Design and Applications of Digital Filters

Abstract

Digital signal processing (DSP) is an area of engineering that “has seen explosive growth during the past three decades” (Mitra, 2005). Its rapid development is a result of significant advances in digital computer technology and integrated circuit fabrication (Jovanovic Dolecek, 2002; Smith, 2002). Diniz, da Silva, and Netto (2002) state that “the main advantages of digital systems relative to analog systems are high reliability, suitability for modifying the system’s characteristics, and low cost”. The main DSP operation is digital signal filtering, that is, the change of the characteristics of an input digital signal into an output digital signal with more desirable properties. The systems that perform this task are called digital filters. The applications of digital filters include the removal of the noise or interference, passing of certain frequency components and rejection of others, shaping of the signal spectrum, and so forth (Ifeachor & Jervis, 2001; Lyons, 2004; White, 2000). Digital filters are divided into finite impulse response (FIR) and infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. FIR digital filters are often preferred over IIR filters because of their attractive properties, such as linear phase, stability, and the absence of the limit cycle (Diniz, da Silva & Netto, 2002; Mitra, 2005). The main disadvantage of FIR filters is that they involve a higher degree of computational complexity compared to IIR filters with equivalent magnitude response (Mitra, 2005; Stein, 2000).