Biosensors & Bioelectronics

Applying the Difference Term Approach for Low Frequency Biomedical Filter

Abstract

Yaqub Mahnashi and Hussain Alzaher

Low frequency continuous time filters are essential analog blocks for biomedical applications. Integrating such filters having large time constants is difficult as it requires large component values. A novel approach to scale down the pole frequency is presented. A 5-bit reduction in the cut off frequency is achieved. This is made possible through adding a passive resistor in the forward path of the op-amp based integrator introducing a difference term of the pole frequency. Also, the filter topology is modified to avoid changing the quality factor. As an example, a 2nd order low pass filter is designed and simulated. Simulation results show that the pole frequency is scaled down from 1.43 MHz to 4.97 kHz while maintaining tuning of 30% around the nominal value by controlling only one resistor.