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.
