Chapter 7 The Biquad filter The biquad configuration is a useful circuit for producing bandpass and low-pass responses, which require high Q-factor values not achievable with the VSVS and the IGMF circuits. The Biquad and the state variable filter circuit configuration can have Q-factor values of 400 or greater. This circuit, whilst not as useful as the state variable, nevertheless has certain applications. It is easily tuneable using single resistor tuning (normally a stereo or ganged potentiometer). It can be configured to produce a Butterworth or a Chebychev response by changing the damping (1/Q).
Figure 7.47: Biquad filter.
Figure 7.47 shows a typical three-operational amplifier circuit. The transfer
function is obtained by considering the bandpass output first. The low-pass is easily obtained thereafter. The Biquad active filter consists of a leaky integrator, an integrator and a summing amplifier. Let Zf be the parallel combination of R2 and C1:
R2 Zf = 1 + sC1 R2
The transfer function for the last stage is defined as:
V4 R = 5 7.1 V3 R4
In addition, for the second last stage:
V3 1 = 7.2 V2 sC 2 R3
Copyright: Paul Tobin School of Electronics and Comms. Eng. 64
DIT, Kevin St. Electric circuits Waed 3 The first op-amp is a leaky integrator and we can write for the output voltage as:
Zf Zf V2 = V4 V1 R6 R1
If we substitute for V4 and V2 from equations 7.1 and 7.2, we can write
R2 C 2 R3 R4 R6 s V2 R1 C1C 2 R2 R3 R4 R6 = V1 C 2 R3 R4 R6 R2 R5 s2 + s ++ C1C 2 R2 R3 R4 R6 C1C 2 R2 R3 R4 R6
1 s V2 C1 R1 = V1 1 R5 s2 + s + C1 R2 C1C 2 R3 R4 R6 If R4 = R5:
1 s V2 C1 R1 = V1 1 1 s2 + s + C1 R2 C1C 2 R3 R6
The standard form for a bandpass second order function is
p sK V2 Q = V1 p s2 + s +p 2
We may write expressions for the passband edge frequency, Q-factor and gain in terms of the circuit components by comparing coefficients. The gain at the resonant frequency is
R2 H (0) = K = R1
The resonant frequency is
1 2o = C1C 2 R3 R6
Copyright: Paul Tobin School of Electronics and Comms. Eng. 66
DIT, Kevin St. Electric circuits Waed 3
C1 R 2 2 Q= C 2 R6 R3
1 BW = 2C1 R2
The Q-factor and the resonant frequency are not independent in this circuit. For high frequencies, the bandwidth will be the same as that for low frequencies. This, in general, is not a desirable feature. For example, in an audio mixing desk, the equalising section would use a state-variable circuit where the bandwidth changes with the higher frequencies. The tuning procedure for the biquad BP is as follows:
1) Select values for C1, C2 and R5,
2) Adjust the resonant frequency p by varying R3 set the gain by R1, 3) The Q-factor is set by R2. as opposed to iterative where one has to keep adjusting the component values to get the desired value, and 4) The Q-factor is set by R2.
Equal value component
If we set C1 = C2 = C and R3 = R6 = R, then the equations are greatly simplified
1 s V2 CR1 = V1 1 1 s2 + s + 2 2 CR2 C R
R2 H (0) = K = R1
1 2o = C R2 2
2 R2 R Q= 2 = 2 R R
1 BW = 2CR2
Copyright: Paul Tobin School of Electronics and Comms. Eng. 67
DIT, Kevin St. Electric circuits Waed 3
Figure 7.48: Biquad filter response.
Copyright: Paul Tobin School of Electronics and Comms. Eng. 68
