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Pulse Amplitude Modulation: Theory

Pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) is the simplest pulse modulation technique where the amplitude of pulses is varied based on a modulating signal. There are two types of PAM: flat top PAM where the pulse amplitude remains constant for its duration, and natural PAM where the pulse amplitude follows the modulating signal. PAM requires a wide bandwidth for transmission and is used in instrumentation systems and analog to digital converters.

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41 views

Pulse Amplitude Modulation: Theory

Pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) is the simplest pulse modulation technique where the amplitude of pulses is varied based on a modulating signal. There are two types of PAM: flat top PAM where the pulse amplitude remains constant for its duration, and natural PAM where the pulse amplitude follows the modulating signal. PAM requires a wide bandwidth for transmission and is used in instrumentation systems and analog to digital converters.

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mukulgrd1
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Pulse Amplitude Modulation

Theory
PAM is the simplest of all pulse modulation technique. In PAM the
amplitude of the message or modulating signal is mapped to a series of
pulses with two possible variant :

1) Flat Top PAM:- The amplitude of each pulse is directly proportional to


instantaneous modulating signal amplitude at the time of pulse occurrence
and then keeps the amplitude of the pulse for the rest of the half cycle.

2) Natural PAM:- The amplitude of each pulse is directly proportional to


the instantaneous modulating signal amplitude at the time of pulse
occurrence and then follows the amplitude of the modulating signal for the
rest of the half cycle.

In Pulse modulation the unmodulated carrier is a periodic train of pulses.

Fig.1 Shows the Pulses Train used as Carrier.

The pulse train may be described by:

Where A is the unmodulated pulse amplitude, τ is pulse width. The periodic


time of the pulse train is Ts.
Fig.2 Circuit diagram for Pulse Amplitude Modulation.

In Pulse amplitude modulation the amplitudes of the pulses are varied in


accordance with the modulating signal. Denoting the modulating signal as
m(t), pulse amplitude modulation is achieved by multiplying the carrier with
the m(t). The output is a series of pulses, the amplitudes of which vary in
proportion to the modulating signal. The particular form of pulse amplitude
modulation is referred to as natural PAM, because the tops of the pulses
follow the shape of the modulating signal.

The pulse train acts as a periodic switching signal to the modulator, which
when switched ON allows samples of the modulating signal to pass through
to the output. The periodic time of the pulse train is known as the sampling
period. Note that Ts is the period from the beginning of one sample to the
next, not the pulse duration.

The equation describing natural PAM is found as :

The modulated pulse train is then :


The right hand side of this equation shows that the modulated wave
consists of the modulating signal, multiplied by the dc term a0 and a series
of DSBSC - type components resulting from the harmonics in the pulse
waveform.

Fig.3 Carrier pulse Train used for modulation

Fig.4 Analog Signal for Modulating.

Fig.5 Pulse Amplitude Modulated Output

To be able to transmit the higher DSBSC components, it is clear that a


wide-bandwidth transmission system is required. However in this case,
there would be no point in using PAM since the original baseband signal m
(t) might Just as well be transmitted directly, and in addition, the factor a0,
which is always less than unity, can severely reduce the amplitude of the
baseband component of the spectrum in PAM.

To prevent the lower edge of the DSBSC spectrum from overlapping with
the low- frequency spectrum, the separation ∆ between these must not be
less than zero. Hence
W + ∆ = fs – W , with ∆ ≥ 0
It follows that
fs ≥ 2W

This condition imposed on the sampling frequency states that the sampling
frequency must be at least twice the highest frequency in the modulating
signal. If the sampling condition is not met, parts of the spectra overlap,
and once such overlap is allowed to occur the spectra can no longer be
separated by filtering. Because the high frequency components in the
DSBSC spectrum appear in the low frequency part of the spectrum, the
effect is termed aliasing. To avoid aliasing, the modulation signal is first
passed through an antialiasing filter, which cuts the signal spectrum off at
some value W.

The sampling frequency ' fs = 2W ' is known as the Nyquist Frequency.


Because of its wideband nature, PAM has a very restricted range of
application for direct transmission of signals. It is used, for examples, in
instrumentation systems and in analog - to digital convertersused for
computer interfacing.

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