Constant K Filter - Terminology

Terminology

Some of the impedance terms and section terms used in this article are pictured in the diagram below. Image theory defines quantities in terms of an infinite cascade of two-port sections, and in the case of the filters being discussed, an infinite ladder network of L-sections. Here "L" should not be confused with the inductance L – in electronic filter topology, "L" refers to the specific filter shape which resembles inverted letter "L".

The sections of the hypothetical infinite filter are made of series elements having impedance 2Z and shunt elements with admittance 2Y. The factor of two is introduced for mathematical convenience, since it is usual to work in terms of half-sections where it disappears. The image impedance of the input and output port of a section will generally not be the same. However, for a mid-series section (that is, a section from halfway through a series element to halfway through the next series element) will have the same image impedance on both ports due to symmetry. This image impedance is designated ZiT due to the "T" topology of a mid-series section. Likewise, the image impedance of a mid-shunt section is designated ZiΠ due to the "Π" topology. Half of such a "T" or "Π" section is called a half-section, which is also an L-section but with half the element values of the full L-section. The image impedance of the half-section is dissimilar on the input and output ports: on the side presenting the series element it is equal to the mid-series ZiT, but on the side presenting the shunt element it is equal to the mid-shunt ZiΠ . There are thus two variant ways of using a half-section.

Parts of this article or section rely on the reader's knowledge of the complex impedance representation of capacitors and inductors and on knowledge of the frequency domain representation of signals.