A method of operating a hearing aid system with virtually zero delay and phase distortion. The invention also provides a hearing aid system (100) adapted for carrying out such a method.

A filter device includes: delay units serially connected to delay an input signal and output a delayed signal; multiplication units multiplying the delayed signal by a filter coefficient based on a predetermined value and a multiplying factor adjustment value; a coefficient adjustment unit that, when a multiplication result obtained by multiplying the predetermined value by the multiplying factor adjustment value exceeds a maximum value of a filter-coefficient representation range, divides the multiplication result exceeding the maximum value by the maximum value, and outputs a quotient of division as a coefficient adjustment value; a signal conversion unit outputting a signal obtained by adding after-filter-coefficient-multiplication signals outputted by the multiplication units and an adjusted signal obtained by adjusting a corresponding delayed signal using the coefficient adjustment value; and a division unit generating an output signal by dividing the signal outputted by the signal conversion unit by the multiplying factor adjustment value.

A finite impulse response (FIR) filter including a delay line and a plurality of arithmetic units. Each arithmetic unit is coupled to a different one of a plurality of tap points of the delay line, is configured to receive a respective signal value over the delay line, and is associated with a respective coefficient. Any given one of the arithmetic units is configured to receive a respective control word. The respective control word specifying: (i) a plurality of trivial multiplication operations, and (ii) a plurality of bit shift operations. Any given one of the arithmetic units is further configured to estimate or calculate a product of the respective signal of the arithmetic unit respective signal value and the respective coefficient of the arithmetic unit by performing the trivial multiplication operations and bit shift operations that are specified by the respective control word that is received at the given arithmetic unit.

A finite impulse response (FIR) filter including a delay line and a plurality of arithmetic units. Each arithmetic unit is coupled to a different one of a plurality of tap points of the delay line, is configured to receive a respective signal value over the delay line, and is associated with a respective coefficient. Any given one of the arithmetic units is configured to receive a respective control word. The respective control word specifying: (i) a plurality of trivial multiplication operations, and (ii) a plurality of bit shift operations. Any given one of the arithmetic units is further configured to estimate or calculate a product of the respective signal of the arithmetic unit respective signal value and the respective coefficient of the arithmetic unit by performing the trivial multiplication operations and bit shift operations that are specified by the respective control word that is received at the given arithmetic unit.

A filter device includes: delay units serially connected to delay an input signal and output a delayed signal; multiplication units multiplying the delayed signal by a filter coefficient based on a predetermined value and a multiplying factor adjustment value; a coefficient adjustment unit that, when a multiplication result obtained by multiplying the predetermined value by the multiplying factor adjustment value exceeds a maximum value of a filter-coefficient representation range, divides the multiplication result exceeding the maximum value by the maximum value, and outputs a quotient of division as a coefficient adjustment value; a signal conversion unit outputting a signal obtained by adding after-filter-coefficient-multiplication signals outputted by the multiplication units and an adjusted signal obtained by adjusting a corresponding delayed signal using the coefficient adjustment value; and a division unit generating an output signal by dividing the signal outputted by the signal conversion unit by the multiplying factor adjustment value.

A method of operating a hearing aid system with virtually zero delay and phase distortion. The invention also provides a hearing aid system (100) adapted for carrying out such a method.