Online tool speeds active filter design

Webench Active Filter Designer is a powerful online design tool that aims to speed the creation of sophisticated filters for data acquisition and signal conditioning applications.

National Semiconductor reckons its Webench Active Filter Designer is the industry's most powerful online design tool to speed the creation of sophisticated filters for data acquisition and signal conditioning applications.

Designed from the ground up for ease of use, the tool lets engineers design advanced, highly customised filters for all standard filter types: lowpass, highpass, bandpass and bandstop.

"Using the Webench Active Filter Designer, any engineer can create a highly complex theoretical filter in minutes and implement it with highly accurate real world models moments later", said Phil Gibson, Vice President of National Semiconductor's Corporate Marketing group.

"Engineers can sample the amplifiers, download the automatically generated documentation, use the custom assembly diagram and build a filter tomorrow".

A demonstration showing how to create a 9th order lowpass filter with Bessel response in 30s can be found on the National website.

"Today, designers may use the Webench Active Filter Designer to develop more than 200,000 customised lowpass filters using any of 180 op amps, including our brand new precision offerings", said Erroll Dietz, Vice President of National Semiconductor's Amplifier product group.

"National is not just building an 'ideal' structure, but is actually implementing it with real components".

"National's LMP precision products, such as the ultra-low-offset LMP2011 and the LMP8270 high common mode difference amplifier, process minute inputs and now, with advanced filters, any engineer can deliver an extremely precise signal", said Huibert Verhoeven, Senior Design Manager for National Semiconductor's Precision Amplifier group.

The Webench Active Filter Designer uses a powerful component selection tool, developed by National Semiconductor engineers to rapidly search among the company's portfolio of operational amplifier products (each with hundreds of different electrical parameters) and immediately configure the necessary bill of materials for every design.

As with all the tools in National's Webench design environment, the Active Filter Designer and its simulators are available free of charge online.

National's Webench Active Filter Designer also contains an embedded expert filter handbook.

Visitors are guided through the process of creating a complete filter solution in a logical step-by-step fashion.

All of the advanced theory any engineer would need is provided in a simple, integrated flowchart.

The user can specify performance by frequency response, group delay or step response.

The Filter Designer then creates all of the potential filter options (order and approximation) that meet the user's requirements and presents them as alternatives for comparison.

Chebyshev, Bessel, Butterworth and elliptical transfer functions are offered with up to 9th order accuracy.

Alternatively, the expert user can specify a set of ideal filters to be compared or even create an advanced filter from scratch.

Performance curves for each of the recommended filters are calculated and presented.

The Filter Designer then guides the user through the selected filter implementation, including selection of the best op amp to be used in the design, and selection of each filter stage's topology, including Sallen-key, multiple feedback, and state variable types.

Simulation, free samples and automatically generated documentation make the filter a reality.

National offers a complete portfolio of op amps ranging from high-speed, low-power, low-voltage, to the newest line, precision.

The company also offers application specific standard products (ASSPs) such as the world's fastest optical laser diode driver (LMH6533) and the innovative "amp in a mic" (LMV1032) These devices are offered in innovative packaging, including the revolutionary Silicon Dust and micro SMD packaging technologies.

A seamless suite of online tools and resources National's Webench environment is useful for both the expert and the novice.

It eliminates the need for a design engineer to perform tedious hand calculations and includes extensive online tutorials in analogue design.

The tools offer instant access to the latest Spice models, parametric data and package information, enabling designers to simultaneously compare the performance of multiple devices in multiple applications.

Overnight delivery in the USA is available on all of National's products with Webench design tool capability.

The Webench Active Filter Designer works seamlessly with National's other Webench tools for wireless, power, audio, and amplifiers.

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