3/14/2017 PracticalFIRFilterDesign:Part1DesignwithOctaveorMatlab

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3/14/2017 PracticalFIRFilterDesign:Part1DesignwithOctaveorMatlab

PracticalFIRFilterDesign:Part1Designwith
OctaveorMatlab
January24,2016byShanePetcavich(/author/shanepetcavich)

Thistutorialwillfocusondesigningafiniteimpulseresponse(FIR)filter.Asthe
seriesprogresses,itwilldiscussthenecessarystepstoimplementthefilteron
realhardware.

AFIRfilterisadigitalfilterwhoseimpulseresponsesettlestozeroinfinitetime
asopposedtoaninfiniteimpulseresponsefilter(IIR),whichusesfeedbackand
mayrespondindefinitelytoaninputsignal.ThegreatthingaboutFIRfiltersis
thattheyareinherentlystableandcaneasilybedesignedtohavelinearphase.
Iwon'tgetintothedetailsmuchfurtheronFIRfiltersandtheirpro'sandcon's
asthistutorialfocusesmoreondesigningfiltersfastandefficientlywiththeaid
ofOctave(https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/).

Typically,inFIRfilterdesignthelengthofthefilterwillneedtobespecified.You
canguessandcheckuntilthefiltermatchesyourexpectedbandwidthand
cutoffrequirements,butthiscouldbealongandtediousprocess.Theequation
belowisanefficientwaytocomputeareasonablestartinglength.Aftertrying
thecalculatedN,onecanthentweakNorparameterswhichmakeupNto
meetfilterspecifications.

AdB Fs
N
22f

where

AdB isyourstopbandattenuationindB

Fs isyoursamplingfrequency

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3/14/2017 PracticalFIRFilterDesign:Part1DesignwithOctaveorMatlab

and

f isyourtransitionbandwidth

Letssaywewanttofilteranaudiosignalwiththefollowingcharacteristicsand
desiredfilterresponse:

Thesamplesmaycontainfrequenciesfrom020kHz

Wewishtodesignafilterthatpassesonlyfrequencieslessthan10kHz

Wewantastopbandattenuationof40dBat15kHz

OursystemhasaFs of192kHz

Withthisinformationwecanbegintheprocessofdesign.Usingtheequation
forNweestimatethefilterlengthtoapproximatelybe:

(40)(192000H z)
N
22(15kH z 10kH z)

N 69.818

roundingtothenearestoddnumber

N 69

*DesigninganFIRfilterlengthtobeoddlengthwillgivethefilteranintegral
delayof(N1)/2.

UsingtheOctave/Matlabcodebelow,wecanseehowtodesignalowpassfilter
withabandwidthof10kHzandacutoffof15kHzusingOctave'sbuiltinfir1
function,whichiswelldocumentedhere
(http://octave.sourceforge.net/signal/function/fir1.html)

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3/14/2017 PracticalFIRFilterDesign:Part1DesignwithOctaveorMatlab

closeall;
clearall;
clf;

f1=10000;
f2=15000;
delta_f=f2f1;
Fs=192000;
dB=40;
N=dB*Fs/(22*delta_f);

f=[f1]/(Fs/2)
hc=fir1(round(N)1,f,'low')

figure
plot((0.5:1/4096:0.51/4096)*Fs,20*log10(abs(fftshift(fft(hc,4096)))))
axis([0200006020])
title('FilterFrequencyResponse')
gridon

Octave/MatlabCode(/login/?redirect=https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/technicalarticles/d

Thecodeabovegivesusthefollowingresponse:

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3/14/2017 PracticalFIRFilterDesign:Part1DesignwithOctaveorMatlab

(/uploads/articles/lpfrp.png)

Figure1

Butifwezoominwewillseethattheattenuationat10kHzisgreaterthan3dB:

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3/14/2017 PracticalFIRFilterDesign:Part1DesignwithOctaveorMatlab

(/uploads/articles/zoomlpfrp.png)\

Figure2

Thebandwidthofthefilterisalwaysspecifiedtothe3dBpoint,sointhefirst
iterationofdesignourfilterhasasmallerbandwidththanspecified(somewhere
lessthan9kHz).Wecanseefromthefirstfigurethattheattenuationinthe
stopbandexceededourspecifications,perhapswecantweaktheattenuation
andpassbandfrequencytoenhancethedesign.

Tweakingtheparametersinthecodeto

f1=11200
f2=15000
dB=30

givesusafilterwhichcloselymatchesourspeicfications

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3/14/2017 PracticalFIRFilterDesign:Part1DesignwithOctaveorMatlab

(/uploads/articles/lpfrpfixed.png)

Figure3

Thefilterdesignisnowcomplete.Let'ssimulatehowitworksbyaddingthe
codebelowtothefirstbitofcodewelookedat.

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x=sin(2*pi*[1:1000]*5000/Fs)+sin(2*pi*[1:1000]*2000/Fs)+sin(2*pi*[1:1000]*130
00/Fs)+sin(2*pi*[1:1000]*18000/Fs);

sig=20*log10(abs(fftshift(fft(x,4096))));
xf=filter(hc,1,x)

figure
subplot(211)
plot(x)
title('Sinusoidwithfrequencycomponents2000,5000,13000,and18000Hz')

subplot(212)
plot(xf)
title('FilteredSignal')
xlabel('time')
ylabel('amplitude')

x=(x/sum(x))/20
sig=20*log10(abs(fftshift(fft(x,4096))));
xf=filter(hc,1,x)

figure
subplot(211)
plot((0.5:1/4096:0.51/4096)*Fs,sig)
holdon
plot((0.5:1/4096:0.51/4096)*Fs,20*log10(abs(fftshift(fft(hc,4096)))),'color','r')
holdoff
axis([0200006010])
title('Inputtofilter4Sinusoids')
gridon
subplot(212)
plot((0.5:1/4096:0.51/4096)*Fs,20*log10(abs(fftshift(fft(xf,4096)))))
axis([0200006010])
title('Outputfromfilter')
xlabel('Hz')
ylabel('dB')
gridon

MoreMatlab/OctaveCode(/login/?redirect=https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/technicalartic

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3/14/2017 PracticalFIRFilterDesign:Part1DesignwithOctaveorMatlab

Figure4

AswecanseeinFigure4,wehavethetimedomainsignalsontheleftandthe
frequencydomainontheright.Thefilter(inred)isoverlaidontotheplotto
showhowthefilterleavesthesinusoidsinthepassbandandattenuatesthe
signalsinthetransitionandstopband.

Thefir1functioncanalsobeusedtoproducenotchfilters,highpassfilters,and
bandpassfiltersbyreplacingtheselines:

f=[f1]/(Fs/2),mayneedtobespecifiedwithtwoargumentsforbandpassand
notchfiltersassuch:

f=[f1f2]/(Fs/2),wheref1istheleft3dBedgeandf2istheright3dBedge

hc=fir1(round(N)1,f,'low')canbemodifiedassuch:

'low'canbereplacedwith'stop'(notch),'high'(highpass),'bandpass'
(bandpass)

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