Continuous-time Signals

Part 1
Dr. Edwin Sybingco
Outline
• What are Signals?
• Elementary Signals
• Unit Impulse Function
• Unit Step Function
• Rectangular Pulse
• Ramp Function
• Sgn Function
• Sinusoidal Signal
• Complex Exponential Signal
• Sampling Function
• Sinc Function
What are Signals?
• Signals are physical quantities that vary with time, space, or any other
independent variable or variables.

• Examples of signals: human voice, television pictures, atmospheric

temperature, etc..,

• Physical quantities such as temperature, humidity, speech, wind

speed, and light intensity can be transformed, using transducers, to
time-varying voltage or current signals
Elementary Signals
• Unit Impulse Function
• Unit Step Function
• Rectangular Pulse
• Ramp Function
• Sgn Function
• Sinusoidal Signal
• Complex Exponential Signal
• Sampling Function
• Sinc Function
Unit Impulse (Delta) Function
• A unit impulse function has an infinite amplitude for a very short
duration
• The unit impulse function is denoted by 𝛿 𝑡 .
• Physical phenomena such as point source, point charges,
concentrated loads on structures, voltage and current source acting
for very short times are usually modeled as delta functions
• It is defined mathematically as follows: 𝛿 𝑡

∞ 𝑡=0
𝛿 𝑡 =ቊ
0 𝑡≠0
0 𝑡
Unit Impulse (Delta) Function
• Delayed Unit Impulse Function
𝛿 𝑡−𝜏

∞ 𝑡=𝜏
𝛿 𝑡−𝜏 = ൜
0 𝑡≠𝜏
0 𝜏 𝑡

• Advanced Unit Impulse Function

𝛿 𝑡+𝜏

∞ 𝑡 = −𝜏
𝛿 𝑡+𝜏 =൜
0 𝑡 ≠ −𝜏
−𝜏 0 𝑡
Properties of Unit Impulse Function
• The amplitude at 𝑡 = 0 is very large and becomes infinity as the duration 𝜀
approaches zero 1
𝜀
lim 𝛿 𝜀 → ∞
𝜀→0
−𝜀 𝜀
• The duration is relatively very short and becomes zero as 𝜀 approaches
zero

• The area under the function is constant and equal to one

∞
න 𝛿 𝑡 𝑑𝑡 = 1
−∞

• The function has a symmetry which is even

𝛿 𝑡 = 𝛿 −𝑡
Properties of Unit Impulse Function
• Product property
𝑥 𝑡 𝛿 𝑡−𝑎 =𝑥 𝑎 𝛿 𝑡−𝑎

• Sifting property ∞
න 𝑥 𝑡 𝛿 𝑡 − 𝑎 𝑑𝑡 = 𝑥 𝑎
−∞

• Time scaling property

0+ +
1 0 1
න 𝛿 𝛼𝑡 𝑑𝑡 = න 𝛿 𝑥 𝑑𝑥 =
𝛼 > 1: compression 0− 𝛼 0− 𝛼
1
𝛼 < 1: expansion 𝛿 𝛼𝑡 = 𝛿 𝑡
𝛼
1
𝛿 𝛼𝑡 − 𝛽 = 𝛿 𝑡−𝛽
𝛼
Unit Step Function
• A unit step function is a signal that jumps from zero to one at a time
equal to zero.
𝑢 𝑡

1 𝑡>0
𝑢 𝑡 =ቊ 1
0 𝑡<0
0 𝑡
• Delayed unit step function
𝑢 𝑡−𝜏
1 𝑡>𝜏
𝑢 𝑡−𝜏 =ቊ 1
0 𝑡<𝜏
0 𝜏 𝑡
Unit Step Function
• Advanced unit step function
𝑢 𝑡+𝜏

1 𝑡 > −𝜏 1
𝑢 𝑡+𝜏 = ቊ
0 𝑡 < −𝜏
−𝜏 0 𝑡
Rectangular Pulse
• Rectangular pulse in terms of unit step function
𝑥 𝑡

𝑥 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑢 𝑡 + 𝜏 − 𝐴𝑢 𝑡 − 𝜏
𝐴

−𝜏 𝜏 𝑡
Ramp Function
• A unit ramp function is a signal that increases as 𝑡 increases
𝑟 𝑡

𝑡 𝑡≥0
𝑟 𝑡 = 𝑡𝑢 𝑡 = ቊ
0 𝑡<0

𝑡
Ramp Function
• The relation between ramp, unit step, and unit-impulse functions is
given by

𝑑𝑟 𝑡 𝑑
= 𝑡𝑢 𝑡 = 𝑢 𝑡 + 𝑡𝛿 𝑡 = 𝑢 𝑡 + 0𝛿 𝑡 = 𝑢 𝑡
𝑑𝑡 𝑑𝑡
𝑑2 𝑟 𝑡
2 =𝛿 𝑡
𝑑𝑡
Ramp Function
• Express the signal shown below in terms of the ramp function
𝑥 𝑡

𝑡
Ramp Function
• Solution 𝑥 𝑡

𝑟 𝑡

𝑟 𝑡−4

−2𝑟 𝑡 − 2

𝑥 𝑡 = 𝑟 𝑡 − 2𝑟 𝑡 − 2 + 𝑟 𝑡 − 4
Ramp Function
• Express the signal shown below in terms of the ramp function
𝑥 𝑡

