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In signal processing, a band-stop filter or band-rejection filter is a filter that passes most frequencies unaltered, but attenuates those in a specific range to very low levels.[1] It is the inverse of a band-pass filter. A notch filter is a band-stop filter with a narrow stopband (high Q factor).
Narrow notch filters (optical) are used in Raman spectroscopy, live sound reproduction (public address systems, or PA systems) and in instrument amplifiers (especially amplifiers or preamplifiers for acoustic instruments such as acoustic guitar, mandolin, bass instrument amplifier, etc.) to reduce or prevent audio feedback, while having little noticeable effect on the rest of the frequency spectrum (electronic or software filters). Other names include "band limit filter", "T-notch filter", "band-elimination filter", and "band-reject filter".
Typically, the width of the stopband is 1 to 2 decades (that is, the highest frequency attenuated is 10 to 100 times the lowest frequency attenuated). However, in the audio band, a notch filter has high and low frequencies that may be only semitones apart. From the figure of the frequency response of an ideal band-stop filter, it's obvious that the band-stop filter is simply an inverted band-pass filter where they share same definition of bandwidth, pass band, stop band and center frequency. The attenuation should be infinite in the stop band and be zero in the two pass bands for an ideal band-stop filter. Band-stop filters are designed by the combination of a low-pass filter and a high-pass filter in a parallel configuration. Overlapping does not occur in the summation of high-pass filter and low-pass filter during the design of band-stop filter. The difference in the starting and ending frequency points causes the two filters to connect effectively without any overlapping.
- ^ "Band-stop filter", Federal Standard 1037C, accessed 14 May 2018.