AIR UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

EXPERIMENT NO 3

Lab Title: Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)

Student Name: Reg. No:

Objective:

LAB ASSESSMENT:
Excellent Good Average Satisfactory Unsatisfactory
Attributes
(5) (4) (3) (2) (1)

Ability to Conduct
Experiment

Ability to assimilate the

Effective use of lab

Total Marks: Obtained Marks:

Data presentation

Experimental results

Conclusion

Total Marks: Obtained Marks:

Date: Signature:
EXPERIMENT NO 3

PULSE CODE MODULATION

Objectives:
Introduction to PCM; Analog-to-Digital & Digital-to-Analog Conversion

Equipment’s required:
⮚ RIMS DEV- 2762-04
⮚ Function generator
⮚ Digital Multimeter

Introduction:
In Pulse Modulation, analog message is transmitted in discrete time. First of all, sampling of the
message signal should be performed. Considering the sampling process, the sampled signal
appears as a train of samples which is a form of PAM (Pulse Amplitude Modulation) signal.
When M levels are used to quantize this signal, this modulation is called M-PAM. If those pulses
were converted to digital numbers, then the train of numbers so generated would be called as
Pulse Code Modulated – PCM signal. In PCM modulation, assumption is signal is band –
limited, process is executed in three steps:
1. Sampling
2. Quantizing
3. Encoding

Theory:
Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is an extension of pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) that
incorporates quantization of the samples to discrete levels and then a mapping of these levels
to a bit stream. Since PCM encodes a message into bits (0s and 1s), it is usually referred to as
a source code. PCM does not yield waveforms that vary linearly with the message. As in the
case of PAM, the Nyquist sampling rate must be satisfied. PCM advantages over analog
modulation techniques such as its resistance to transmission noise and its ability to be
processed digitally.

Quantization:
After a message signal has been sampled, the next step is to quantize the samples because it
is not possible to assign different code words to an infinite number of amplitudes. Quantization
consists of approximating the sampled signal by a signal made up of discrete amplitudes. The
difference between two consecutive discrete values is called a quantization interval. When all
the quantization intervals are the same size the quantizer is called a linear quantizer.
Quantization noise is the result of the quantization process. Since the quantization process
adjusts the height of each sample, the original waveform can only be approximated using a low-
pass filter as is the case with PAM signals and the classical sampling theorem. Quantization
produces a round-off error called quantization distortion, which is referred to as quantization
noise. Increasing the number of quantization levels reduces the range of the round-off error, but
it is impossible to completely avoid quantization distortion. The sampling rate will also affect the
quantization noise since the quantization error will become larger as the sampling rate
decreases.
An analog-to-digital (A/D) converter is used to convert the continuous message signal into a
series of numbers or a group of bits, with each of these representing a level of the quantized
message signal. The resulting stream of numbers is the PCM signal. A digital-to-analog (D/A)
converter performs the inverse operation of the A/D converter, by changing the stream of
numbers to a set of discrete analog voltages (i.e., the quantization levels). The A/D and D/A
converters must match with respect to word size, sampling rate, and mapping in order for the
PCM signal to be properly demodulated.
Quantization error is another reason for using compressed encoding for digitizing a voice signal.
Compressed encoding allows a higher signal-to-quantization-noise ratio (SNQR) than linear
encoding. This ratio defined as:
SNQR = 10 log (S/ NQ)
Where S is the signal level and NQ is noise due to the quantization error. Clearly, keeping the
quantization error small is key to keeping a high SN QR. As signal amplitude gets smaller, N Q
must get smaller to keep SNQR from dropping. Compression accomplishes this by forcing
quantization error magnitude to decrease with lower amplitudes. Without increasing the overall
number of quantization samples, it is desirable to increase the SN QR for small-amplitude
signals. This is what non-linear quantization accomplishes.
The step size of quantizer is
Δ = (2 x m)/L
Where “m” is the input signal level and “L” is the total no. of representation levels.
L = 2R
“R” is the number of bits for the code word.

Encoding:
When transmitting a binary sequence, the line code determines specifically how the 0s and 1s
should be represented. Some of the line codes are:
⮚ Unipolar NRZ coding
⮚ Polar NRZ coding
⮚ Unipolar RZ coding
⮚ Bipolar RZ coding
⮚ Manchester coding

Types of ADC:
⮚ Counting
⮚ Tracking
⮚ Successive approximation ( Used in this experiment)
⮚ Single-ramp integrating
⮚ Dual-ramp integrating

Types of DAC
⮚ Weighted resistor DAC
⮚ R-2R Ladder network DAC
Experimental work:
⮚ Connect the circuit on the breadboard.
⮚ Remember that A/D ADC0804 do not allow negative inputs, therefore, the conversion is
done by level shifting of the signal ground. Use the offset control available in the
function generator.
⮚ Also attach the DMM with the input signal to measure its voltage.
⮚ Observe the output sequence of LED’s at A/D converter.