𝑡
Sgn Function
• Mathematical definition
𝑠𝑔𝑛 𝑡

1 𝑡>0
𝑠𝑔𝑛 𝑡 = ቐ 0 𝑡 = 0
−1 𝑡 < 0

𝑡
𝑠𝑔𝑛 𝑡 = −1 + 2𝑢 𝑡
Sinusoidal Function
• The sinusoidal function is mathematically defined as
𝑥 𝑡 = 2cos(2𝜋𝑡 − 𝜋4)

Amplitude Phase shift in rad

𝑇 = 1𝑠𝑒𝑐 𝑤0 = 2𝜋
𝑥 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑤0 𝑡 − 𝜃0
𝑓0 = 1𝐻𝑧
Frequency in rad/sec = 2𝜋𝑓0

1
Frequency in Hz 8=0.125 𝑡

1
𝑓0 =
𝑇 Period
Sinusoidal Function
• Sinusoidal function at different frequencies

𝑥1 𝑡 = 2𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋𝑡 − 𝜋4 𝑇1 = 1𝑠𝑒𝑐

𝑥2 𝑡 = 2𝑐𝑜𝑠 4𝜋𝑡 − 𝜋2 𝑇2 = 12𝑠𝑒𝑐

1
8=0.125 𝑡
Sinusoidal Function
• Sinusoidal function in terms of complex exponential function
𝐴𝑒 𝑗 𝑤0 𝑡−𝜃0 +𝐴𝑒 −𝑗 𝑤0 𝑡−𝜃0 𝐴 𝐴
𝑥 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑤0 𝑡 − 𝜃0 = = 𝑒𝑗 𝑤0 𝑡−𝜃0 + 𝑒 −𝑗 𝑤0 𝑡−𝜃0
2 2 2
𝐼𝑚 Frequency domain
|𝑋 𝑤 |
Complex plane 𝐴 𝐴
2 2
𝑤0 𝑡 − 𝜃0

𝑅𝑒 −𝑤0 𝑤0 𝑤
−𝑤0 𝑡 + 𝜃0 𝜃 𝑤
𝜃0

𝑤0
−𝑤0 𝑤
−𝜃0

•Frequency is inherently positive physical quantities

• For mathematical convenience, negative frequency exists
Sinusoidal Function
• Electromagnetic Spectrum

https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/toolbox/emspectrum1.html
Complex Exponential Function
• A complex exponential is a signal of the form

𝑥 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑒 𝑎𝑡 = 𝐴 𝑒 𝑗𝜃 𝑒 𝜎+𝑗𝑤0 𝑡
= 𝐴𝑒 𝜎𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝑤0𝑡 + 𝜃 + 𝑗𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝑤0 𝑡 + 𝜃

• Where 𝐴 = 𝐴 𝑒 𝑗𝜃 and 𝑎 = 𝜎 + 𝑗𝑤0 are complex numbers

Complex Exponential Function
• Case 1: 𝐴 and 𝑎 are real.

𝑎 < 0, 𝑎 = −0.5, 𝐴 = 1 𝑎 > 0, 𝑎 = 0.5, 𝐴 = 1

𝑥 𝑡 = 𝑒 −0.5𝑡 𝑥 𝑡 = 𝑒 0.5𝑡
Complex Exponential Function
• Case 2: 𝐴 = 𝐴 𝑒 𝑗𝜃 and 𝑎 = 𝑗𝑤0
𝜋
𝐴 = 1, 𝜃 = , 𝑎 = 𝑗2𝜋
4

𝑥𝑅 𝑡
𝑥𝐼 𝑡

𝜋 𝜋
𝑥 𝑡 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋𝑡 + + 𝑗𝑠𝑖𝑛 2𝜋𝑡 +
4 4
Complex Exponential Function
• Case 3: 𝐴 = 𝐴 𝑒 𝑗𝜃 and 𝑎 = 𝜎 + 𝑗𝑤0 𝜋
𝑗4
𝜋
𝑗4 𝑎 = 0.5 + 𝑗2𝜋, 𝐴 = 𝑒
𝑎 = −0.5 + 𝑗2𝜋, 𝐴 = 𝑒

𝑥𝑅 𝑡
𝑥𝐼 𝑡

𝜋 𝜋 𝜋 𝜋
𝑥 𝑡 = 𝑒 −0.5𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋𝑡 + + 𝑗𝑒 −0.5𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑛 2𝜋𝑡 + 𝑥 𝑡 = 𝑒 0.5𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋𝑡 + + 𝑗𝑒 0.5𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑛 2𝜋𝑡 +
4 4 4 4
Sampling Function
• The sampling function is a signal defined as follows
𝑆𝑎 𝑡
𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝑡
𝑆𝑎 𝑡 =
𝑡

−𝜋 𝜋 𝑡
Sinc Function
• The sinc function is the compressed version of the sampling function

𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜋𝑡
𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑐 𝑡 = = 𝑆𝑎 𝜋𝑡
𝜋𝑡

∞
𝑠𝑖𝑛 𝜋𝑡
න 𝑑𝑡 = ∞
−∞ 𝜋𝑡
𝑡