Steady-State and Transient Evaluation of FPAA Implemented Analog Filters Using a MLS System Analyzer

In applications like audio recording and reproduction systems, the reliable and accurate implementation of analog filters is important since it influences both the steady-state and transient characteristics of the overall system and therefore the quality of produced sound. The relatively recent emergence of commercially available field programmable analog arrays (FPAAs) provides an interesting alternative to the flexibility of the digital approximation of analog filters. In the present work, a series of widely used analog filter types are designed and implemented on FPAAs and their impulse responses are measured using an MLS system analyzer. The corresponding ideal impulse responses of the specific filters are also obtained analytically and imported to the MLS system analyzer. The comparative study of the time-, frequency- and time-frequency performance of the FPAA implementation versus the ideal filters provides a measure of the accuracy and reliability of the FPAA-based filter implementation solution.