Bessel Filter
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Definition
History/Origin
Block Diagram/Graph
Computation
Application
I. Definition
popular for its flat sound pressure and power responses, and
18 dB per octave cutoff slope.
Second-order crossovers have historically been chosen for
their simplicity, and a usable 12 dB per octave cutoff.
Fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley presents an attractive option,
with flat summed response, 24 dB per octave cutoff, and
outputs which are always in phase with each other,
producing optimal polar response.Steeper cutoff slopes are
known to require higher orders with greater phase shift,
which for the linear phase case is equivalent to more time
delay.
II.
History/Origin
The resulting crossover is compared to the Butterworth and LinkwitzRiley types in terms of the magnitude, phase, and time domain
responses. The Bessel filter was not originally designed for use in a
crossover, and requires minor modification to make it work properly.
The purpose of the Bessel filter is to achieve approximately linear
phase, linear phase being equivalent to a time delay.
This is the best phase response from an audible standpoint, assuming
you don't want to correct an existing phase shift.
III. GRAPHS
A plot of the gain and group delay for a fourth-order low pass Bessel
filter. Note that the transition from the pass band to the stop band is
much slower than for other filters, but the group delay is practically
constant in the passband. The Bessel filter maximizes the flatness of
the group delay curve at zero frequency.
The magnitude responses of the low-pass and the high-pass are mirror
images of each other on a log-frequency scale; the negative sign has
no effect on this. The phase of the low-pass typically drops near the
cutoff frequency from an asymptote of zero as the frequency
is increased, and asymptotically approaches a negative value.
However, in addition to being mirror images on a log-frequency scale,
the phase of the high-pass is the negative of the low-pass, which
follows from the negative sign in (3). So the phase rises from zero at
high frequency, and approaches a positive value asymtotically as the
frequency is decreased. This results in offset curves with similar shape.
Any asymmetry of the s-shaped phase curve is mirrored between the
low-pass and high-pass. See Figure 5 for a second-order example,
where the phase curve also has inherent symmetry.
One special case is where the denominator polynomial p(s) has
symmetric coefficients, where the nth coefficient is equal to the
constant term; the (n-1)st coefficient is equal to the linear term, etc.
This is the case for Butterworth and therefore the Linkwitz-Riley types
. A fourth-order Linkwitz-Riley is given as an example in equation (4).
When this is the case, coefficient reversal has no effect on p(s), and
the high-pass differs from the low-pass only in the numerator term sn .
This numerator can easily be shown to produce a constant phase shift
of 90, 180, 270, or 360 degrees (360 is in-phase in the frequency
domain), with respect to the low-pass, when frequency response is
evaluated on the imaginary axis. For the second-order case s2=(jw)2=
-w2 and the minus sign indicates a polarity reversal (or 180-degree
phase shift at all frequencies).
Fs = 100;
[z,p,k] = besself(5,1000);
[zd,pd,kd] = bilinear(z,p,k,Fs);
sos = zp2sos(zd,pd,kd);
fvtool(sos)
% Sampling Frequency
Bessel analog filter design
Analog to digital mapping
Convert to SOS form
Visualize the digital filter
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IV. COMPUTATION
where
is a reverse Bessel polynomial from which the filter gets
its name and
is a frequency chosen to give the desired cut-off
frequency. The filter has a low-frequency group delay of
Since
is indeterminate by the definition of reverse Bessel
polynomials, but is a removable singularity, it is defined
that
where
The phase is
Note that the two terms in 2 and 4 are zero, resulting in a very flat
group delay at = 0. This is the greatest number of terms that can be
set to zero, since there are a total of four coefficients in the third order
Bessel polynomial, requiring four equations in order to be defined. One
equation specifies that the gain be unity at = 0 and a second
specifies that the gain be zero at = , leaving two equations to
specify two terms in the series expansion to be zero. This is a general
property of the group delay for a Bessel filter of order n: the first n
1 terms in the series expansion of the group delay will be zero, thus
maximizing the flatness of the group delay at = 0.
[z,p,k] = besselap(n) returns the poles and gain of an order-n Bessel
analog lowpass filter prototype. n must be less than or equal to 25.
The function returns the poles in the length n column vector p and the
gain in scalar k. z is an empty matrix because there are no zeros. The
transfer function is
H(s)=
k(sp(1))(sp(2))(sp(n))
bessel normalizes the poles and gain so that at low frequency and high
frequency the Bessel prototype is asymptotically equivalent to the
Butterworth prototype of the same order [1]. The magnitude of the
filter is less than G1/2 at the unity cutoff frequency c = 1.
bessel designs lowpass, analog Bessel filters, which are characterized
by almost constant group delay across the entire passband, thus
Filter transfer functions are normalized by convention for and are then
designed for
This has the effect of shifting the magnitude and phase responses right
or left when viewed on a log-frequency scale. Of course, it doesn't
affect the shapes of these response curves, since when the transfer
functions are evaluated:
V. APPLICATIONS