Electronic – Designing a filter: does the order i which we cascade the sections matter

circuit-designdesignfilterquality

So I am designing a 4th order lowpass filter using two biquadratic sections.
I decided to split the gain evenly between both sections.
After some calculations, one of the sections has a quality factor of 0.9 and the poles frequency is 1.65 kHz, the other has a quality factor of 4.6 and the poles frequency is 3.4 kHz.
My question is, in terms of design, is there any difference the order in which I cascade the sections? Their quality factor is so different, I wonder if I should put first the lowest or the highest quality factor? What should be the criteria here?

Best Answer

Yes it does matter.

Your two sections are rather oddly matched, as Tony says. I presume you know you'll have quite a bit of passband ripple, and it's the right decision for your application.

If the high Q section is first, then high amplitude signals around the pole frequency will be amplified by the Q, and cause the amplifier to clip, i.e. become very non-linear.

The harmonic distortion caused by the clipping may be difficult to measure as it will be attenuated by both filter sections, but the intermodulation distortion will not. That is, tones at (say 3.3 and 3.5 kHz), both clipped, will produce a 200Hz component which will NOT be attenuated.

Put the low Q low frequency section first, and these tones will be attenuated by 12dB/octave, and they are 1 octave above its passband. That reduces their amplitude to about 1/4 before the second stage (Q = 4.6) would increase them about 4x.

So the low Q section first prevents the high Q section clipping.