DIT, Kevin St.

Electric circuits Waed 3

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

R5
V4 = V3
R4
But

1
V3 = V2
sC 2 R3

R5 1
V4 = V2
R4 sC 2 R3

Substituting 7.6 into 7.3 yields

Zf R5 Zf
V2 = V2 V1
R6 sC 2 R3 R4 R1

Zf R5 Zf
V2 [1 + ]= V1
R6 sC 2 R3 R4 R1

Zf
V2 R1
=
V1 Z f R5
1+
sC2 R3 R4 R6

R2
1 + sC1R2
V2 R1
=
V1 R2
R5
1 + sC1R2
1+
sC2 R3 R4 R6

R2
V2 R1
=
V1 R2 R5
1 + sC1 R2 +
sC2 R3 R4 R6

Copyright: Paul Tobin School of Electronics and Comms. Eng. 65

DIT, Kevin St. Electric circuits Waed 3

R2
sC2 R3 R4 R6
V2 R1
= 2
V1 s C1C2 R2 R3 R4 R6 + sC2 R3 R4 R6 + + R2 R5

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