JOURNAL OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS, VOLUME 27, ISSUE 2 , OCTOBER 2014

28

New High-Input Impedance MISO-Type

Universal Biquad Filter Employing CFOAs
Kasim K. Abdalla
AbstractA new universal multiple inputs single output (MISO) type biquad employing three current feed-back operational
amplifiers (CFOAs) is presented. The circuit having three inputs and one output can realize all the five basic filtering functions
namely, low pass (LP), high pass (HP), band pass (BP), Notch-filter (NF) and all pass (AP) in voltage mode. The proposed
circuit enjoys the following features: orthogonal control of resonance angular frequency (o) and quality factor (Q), low active
and passive sensitivities and low-output impedances. The workability of the proposed circuit has been confirmed by PSPICE
simulations based upon AD844 type CFOAs.
Index TermsBiquad filters, Current feedback operational amplifier, Analog circuit design, Voltage-mode filters, Analog signal
processing.

1 INTRODUCTION

HE design of active filter circuits employing active

devices such as current conveyors (CCIIs), current
feedback operational amplifiers (CFOAs) and opera-
tional transconductance amplifiers (OTAs) have been re-
ported [1-15]. Universal biquad filters (i.e., those capable
of simultaneously realizing low-pass, high-pass, band-
pass, band-reject, and all pass responses from the same
configuration) have been widely investigated in litera-
ture. Multifunction active biquad filters may be used in
phase locked loop, FM stereo demodulators, touch tone
telephone and cross over networks used in three-way
high fidelity loud speakers [1] and the references cited
therein.
The transimpedance opamps, popularly known as cur-
rent feedback opamps (CFOAs), are receiving growing
attention as alternative building blocks for analog circuit
design, because they offer several advantages over the
traditional voltagemode opamps (VOAs). These ad-
vantages include, wider bandwidth, very high slew rates
a closed-loop bandwidth which is almost independent of
the closed loop gain, see [2-4] and the references cited
therein. Moreover, it has a low-impedance output which
makes the circuit cascadable without additional buffers
[5].
In the literature several voltage-mode biquadratic filters
are presented which uses different types of CFOAs [4-12].
A number of voltage-mode universal biquadratic filters
with multiple-input single-output [6, 8, 11] that are avail-
able. The voltage-mode filters with high-input impedance
are of great interest because they can be easily cascaded to
synthesize higher-order filters [11, 12].
In contrast to high input impedance multiple input single
output (MISO) type biquad using CFOA, recently, Ni-
koloudis and Psychalinos presented a high input imped-

ance voltage-mode biquadratic filter with four inputs sin-

gle output using four CFOAs, two capacitors and five
resistors and realized all five generic responses [11]. Ku-
mar and Pal presented a high input impedance voltage
mode universal biquad filter using three active two oper-
ational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs), one CFOA
[12]. The universal biquad in [12] needs a floating capaci-
tor for realizing the five types of filter functions.
In this paper, a new three-high-impedance input ter-
minals and one-low-impedance output terminal voltage-
mode universal biquadratic filter using three CFOAs, two
capacitors and five resistors is presented. The new pro-
posed configuration although has same passive compo-
nents and realizes exactly the same standard filter re-
sponses but in contrast to the circuit of reference [11] uses
less active devices (only three CFOAs).

2 THE PROPOSED CONFIGURATION

The current-feedback operational amplifier, such as
AD844 from Analog Devices Inc. [13], has gained the ac-
ceptance of researchers as a building block in circuit de-
sign. The circuit symbol of a CFOA is shown in Fig. 1.

VX
VY

IX

IY

X
Z

VW

Y
VZ

IZ

Fig. 1. The CFOA circuit symbol

The CFOA can be described using the following matrix-

K.K. Author is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Engineering

College, University of Babylon.
2014 JOT
www.journaloftelecommunications.co.uk

29

relations:

APF: making G1 = 2G4 and taking v1 = v2 = v3 = vin gives an

IY 0
V 1
X =
I Z 0

VW 0

0 0 0 VY
0 0 0 I X (1)
1 0 0 VZ

0 1 0 IW

The proposed MISO-type voltage-mode configuration for

realizing the universal biquadratic filter with three

all pass function results which is given by

v o = 1 G2 ( s 2 C C sC G + G G ) (7)
1 2
1 4
1 5

vin

G3

Thus, it is seen that the proposed circuit can realize all the
five generic filter responses.
The various parameters of the realized filters are given
by:

o =

R3 ;
1 +
R2

R3
; BW = 1
C2 R4
C1C 2 R1 R2 R5

Qo = R4

C 2 R3
C1 R1 R2 R5

R3 (8)
1 +
R2

From (8), the Qo of the proposed filter can be controlled

independently of o by varying R4.

