Tapped Capacitor Impedance Transformation in LC Bandpass Filters
copyright © Wes Hayward, W7ZOI, April 30, 2003.
We often use a pair of capacitors to match impedances at the termination ends of LC bandpass filters. The circuit consists of a shunt capacitor at the termination followed by a series capacitor connecting to the high Z end of a parallel tuned circuit. Some readers have asked about how the capacitors are picked. Although there is considerable flexibility in some of the choices, it is not empirical as some have guessed. A simplified double tuned circuit design sequence is presented in the sidebar on page 3.14 of EMRFD and this is the beginning of the analysis used in the programs DTC.exe and TTC.exe contained on the EMRFD CD. I’ll not go into too much detail here, for it’s in EMRFD, beginning on page 3.8, and in chapter 3 of IRFD. Here is what happens in the programs:
Bandpass filter design begins with an almost arbitrary choice of inductor. We pick 3 uH for a 7 MHz double tuned bandpass filter that we will use to illustrate the ideas. This L resonates at 7 MHz with 172.3 pF.
A bandwidth and center frequency are picked for the filter. This establishes a filter Q. The Q of an end section is then determined by the desired filter shape (Butterworth, etc)Let’s say we want to do a 7 MHz center frequency Butterworth filter with BW=0.2 MHz. Filter Q is then 35=7/0.2. QE will then be 35x(root(2))= 49.5. The QE value in the sidebar (p3.14) includes the effect of finite inductor Q. Assume a lossless inductor for this example.
So what does this mean? It means that the end tuned circuit, when not coupled to the rest of the filter, needs to be set up to have a Q of 49.5. This is experimentally significant. (ref: QST, Dec, 1991). The reactance at 7 MHz of our 3 uH inductor is X=131.9 Ohms, so we need to load each end with a resistance R=QX=6.53K-Ohm.
What this means is that we would realize our double tuned bandpass filter with center frequency of 7 MHz and bandwidth of 200 kHz if we terminated a simple double tuned circuit in 6.5K at each end. The filter is shown below where we have used additional equations (EMRFD p 3.14) to calculate the coupling and tuning capacitors.
This is a useable filter design, for it will generate the desired shape and bandwidth. But, it is not very practical; it does not fit in our low impedance world.
The filter can be redesigned. One classic, but usually impractical solution is to scale the filter to lower impedance levels. For example, if we dropped L from 3 uH to 23 nH, we could directly load our filter with 50 Ohms and get the required end section Q. But this is not at all practical. First, it’s difficult to build inductors with L this small and still have reasonable Q at 7 MHz. Second, the parasitic inductance of the rather large (high C) capacitors that we would attach to this inductor would begin to compare to 23 nH. A better re-design would use transformation circuits, schemes that will let us use a 50 Ohm termination (or whatever we need) and make it function as a 6.5K resistance when seen by the inductor.
One such scheme is a transformer. This could be realized with ferrite cores or with links inductors wound on the existing 3 microHenry parts. But link coupling with design precision is a challenge of it’s own. Conventional two and three element transforming networks (L, pi, Tee) are also suitable.
The simplest transforming circuit uses a series capacitor. Let’s do some analysis to see how this works:
We have arbitrarily picked a 10 pF capacitor to illustrate the idea. At 7 MHz, the reactance of a 10 pF capacitor is 2274 Ohms. Hence, the complex impedance of the 50 Ohm resistance and the series capacitor is Z=50-j2274. The impedance transformation behavior of this circuit is studied by transforming the series impedance to a parallel admittance. Recall that Y=1/Z. So Y=1/(50-j2274). The result is Y=(G+jB)=9.67E-6 + j4.4E-4. Of special importance is the resistive real part of the admittance.
The 10 pF series capacitor in our example makes the 50 Ohm resistor look like a 103 K-Ohm resistor in parallel with a capacitor that is nearly 10 pF. The general case causes a R0 value resistor to look like a value of Rp with a series capacitor with reactance given by
This equation is #3.1-5 from IRFD where it is derived.
Our original example filter needed a parallel resistance, Rp, of 6.5K-Ohms, which is produced by a series capacitor with a reactance of 568 Ohms. This is a capacitor of 40 pF. Another version of our double tuned bandpass filter is then
Notice that the tuning capacitors, the elements across the inductor, have dropped as C is added at the ends.
A capacitor in series with a resistance produces higher equivalent resistance. Consider a parallel combination. Here we pick a value of 200 pF as the parallel C and calculate the admittance. This is then converted to an impedance with Z=1/Y and the individual components are evaluated. This result is shown to the right.
The parallel capacitor transforms the 50 Ohms to behave like a lower value. In this case, we obtain about 42 Ohms in series with a 1236 pF capacitor.
A series capacitor transforms a termination to “look like” a higher resistance while a parallel capacitor “transforms to” a lower R. Clearly, the combination of the two can generate about any result we need, realizing that they will also produce reactance that must be absorbed into the existing tuned circuits. The mathematics (now symbolic and not just number manipulation) is messy, but not difficult. A resistive termination R0 (50 Ohms or whatever) is paralleled by a capacitor Cp. The admittance is calculated and is converted to an impedance. The impedance of a series capacitor, Cs, is then added. The result is converted back to an admittance. The resistive real part is extracted and inverted to yield Rp. This expression is then solved to yield a design equation:
This is the equation used in the programs. A related expression provides the equivalent capacitance, needed to calculate the tuning capacitor for each resonator.
If we use the program with the center frequency and bandwidth presented earlier, we find that the minimum allowed series capacitance is 40 pF. If we then insert a value of 47 pF, we see that parallel 240 pF capacitors are needed to properly load the resonators. This variation is shown to the right. Circuits using the capacitor tap are practical, for they allow existing junk box parts to be used. The topology has little other utility, offering virtually the same response as a filter using only series capacitors for loading.
