Elliptic filters have the following characteristics:
- Minimization of peak error in the passband and the stopband
- Equiripples in the passband and the stopband
Compared with the same order Butterworth or Chebyshev filters, the elliptic filters provide the sharpest transition between the passband and the stopband, which accounts for their widespread use.
The following figure shows the frequency response of a lowpass elliptic filter.
In the previous figure, the same maximum tolerable error constrains the ripple in both the passband and the stopband. Also, even low-order elliptic filters have a sharp transition edge.