Chapter 2 - Design and Implementation of Digital FIR Filters

Abstract

Finite impulse response (FIR) digital filters possess several properties that make them attractive for a wide range of applications. An exactly linear phase-response can be achieved with FIR filters, with the result that they can be used in the reconstruction of signals without phase distortion. Under most practical situations, FIR filters of high orders can be implemented efficiently by indirect design approaches. One of the major advantages of FIR filters is that near-optimal multidimensional FIR filters can be designed easily starting from one-dimensional (1-D) prototypes and using spectral transformations. FIR filters naturally lend themselves to efficient implementation of multirate signal processing algorithms and can be used to achieve extremely efficient sampling rate conversions. Many techniques have been advanced for the design and implementation of FIR filters. This chapter presents several techniques for the design of FIR digital filters, including recent procedures that lead to efficient implementations. It reviews FIR filter preliminaries and discusses the windowing technique for FIR design, with particular emphasis on Kaiser's window, and optimal FIR designs with equiripple weighted error, emphasizing Remez exchange techniques developed for FIR filters by McClellan and Parks. The chapter also discusses maximally flat FIR filters and linear programming techniques for FIR designs.