Reconnection-less reconfigurable low-pass filtering topology suitable for higher-order fractional-order design

The paper discusses a new design of a current-mode reconnection-less reconfigurable fractional-order (FO) low-pass filter of various orders. The filtering structure is based on a 4th-order leap-frog topology using operational transconductance amplifiers as basic building blocks. The resulting order of the filter is given by the setting of current gains (allowing the reconnection-less reconfiguration) alongside with the values of the fractional-order capacitors realized by the RC ladder networks. For this purpose, RC ladder networks of orders 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7 have been designed. The fractional-order form of the filter contains from one up to four FO capacitors (remaining capacitors (if there are any) are of integer-order) allowing to obtain low-pass functions of order of 3 + α, 2 + α, 1 + α, 2 + α + β, 1 + α + β, α + β, 1 + α + β + γ, α + β + γ and α + β + γ + δ. The proposed filter offers a wide variety of possible order combinations with an increasing degree of freedom as the number of fractional-order capacitors within the structure increases. The proposal is supported by the PSpice simulations of magnitude and phase characteristics, pole frequency adjustment and stability analysis. Moreover, the experimental measurements of the implemented filter were carried out and compared with the simulation results. The possibility of the electronic control of the fractional order is also discussed and presented.