Notch filter autotunes for audio applications
Design a filter controlled through a VCO and PLL.
John R Ambrose, Mixed Signal Integration, San Jose, CA; Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville -- EDN, June 24, 2010
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Tracking notch filters find use in harmonic-distortion analyzers; they also can remove heterodyne noise from ham-radio systems. A conventional tracking switched-capacitor notch filter relies on a bandpass filter, a voltage-to-frequency converter, and a notch filter to track the incoming signal and remove undesired tones. The bandpass filter in these circuits sometimes adjusts to the wrong frequency, meaning that the undesired tone would have no attenuation.
You feed IC1’s VCO (voltage-controlled oscillator) output into the clock input of IC2. IC2 can perform 10-, 100-, 1000-, and 10,000-to-1 divisions using the DIV1 and DIV2 pins. You tie the output of RDD104 to the COIN of IC1. By using IC1’s EX/OR phase comparator, you can improve noise immunity. You apply the input signal to both IC1 and the input of IC3, whose clock you derive from the CLKOUT pin of IC2.
The MSHN5, IC3, contains both selectable highpass filters and selectable notch filters. When you tie the FSEL pin high, it selects notch;
tying TYPE to AGND selects the narrow notch filter. This step
ensures the removal of only one tone from the input signal with
little information loss. IC3’s 1000-to-1 clock-to-corner ratio reduces
the chance that aliasing signals will affect the output. For
voice applications, for example, no signals of 500 kHz or higher
would be available to alias into the passband. A sample setup
uses an input frequency of 789.13 Hz at a clock frequency of
789.13 kHz, 1000 times the input signal (Figure 2). The PLL
tracks the input, moving the notch filter to 1.24 kHz.





















