Circuits and Systems, 2014, 5, 293-300

Published Online December 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/cs

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/cs.2014.512030

CFOA Based Low Pass and High Pass Ladder

Filter—A New Configuration
Praween K. Sinha1, Akshay Saini1, Pranav Kumar2, Sumit Mishra3
1
Electronics and Communication Department, Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India
2
Electronics and Communication Department, University School of Information and Communication
Technology, New Delhi, India
3
Techno Scientific Inc., Concord, Canada
Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]

Received 5 October 2014; revised 30 October 2014; accepted 8 November 2014

Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Abstract
A new technique using signal flow graph for conversion of ladder based filter into CFOA based fil-
ter has been proposed. The proposed technique converts the existing LC ladder based filter into
CFOA in low pass and high pass configuration. The design of low pass filter and high pass filter has
been realized using the proposed technique. The proposed configuration is implemented using
CFOA as an active device and all the capacitors are grounded. Simulation has been carried out us-
ing simulation software I-cap. The simulation results have been demonstrated and discussed.

Keywords
CFOA-Current Feedback Operational Amplifier, Ladder Filter, Signal Flow Graph, Current Mode,
Voltage Mode, High Pass Filter, Low Pass Filter

1. Introduction
Since the birth of electronics, there has been a need of new active devices. This led to the birth of transistors.
After this voltage operational amplifier (OA) was developed, they rapidly become the main analog block and
they have dominated the market since the advent of the first analog integrated circuits. However, the situation is
changing now and there is inclination towards using current mode circuits. The advantages of current mode cir-
cuits over voltage mode circuits are higher signal bandwidth, larger dynamic range, greater linearity, lower
power consumption, and simpler circuitry.
CM filters have received a wide attention due to their wide bandwidth, low-voltage operation and simple im-

How to cite this paper: Sinha, P.K., Saini, A., Kumar, P. and Mishra, S. (2014) CFOA Based Low Pass and High Pass Ladder
Filter—A New Configuration. Circuits and Systems, 5, 293-300. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/cs.2014.512030
P. K. Sinha et al.

plementation of signal operations, such as addition and subtraction [1]-[6]. Current feedback operational ampli-
fier (CFOA) based CM circuits have received considerable attention in many filtering and signal processing ap-
plications. CFOA-based circuits are attractive due to greater linearity, better dynamic range, high slew rate and
bandwidth independent of the closed-loop gain of CFOA compared with voltage op-amps. Symbol diagram of
the CFOA is shown in Figure 1.
Many attempts have been made to remove the inductor from the ladder based filter and to maintain its proper-
ties and one of the attempts is CFOA based filter. With the help of CFOA we can achieve the same characteris-
tics of ladder based filter as they were in the original circuit and that’s all without inductor. Moreover, CFOA
provides faster response and can operate at high frequency at high gain.
In this paper, active realization of ladder filter using current feedback operational amplifier (CFOA) has been
presented. Performance comparison between this approach and Rathore and Khot [7] has been performed using
a low pass filter.
The paper is organized as follows: heading 2 Transformation of Ladder Based Low Pass Filter into CFOA
Based Low Pass Filter, heading 3 Transformation of Ladder Based Low pass Filter into CFOA Based High Pass
Filter, and finally the conclusion is drawn. Given below is Figure 1 representing a CFOA building block.

2. Transformation of Ladder Low Pass Filter into CFOA Based Low

Pass Filter
An improvement has been done in conventional ladder based filter to make it better and to remove inductor from
it. The conversion of simple ladder based filter into CFOA based filter has been shown in the Figure 2 as fol-
lows:

2.1. Apply KCL and KVL in the Circuit

The following equations are observed after applying KCL and KVL
VIN − V1
I IN = (1)
R1
I IN − I 2
V1 = (2)
sC1
V1 − V2
I2 = (3)
sI 2
I2 − I4
V2 = (4)
sC3

Figure 1. CFOA building block.

Figure 2. Simple ladder based filter.

