arrangement of electronic components that allows only those electric waves lying within a certain range, or band, of frequencies to pass and blocks all others. The components may be conventional coils and capacitors, or the arrangement may be made up of freely vibrating piezoelectric crystals (crystals that vibrate mechanically at their resonant frequency when excited by an applied voltage of the same frequency), in which case the device is called a crystal band-pass filter or a monolithic filter.

The crystal band-pass filter makes it possible to send a great number of simultaneous telephone conversations over a single long-distance line, microwave radio system, or submarine cable, because it separates each voice channel from all others. See also multiplexing.