the scope of this chapter and the space
available do not necessitate nor permit a detailed
discussion. Reference
7
is an example of some of the
work done toward practical implementation of these
filter networks with standard-value capacitors.
No
attempt has been made to present details of the
theory and formulation involved, of the approximation
of transfer polynomials to performance requirements,
or the very useful but less frequently required topics
such as zero and infinite terminations, phase and delay
performance, and the effects of and compensation for
the losses in real coils and capacitors.
INTRODUCTION
Filter networks continue to be of great importance in
the design of electrical equipment, especially in com-
munication engineering. Unlike previous methodolo-
gies to design spectrum-shaping networks, modern
network theory enables the engineer
to
design filter
networks that are based on the actual requirements for
signal transmission. While image-parameter design
is
rather simplistic, only a very limited approximation of
the specific requirements can be achieved. Today’s
methods are not
so
straightforward and are generally
considered beyond the scope of nonspecialists, since the
mathematical design process does not directly parallel
physical conceptions and the calculations are complex
and extensive. The development of digital computers
has led to the capture of much of the knowledge of the
specialist and the complex calculation algorithms into
programs that allow many engineers to design some of
their own networks. Still, the sophisticated require-
ments necessitate the special expert.
Many of the less complex requirements can be
satisfied by designs that can be done with the
procedures described here and without access to the
computer programs. To accomplish this task, the re-
quirements for all the filter types considered here
(low-pass, high-pass, bandpass and band-stop) are
transformed to a set of reference low-pass requirements.
From the reference low-pass requirements, the network
complexity is determined, and a normalized reference
low-pass
is
selected. Then the suitable transformation
is
applied to this low-pass to arrive at the network to
satisfy the initial requirements.
Fig.
1
shows a “reasonably typical” requirement for
a filter network. To satisfy this requirement with the
minimum network, it is necessary to use one
of
the
available computer programs. However, it is possible to
satisfy the modified requirements, as shown in Fig.
2,
by the simple computations of this chapter. The re-
quirements depicted by the tolerance plot of Fig.
2
can
be transformed to the basic reference low-pass tolerance
plot shown by Fig.
3
with
A,
=
AI
and
A,
=
A,.
The
algorithm for this transform is covered in the section
headed “The Reference Low-Pass.”
NORMALIZATION
To simplify the calculations, frequencies are normal-
ized with respect to some reference frequency,fref, and
the impedances are normalized with respect to a refer-
FREQUENCY
Fig.
1.
Requirement for
a
filter network.
Fig.
2.
Modified requirements for filter network