Digital to Analog

Convertor
Contents
• Introduction

• Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK)

• Frequency Shift Keying (FSK)
• Phase Shift Keying (PSK)
• Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM)
Introduction
• Digital-to-analog conversion is the process of changing
one of the characteristics of an analog signal based on the
information in digital data.
Contd…
• Three mechanisms for modulating digital data into
an analog signal:
 Amplitude shift keying (ASK)
 Frequency shift keying (FSK)
 Phase shift keying (PSK)
 Mechanism that combines changing both the
amplitude and phase, called quadrature
amplitude modulation (QAM).
 QAM is the most efficient and the mechanism
commonly used today.
Types of Digital-to-Analog conversion
Contd…
• Bit rate is the number of bits per second.
• Baud rate is the number of signal elements per second.
• In the analog transmission of digital data, the baud rate
is less than or equal to the bit rate
Activity - Concept Check
• An analog signal carries 4 bits per signal element. If 1000
signal elements are sent per second, find the bit rate.
S = N × (1/r)
Amplitude Shift Keying
• In amplitude shift keying, the amplitude of the carrier
signal is varied to create signal elements.
• Both frequency and phase remain constant while the
amplitude changes.
• ASK is normally implemented using only two levels.
• This is referred to as binary amplitude shift keying or on-
off keying (OOK).
• The peak amplitude of one signal level is 0; the other is
the same as the amplitude of the carrier frequency
Binary amplitude shift keying

Bandwidth can be expressed as S is the signal rate and the B is

the bandwidth.
B = (1 + d) × S
Implementation
Contd…
• If digital data are presented as a unipolar NRZ digital
signal with a high voltage of 1 V and a low voltage of 0 V,
• The implementation can achieved by multiplying the
NRZ digital signal by the carrier signal coming from an
oscillator.
• When the amplitude of the NRZ signal is 1, the
amplitude of the carrier frequency is held;
• when the amplitude of the NRZ signal is 0, the amplitude
of the carrier frequency is zero.
Frequency Shift Keying
• In frequency shift keying, the frequency of the carrier
signal is varied to represent data.
• The frequency of the modulated signal is constant for the
duration of one signal element, but changes for the next
signal element if the data element changes.
• Both peak amplitude and phase remain constant for all
signal elements.
Binary FSK (BFSK)
• One way to think about binary FSK (or BFSK) is to
consider two carrier frequencies.
• Two carrier frequencies, f1 and f2.
• The first carrier if the data element is 0; we use the
second if the data element is 1.
• The carrier frequencies are very high, and the difference
between them is very small.
Contd…
Contd…
Multilevel FSK
• Multilevel modulation (MFSK) is not uncommon with the
FSK method.
• We can use more than two frequencies.
• For example, we can use four different frequencies f1, f2,
f3, and f4 to send 2 bits at a time.
• To send 3 bits at a time, eight frequencies.
Phase Shift Keying
• In phase shift keying, the phase of the carrier is varied to
represent two or more different signal elements.
• Both peak amplitude and frequency remain constant as
the phase changes.
• Today, PSK is more common than ASK or FSK.
• QAM, which combines ASK and PSK, is the dominant
method of digital-to-analog modulation.
Binary PSK (BPSK)
• The simplest PSK is binary PSK, in which we have only two
signal elements, one with a phase of 0°, and the other with a
phase of 180°.
• Binary PSK is as simple as binary ASK with one big
advantage—it is less susceptible to noise.
• Noise can change the amplitude easier than it can change the
phase. In other words, PSK is less susceptible to noise than
ASK.
• PSK is superior to FSK because we do not need two carrier
signals.
• PSK needs more sophisticated hardware to be able to
distinguish between Phases.
Binary phase shift keying
Implementation
• The reason is that the signal element with phase 180°
can be seen as the complement of the signal element with
phase 0°.
• The polar NRZ signal is multiplied by the carrier
frequency; the 1 bit (positive voltage) is represented by a
phase starting at 0°; the 0 bit (negative voltage) is
represented by a phase starting at 180°.
Implementation of BASK
Quadrature PSK (QPSK)
• The scheme is called quadrature PSK or QPSK because it
uses two separate BPSK modulations; one is in-phase,
the other quadrature (out-of-phase).
• The incoming bits are first passed through a serial-to-
parallel conversion that sends one bit to one modulator
and the next bit to the other modulator.
• If the duration of each bit in the incoming signal is T, the
duration of each bit sent to the corresponding BPSK
signal is 2T.
• This means that the bit to each BPSK signal has one-half
the frequency of the original signal.
Contd…
• The two composite signals created by each multiplier are
sine waves with the same frequency, but different phases.
• The result is another sine wave, with one of four possible
phases: 45°, −45°, 135°, and −135°.
• Four kinds of signal elements in the output signal (L = 4),
• 2 bits per signal element (r = 2) are sent.
Constellation Diagram
• A constellation diagram helps to define the amplitude
and phase of a signal element, when two carriers is used
(one in-phase and one quadrature).
• In a constellation diagram, a signal element type is
represented as a dot
Concept of a constellation
diagram
Show the constellation diagrams for ASK (OOK), BPSK, and
QPSK signals.
Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

• PSK is limited by the ability of the equipment to

distinguish small differences in phase. This factor limits
its potential bit rate
• The idea of using two carriers, one in-phase and the other
quadrature, with different amplitude levels for each
carrier is the concept behind quadrature amplitude
modulation (QAM).
• Quadrature amplitude modulation is a combination of
ASK and PSK.
Constellation diagrams for some QAMs

Bandwidth for QAM: The minimum bandwidth required for QAM

transmission is the same as that required for ASK and PSK transmission.