DC bias

When describing a periodic function in the time domain, the DC bias, DC component, DC offset, or DC coefficient is the mean value of the waveform. If the mean amplitude is zero, there is no DC offset. In contrast, various other frequencies are analogous to superimposed AC voltages or currents, hence called AC components or AC coefficients.

The term originated in electronics, where it refers to a direct current voltage, but the concept has been extended to any representation of a waveform. The term's use is extended to two-dimensional transformations like the discrete cosine transform used in JPEG.

A waveform without a DC component is known as a DC-balanced or DC-free waveform. DC-balanced waveforms are useful in communications systems to avoid voltage imbalance problems between connected systems or components.

DC offset is usually undesirable when it causes saturation or change in the operating point of an amplifier. An electrical DC bias will not pass through a transformer; thus a simple isolation transformer can be used to block or remove it, leaving only the AC component on the other side. In signal processing terms, DC offset can be reduced in real-time by a high-pass filter. When one already has the entire waveform, subtracting the mean amplitude from each sample will remove the offset. Often, very low frequencies are called "slowly changing DC" or "baseline wander".