H oLP = 1; H oHP

Fig. 2. The proposed configuration

CFOAs is shown in Fig. 2.

a routine analysis of the circuit reveals the following ex-
pression of the output voltage vo in terms of the three in-
put voltages v1, v2 and v3:

G2
[v 3 ( s 2 C1C 2 + sC1G 4 ) v 2 sC1G1 + v1G1G5 ]
G3

vo =
G
G
s 2 C1C 2 + sC1G 4 (1 + 2 ) + G1G5 2
G3
G3
where Gi =1/Ri ; i =1 - 5

R3 R4
+
R3
R2 R1
(9)
=
; H oBP =
R2
R3
1 +
R2

where o = pole-frequency in radian/sec, BW = band-

width, Qo = quality factor and H o = gain.

3 NON-IDEAL ANALYSIS

Taking into account the non-ideal CFOAs, namely, iz =

(2) ix, vx = vy and vw = vz , where = (1- i) and i (i << 1)
denotes the current tracking error of a CFOA, = (1- v )
and v (v << l) is the input voltage tracking error, and =
(1- v ) and v (v << l) is the output voltage tracking error,
the centre frequency o, and quality factor Qo are given by

The various filter types can be realized from the circuit of

Fig. 2 as follows:

LPF: making v2 = v3 = 0 and taking v1 = vin

o = 1 2 3 1 2 3

The resulting transfer function is given by

Qo = 1 2 3 1 2 3 R4
vo = 1 (G G G2 ) (3)

1 5

vin

R3
C1C2 R1 R2 R5
C 2 R3
C1 R1 R2 R5

(10)

(11)

R
1 + 3 2 3 3
R2

G3

where = s 2 C C + sC G (1 + G2 ) + G G G2 The active and passive sensitivities are

1 2
1 4
1 5

G3

G3

BPF: making v1 = v3 = 0 and taking v2 = vin thereby resulting

in

vo 1
G
=
( sC1G4 2 ) (4)

G3
vin
HPF: making v1 = 0, G1 = G4 and taking v2 = v3 = vin gives

S C1o = S C2o = S R1o = S R2o = S R5o = 1 2

o
3

o
1

Qo
C2

Qo
1

Qo
2

Qo
1

Qo
R4

S RQ2o

Notch: (i) making G1 = G4 and taking v1 = v2 = v3 = vin gives

v o 1 G2
=
[vin3 ( s 2 C1C 2 + G1G5 )] (6)
vin G3

o
2

o
2

o
3

S = S = S = S = S = S =1 2

vo = 1 ( s 2 C C G2 ) (5)
1 2
vin
G3
a notch response which characterized by

o
1

=S

=S

=S

=1 2 S
,

=1

1 3 2 3
1
=
2
1 + 3 2 3

R3
R2
R3
R2

Qo
C1

=S

Qo
R1

= S RQ5o = 1 2

30

-10

BPF
-30

-40

-50
10

!
!
!!

= ! +

, ! = ! + !! , ! =

!!

!! , !

, !
!!

, !
!!

10

10

10

0
Phase Response, ___Gain

-50
-100

Gain (dB)

-150
0

-200
-250
-300

-350

!!

! !! ,
=

-50 3
10

1 1
1 R
(14)

+ 1 + 3

Rz1 Rz 2 R4 R2

R1R5 R2
R
1

+ 2 +
1 +

Rz1 R3 Rz 2 R3 R4 R4 (15)

C 2 R3
Qo = R4 .
.
C1 R1R2 R5
R3 R4 C 2 R4
1 + +

+
R2 Rz 2 C1 Rz1

To get a quantitative assessment of the amount of errors
introduced by the parasitics, it is found that with C1= C2 =
0.16 nF, R1 = R2 = R3 = R5 =10 k, R4 = 20 k and the typical
data sheet values of the various parasitics for bipolar
CFOAs (such as AD844) are: Rx = 50, Rz = 3 M, Ry = 2 M.
From an analysis of the circuit of Fig. 2, it is easy to find
that the non-ideal values of the parameters are found to
be ! = 620366 rad/s and ! = 0.9934 against their ideal
values of o = 625000 rad/s and Qo = 1 which shows the
errors to be around 0.74% and 0.66%, respectively.

4 SIMULATION RESULTS
To verify the potentialities of the proposed scheme, circuit
simulations of the presented multi-function filters have
been carried out. The commercial current feedback ampli-
fiers AD844 PSpice macro model with 12 V voltage sup-
ply is used to realize the CFOA in Fig. 2. To achieve the
MISO type filters with fo= 99 kHz and quality factor of Qo
= 1, the component values were selected C1 = C2 =0.16 nF,
R2 = R3 = R5 = 10 k , R4 =20 k , and R1 = 10 k for LP

10

-400
7
10

10

10

Frequency (Hz)

(b)
Fig. 3. The proposed configuration

and BP (= 20 k for HP and NF and = 6.65 k for AP).

The frequency responses of LPF, BPF, HPF, NF are shown
in Fig. 3 (a) and gain and phase responses of APF are
shown in Fig. 3 (b).

To test the input dynamic range of the proposed filters,
the simulation of the band-pass filter as an example has
10

Amplitude (Volts)

sistance at the compensation terminal Z.

