The elliptic filters are optimal in the sense that the magnitude characteristic exhibits the steepest slope at the cutoff frequency. The other characteristics such as delay and step response, however, are rather undesirable. In this paper, the modified elliptic low-pass filter function is proposed. The modified elliptic function possesses progressively diminishing ripples in both passband and stopband, and the lower pole-Q, values when compared to the elliptic counterparts, thus producting the flatter delay characteristics and improved time-domain performances. And it is realizable in the doubley-terminated ladder structures for the order n even or odd, thus lending themselves amaenable to high-quality active RC or switched capacitor filters through the simulation techniques.