Mm'-type filter

mm'-type filters, also called double-m-derived filters, are a type of electronic filter designed using the image method. They were patented by Otto Zobel in 1932.^[1] Like the m-type filter from which it is derived, the mm'-type filter type was intended to provide an improved impedance match into the filter termination impedances and originally arose in connection with telephone frequency division multiplexing. The filter has a similar transfer function to the m-type, having the same advantage of rapid cut-off, but the input impedance remains much more nearly constant if suitable parameters are chosen. In fact, the cut-off performance is better for the mm'-type if like-for-like impedance matching are compared rather than like-for-like transfer function. It also has the same drawback of a rising response in the stopband as the m-type. However, its main disadvantage is its much increased complexity which is the chief reason its use never became widespread. It was only ever intended to be used as the end sections of composite filters, the rest of the filter being made up of other sections such as k-type and m-type sections.

An incidental advantage of the mm'-type is that it has two independent parameters (m and m') that the designer can adjust. This allows for two different design criteria to be independently optimised.

Parts of this article or section rely on the reader's knowledge of the complex impedance representation of capacitors and inductors and on knowledge of the frequency domain representation of signals.