A series of cascaded time-delay elements that are sampled or ‘tapped’ along the length of the delay line. The sample points may have different gains associated with them. The delayed and sampled signals are then summed to provide the output signal; the transfer function can be tailored to produce a filter characteristic, as shown in the diagram. Transversal filters can be realized using charge-coupled devices, bucket-brigade devices, and acoustic-wave structures. See also digital filter.

Transversal filter and the resulting sampled time function yielding the signal envelope