Finite impulse response (FIR) filters are the most popular type of filters.
The impulse response is "finite" because there is no feedback in the filter; if you put in an impulse (that is, a single "1" sample followed by many "0" samples), zeroes will eventually come out after the "1" sample has made its way in the delay line past all the coefficients
Filters are signal conditioners. Each functions by accepting an input signal, blocking prespecified frequency components, and passing the original signal minus those components to the output. For example, a typical phone line acts as a filter that limits frequencies to a range considerably smaller than the range of frequencies human beings can hear. That's why listening to CD-quality music over the phone is not as pleasing to the ear as listening to it directly.
A digital filter takes a digital input, gives a digital output, and consists of digital components. In a typical digital filtering application, software running on a digital signal processor (DSP) reads input samples from an A/D converter, performs the mathematical manipulations dictated by theory for the required filter type, and outputs the result via a D/A converter.
An analog filter, by contrast, operates directly on the analog inputs and is built entirely with analog components, such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors.
There are many filter types, but the most common are lowpass, highpass, bandpass, and bandstop. A lowpass filter allows only low frequency signals (below some specified cutoff) through to its output, so it can be used to eliminate high frequencies. A lowpass filter is handy, in that regard, for limiting the uppermost range of frequencies in an audio signal; it's the type of filter that a phone line resembles.
A highpass filter does just the opposite, by rejecting only frequency components below some threshold. An example highpass application is cutting out the audible 60Hz AC power "hum", which can be picked up as noise accompanying almost any signal in the U.S.
The designer of a cell phone or any other sort of wireless transmitter would typically place an analog bandpass filter in its output RF stage, to ensure that only output signals within its narrow, government-authorized range of the frequency spectrum are transmitted.
Engineers can use bandstop filters, which pass both low and high frequencies, to block a predefined range of frequencies in the middle.
FIR Filters
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