Note on dierent linear-phase lter types

Tom Trigano November 22, 2008

Linear phase lters - sucient condition

Recall that a linear phase lter is a lter with a constant group delay1 . It means that the phase plot is linear : + when looking at the time All frequency components are signal all frequency compo- shifted by the same amount of nents are shifted by the same phase. amount of time. Intuitively speaking, it means that the global shape of the signal is not distorted since all frequency components appear at the place (minus a common translation parameter). This is also important in audio signal processing or image signal processing (listen to the dierence between two sounds youll nd in the Michlol, one being phase-distorted). Since we have little control on the phase when using IIR lters, one might be interested in a sucient condition to build FIR linear-phase lters. The condition is: Proposition 1.1 (Sucient condition for FIR linear-phase lters). If the FIR lter dened by its impulse response h[n], it is a linear phase lter if there exists a number such that h[2 n] = h[n]. Proof. We make the proof for being an integer, the other proof following the same path. We have:
+ 1 +

Arg H(ej ) =

h[n]z
n=

=
n=

h[n]z

+ h[]z
1

+
n=+1

h[n]z n
+

=z

h[] +
n= 1

h[n]z

n+

+ h[]z

+
n=+1 1

h[n]z n+ h[2 n ]z n
n =

=z

h[] +
n= 1

h[n]z

n+

+ h[]z

= z h[] +
n=
1

h[n](z n+ + z n )

This denition also appears as generalized linear phase lter.

We get that
1

H(e ) = e

h[] +
n=

2h[n] cos[(n )] ,
This is a real number

which concludes the proof.

FIR linear phase lters with this sucient condition

We detail in this section the dierent linear-phase lters based on the previous sucient condition. Remind that is a sucient condition only ! A lter which does not check this condition can be linear-phase.

2.1

Type I lter

A type I FIR lter has a symmetric impulse response, and has an even order (when starting from 0, the number of non-zero samples is odd). h[M n] = h[n], M even

type I impulse response 3

2.5

h[n]

1.5

0.5

4 n

Figure 1: Typical impulse response of a type I lter The Z-transform is given by the same calculations of the previous demonstration, which means that the phase is Arg H(ej ) = , where is a real number.

Phase of the previous Type I FIR filter 0

6 8 10 12 14 0

50

100

150

200

250

300

type II typical impulse response 2

1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2 h[n]

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

4 n

Figure 2: Typical impulse response of a type II lter

2.2

Type II lter

A type II FIR lter has a symmetric impulse response, and has an odd order (when starting from 0, the number of non-zero samples is even). The frequency response is given by the same calculations as above, but because the number of samples is dierent, the shape is also dierent.

2.3

Type III lter

A type III FIR lter has an anti-symmetric impulse response, and has an even order (starting from 0, the number of non-zero samples is odd). A phase shift of /2 appears in the phase plot. 3

Phase of the previous Type II FIR filter 4

50

100

150

200

250

300

type III typical impulse response 2

1.5

0.5

h[n]

0.5

1.5

4 n

Figure 3: Typical impulse response of a type III lter

2.4

Type IV lter

A type IV FIR lter has an anti-symmetric impulse response, and has an odd order (starting from 0, the number of non-zero samples is even). A phase shift of /2 appears in the phase plot.

Summary of FIR linear phase lter properties

The properties of FIR lters with linear phase are displayed in the following table:

Phase of the previous Type III FIR filter 2

6 8 10 12 14 16 0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

type IV typical impulse response 2

1.5

0.5

h[n]

0.5

1.5

4 n

Figure 4: Typical impulse response of a type IV lter Type I even symmetric 0 LP, HP, BP, BS, multiband lters Type II odd symmetric 0 LP, BP Type III even anti-symmetric 2 Dierentiators, Hilbert transforms Type IV odd anti-symmetric 2 Dierentiators, Hilbert transforms

Order Symmetry of h[n] Phase Shift Common Uses

100

200

300

400

500

600