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V2 − V3
I4 = (5)
sI 4
I4 − I6
V=
3 V=
0 (6)
sC5
V0
I6 = (7)
RB

2.2. Conversion into Voltage Form

The equations are converted into voltage form to eliminate current element and we get
R (VIN − V1 ) R (VIN − V1 )
=
RI IN ⇒ V
= IN (8)
RA RA

R ( I IN − I 2 ) V 
IN − V2
=V1 = ⇒ V1 (9)
sC1 R sC1 R

R (V1 − V2 ) R (V1 − V2 )
=
RI 2 =⇒ V2 (10)
sL2 sL2

R ( I2 − I4 ) V2 − V4
=V2 =⇒ V2 (11)
sC3 R sC3 R

R (V2 − V3 ) R (V2 − V3 )
=
RI 4 = ⇒ V4 (12)
sL4 sL4

R ( I4 − I6 ) V4 − V6
V3 = V0 = ⇒ V0 = (13)
sC5 R sC5 R
RV0 RV0
RI 6 = ⇒ V6 = (14)
RB RB

2.3. Signal Flow Diagram

With the help of these equations we make a signal flow diagram and it has been shown in Figure 3.

2.4. CFOA Filter

And finally by using this signal flow diagram CFOA based filter is constructed as depicted in Figure 4.

2.5. Observation
The conventional and CFOA based ladder low pass filter circuits shown in Figure 5 are designed and evaluated
in I-CAP using conventional resistors, inductors, capacitors and AD844 IC as CFOA.
Now the circuit is simulated in I-CAP with input voltage as 10 sin (2π10 × 103 t) and its AC analysis is done.
The following result is obtained as shown in Figure 6.
From the graph, the cut-off frequency comes to be 410 Hz (approx.) and we can see that the response is the
response for low pass filter.

2.6. CFOA Based Low Pass Filter

For CFOA we use the AD844 IC and a power supply is attached to drive it. The circuit is simulated in I-CAP
with input voltage as 10 sin (2π10 × 103 t) and its AC analysis is done. The following result is obtained.

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Figure 3. Signal flow graph.

Figure 4. Conversion of signal flow diagram into CFOA block diagram.

Conventional Ladder based low pass filter

Figure 5. Ladder based LC low pass filter.

Figure 6. Response of Ladder based LC low pass.

From the graph, the cut-off frequency comes to be 430 Hz (approx.) and we can see that the response is the
response for low pass filter. And both the graphs are identical to each other so the conversion is successful. The
CFOA based low pass filter has been shown in Figure 7 while the response has been depicted in Figure 8.

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V4 V5 V6 V7
V2 V3
R7
C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6
0.01uF 0.01uF 0.01uF 0.01uF 0.01uF 0.01uF
5kΩ

R5
U6
R4
R3 5kΩ
U4 OUT
R2 5kΩ
5kΩ U3
5kΩ U1
R6
U2
R1
5kΩ AD844
5kΩ V1 AD844
AD844
AD844
AD844
AD844
V10 V11 V12 V13
V8 V9

Figure 7. CFOA based low pass filter.

Figure 8. Response of CFOA based low pass filter.

3. Transformation of Ladder Based High Pass Filter into CFOA Based High Pass
Filter
A high-pass filter (HPF) is an electronic filter that passes higher-frequency signals but attenuates (reduces the
amplitude of) signals with frequencies lower than the cut-off frequency.
The actual amount of attenuation for each frequency varies from filter to filter. A high-pass filter is usually
modeled as a linear time-invariant system. It is sometimes called a low-cut filter or bass-cut filter. High-pass fil-
ters have many uses, such as blocking DC from circuitry sensitive to non-zero average voltages or RF devices.
They can also be used in conjunction with a low-pass filter to make a band pass filter. LC high-pass filters can
be directly designed by mapping the values of a normalized LC low-pass filter into a high-pass filter. This al-
lows use of existing tables of normalized low pass values to create high-pass filters. If 1/s is substituted for s in a
normalized low-pass transfer function, a high-pass response is obtained. The low-pass attenuation values will
now occur at high-pass frequencies, which are the reciprocal of the corresponding low-pass frequencies.

