Band-pass filter

A band-pass filter or bandpass filter (BPF) is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range and rejects (attenuates) frequencies outside that range. In electronics and signal processing, a filter is usually a two-port circuit or device which removes frequency components of a signal (an alternating voltage or current). A band-pass filter allows through components in a specified band of frequencies, called its passband but blocks components with frequencies above or below this band. This contrasts with a high-pass filter, which allows through components with frequencies above a specific frequency, and a low-pass filter, which allows through components with frequencies below a specific frequency. In digital signal processing, in which signals represented by digital numbers are processed by computer programs, a band-pass filter is a computer algorithm that performs the same function. The term band-pass filter is also used for optical filters, sheets of colored material which allow through a specific band of light frequencies, commonly used in photography and theatre lighting, and acoustic filters which allow through sound waves of a specific band of frequencies. An example of an analogue electronic band-pass filter is an RLC circuit (a resistor–inductor–capacitor circuit). These filters can also be created by combining a low-pass filter with a high-pass filter. A bandpass signal is a signal containing a band of frequencies not adjacent to zero frequency, such as a signal that comes out of a bandpass filter. An ideal bandpass filter would have a completely flat passband: all frequencies within the passband would be passed to the output without amplification or attenuation, and would completely attenuate all frequencies outside the passband. In practice, no bandpass filter is ideal. The filter does not attenuate all frequencies outside the desired frequency range completely; in particular, there is a region just outside the intended passband where frequencies are attenuated, but not rejected.