From (13), the non-ideal centre frequency ! and quality
factor ! are given by

(a)

ic resistance at the input terminal X and the parasitic re-

R3
1
1
+
C1C2 R1R2 R5
C1C2

10

50

, ! = ! + !! . Rxi and Rzi (i =1 - 3) are the parasit-

o =

Phase Response(Degree)

Frequency (Hz)

where ! =

HPF

-20

has also been carried out including the various parasitic

resistances of the CFOAs. The resulting expression is
G2
v3 {s 2C1C2 + s[C1 (Gz 2 + G4 ) + C2Gz1 ] + Gz1 ((Gz 2 + G4 ))}
G3
vo =

G

s 2C1C2 + C1 Gz1 + G4 1 + 2 + C2Gz1

G
3

(13)
v2G1(sC1 + Gz1 ) + v1G1G5 ]

G
G
+ Gz1 Gz 2 + G4 1 + 2 + G1G5 2

G3
G3

NF
LPF

Gain (dB)

1 3 2 3 3

(12)
R
1
2

S Q3o = S Q2o = S Q3o = S RQ3o =

R3
2
1 + 3 2 3 R
2

Since the active and passive sensitivities of o and Qo are

Q
found to be in the range 0 S x 0 1, as shown in (12),
the circuit, thus, enjoys low sensitivities.
An alternative non-ideal analysis of the proposed circuit

-5

-10
0

Vout
Vin
0.5

1.5
Time (sec)

2.5

3
-5

x 10

Fig. 4. Input and output waveforms of the band-pass filter of the

proposed circuit for 100 kHz sinusoidal input voltage amplitude of
8 V.

been done for a sinusoidal input signal of fo = 100 kHz.

Fig. 4 shows that the input dynamic range of the filter
extends up to amplitude of 8 V without significant distor-
tion. The dependence of the output harmonic distortion
on the input signal amplitude is illustrated in Fig. 5.
For input signal amplitudes lower than 10 V, the total
harmonic distortion has been found to be of less than
4.5%. The obtained results show that the circuit operates
properly even at signal amplitudes of about 10 V.

31

The voltage mode band pass filter is tested for frequency,

quality factor and gain tuning. Fig. 6 shows the simula-
tion results for variation of fo while keeping Qo and gain
(Ho) fixed for different values of fo as shown in Table 1.

10
Qo=1

Qo=2
Qo=4

Fig. 5. Dependence of output voltage Total harmonic distortion on

input voltage amplitude of the band-pass filter realized from the
proposed configuration.

Gain (dB)

-10
-20
-30
-40
-50
-60 3
10

TABLE 1
BPF PASSIVE ELEMENTS VALUES FOR FREQUENCY, QUALITY
FACTOR AND GAIN TUNING

10

10
Frequency (Hz)

10

10

Fig. 7. Variation of Qo while keeping centre frequency (fo = 150

kHz) and gain (Ho =1) fixed for BPF.

Fig. 7 shows the simulation results for variation of Qo

20

H=1
H=3
H=10

10

Gain (dB)

0
-10
-20
-30
-40
-50 3
10

10

10
Frequency (Hz)

10

10

Fig. 8. Variation of gain while keeping centre frequency (fo = 150

kHz) and quality factor (Qo=1) fixed for BPF

while keeping fo and gain fixed for different values of Qo

as shown in Table 1. Fig. 8 shows the simulation results
for variation of gain (Ho) while keeping Qo and fo fixed
for different values of fo as shown in Table 1.These simula-
tions are done with C1 = C2 = 100 pF and R2 = R3 = 10 k.

10

Gain (dB)

0
-10
-20
-30

fo=100kHz
fo=170kHz
fo=300kHz

-40
-50 3
10

10

10
Frequency (Hz)

10

10

Fig. 6. Variation of fo while keeping quality factor (Qo =1) and gain
(Ho =1) fixed for BPF.

Comparing the proposed circuit with the circuit of [11]

shows that, although the two circuits have same passive
components (two grounded capacitors, four floating resis-
tors and one grounded resistor) and same unity gain in
LPF and the circuit of [11] has two matching conditions in
APF while the proposed circuit has three matching condi-
tions in HP, BP and AP but the proposed circuit is better
than the circuit of [11] because it has low active compo-
nents (three CFOAs) and uses three input terminals in-
stead of four input terminals.

32

5 CONCLUSION
In this paper, a new three CFOAs-based MISO-type uni-
versal VM biquad filter is presented. The circuit has three
inputs and one output which can realize all the five basic
filtering functions simultaneously without changing the
circuit topology. The proposed circuit enjoys the follow-
ing features: orthogonal control of resonance angular fre-
quency (o) and quality factor (Qo), low active and pas-
sive sensitivities and high input impedance and low out-
put impedances which can be easily cascaded to produce
higher order filter realizations.

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Kasim K. Abdalla received B.Sc. in electrical engineering and
M.Tech. in Communication Engineering from Technical University,
Baghdad, Iraq and Ph.D. from Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, India. He
has been with Department of Electrical Engineering, Engineering
College, University of Babylon, Iraq since 2006. His research interests include electronic communications, analog signal processing
and analog integrated circuit.