3.1. RLC Based High Pass Filter

The RLC high pass filter has been shown below in Figure 9.

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Figure 9. RLC high pass filter.

3.2. Frequency Response

The response for the ladder based high pass filter has been shown in below Figure 10.

3.3. Mathematical Analysis

Apply KCL and KVL in the circuit.
The following equations are observed after applying KCL and KVL:
(VIN − V1 ) sC1
I IN = (15)
1 + sC1 RA
V1 = ( I IN − I 2 ) sL2 ⇒ I 2 = (V1 − V2 ) sC3 (16)

V2 = ( I 2 − I 4 ) sL4 ⇒ I 4 = (V2 − V3 ) sC5 (17)

V=
3 V=
0 I 4 RB (18)
R (VIN − V1 ) sC1 R (VIN − V1 ) sC1
=RI IN = ⇒ VIN′ (19)
1 + sC1 RA 1 + sC1 RA

R ( I IN − I 2 ) sL2 (VIN′ − V2′ ) sL2

=V1 = ⇒ V1 (20)
R R
RI 2= R (V1 − V2 ) sC3 ⇒ V2′= R (V1 − V2 ) sC3 (21)

R ( I 2 − I 4 ) sL4 (V2′ − V4′ ) sL4

=V2 = ⇒ V2 (22)
R R
RI 4= R (V2 − V3 ) sC5 ⇒ V4=′ R (V2 − V3 ) sC5 (23)
V3 = V0 = I 4 RB ⇒ V0 = V4′ (24)

3.4. CFOA Based Active Ladder Filter

The circuit diagram for the CFOA based high pass filter has been shown in Figure 11.

3.5. Frequency Response

The frequency response for the CFOA based high pass filter has been shown in Figure 12.

4. Conclusions
Very few methods of designing higher order ladder filter using CFOA have been explored. Rathore and Khot [7]
have given a systematic method of designing CFOA based ladder filter. In that design, the summary of compo-
nents used has been illustrated in Table 1.
In the proposed configuration, we have used less number of CFOA and less number of passive components.
The passive components which have been used in our configuration are grounded in nature. The grounded de-
vices are easy to fabricate in VLSI chip. The filter configuration designed in the proposed configuration has re-
placed the inductor completely which reduce the size of the circuit, which is a major requirement of VLSI de-
sign.

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Figure 10. Response of ladder based high pass filter.

V5
V1 V2 V3 V4
V11

U1
U2
U3
R1 U4
U5
1kΩ
C1 C2 OUT
0.001uF 0.001uF C3
R2 0.001uF C4
1kΩ
0.001uF

C5
0.001uF R3 R4 R5 R6
1kΩ 1kΩ 1kΩ 1kΩ

V6 V7 V8 V9 V10

Figure 11. CFOA based high pass filter.

Figure 12. Frequency response of CFOA based high pass filter.

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P. K. Sinha et al.

Table 1. Comparison of results of [7] and proposed realization.

Proposed realization
Reference [7]
LPF HPF

Active elements 7 CFOA 6 CFOA 5 CFOA

External resistors 2 grounded and 6 floating 2 grounded and 6 floating 5 grounded and 1 floating

External Capacitor 3 grounded and 2 floating 5 grounded 1 grounded and 4 floating

In addition, after implementing the conventional and CFOA based low pass filter and high pass filter it was
observed that the responses of the two filters are almost identical to their respective conventional circuits. The
presence of inductor can be removed completely from the filter structure to make it less bulky and expensive.
The shape of response can be set by varying resistors as variable inductance for low frequency filters are not
practical. These filters imply a minimum No. of capacitors, resistance and CFOA as compared to [7]. Such fil-
ters are suitable for fabrication of integrated circuit technique as we replace the inductor with the equivalent
CFOA. The above conversion can be used to produce more active low pass filters and high pass filter. So, finally
we can say that the CFOA based filter is a good step towards establishment of active filters.

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