Stephen Butterworth
1885 – 1958
Gave filter design its maximally-flat response.
A British physicist and engineer, Butterworth described the 'maximally flat' filter response in 1930 — the smooth passband that bears his name and opened the systematic design of electronic filters.
The RC-filter tools here begin the story that Butterworth's paper made a discipline.
Portrait: a stylized blueprint-line rendering, not a photograph.
Contributions in the toolbox
- 1930
Maximally flat filter paper starts modern filter design.
→ RC Low-Pass Filter - 1930
Publishes the maximally-flat amplifier filter response in Experimental Wireless.
→ Butterworth Filter Order - 1931
Publishes the maximally-flat filter response, A = 10·log₁₀(1 + (f/fc)^2N).
→ Anti-Alias Filter Attenuation