PULSE MODULATION

Principles of pulse modulation–sampling theorem, Generation and demodulation of

PAM – PWM–PPM––Principles of Pulse Code Modulation-Theory of DPCM, DM,
ADM and ADPCM.

 In pulse modulation technique, if the characteristics or signal parameter of

pulse carrier is varied in accordance with the instantaneous values of the
baseband modulating signal, then such a technique is called as Pulse
Modulation.
 Pulse modulation is further divided into analog and digital modulation. The
analog modulation techniques are mainly classified into Pulse Amplitude
Modulation, Pulse Duration Modulation/Pulse Width Modulation, and Pulse
Position Modulation.

Sampling

The process of converting continuous time signals into equivalent discrete time
signals, can be termed as Sampling. A certain instant of data is continually sampled
in the sampling process.

Sampling Theorem:

 To convert a signal from continuous time to discrete time signal, a process

called sampling. The value of the signal is measured at certain intervals in
time.
 If the signal contains high frequency components, we will need to sample at a
higher rate to avoid losing information that is in the signal
  This provides a mechanism for representing a continuous time signal by a
discrete time signal taking sufficient number of samples of signal so that
original signal is represented in its samples completely.
 Sampling frequency must be equal to or higher than 2fm Hz. [fs ≥ fm]

Pulse Analog Modulation

 In Pulse modulation methods, the carrier is no longer a continuous signal but
consists of a pulse train. Some parameter of which is varied according to the
instantaneous value of the modulating signal.
Pulse Amplitude Modulation

• The amplitude of the pulses of the carrier pulse train is varied in accordance with the modulating
signal, that is amplitude of the pulses depends on the value of m(t) during the time of pulse.
Pulse Amplitude Modulation
 In fact the pulses in a PAM signal may of Flat-top type or natural type or
ideal type.
 The Flat-top PAM is most popular and is widely used. The reason for using
Flat-top PAM is that during the transmission, the noise interferes with the top
 of the transmitted pulses and this noise can be easily removed if the PAM
pulse as Flat-top.
 In natural samples PAM signal, the pulse has varying top in accordance with
the signal variation. Such type of pulse is received at the receiver, it is always
contaminated by noise. Then it becomes quite difficult to determine the shape
of the top of the pulse and thus amplitude detection of the pulse is not exact.

Generation of PAM
There are two operations involved in the generation of PAM signal
 Instantaneous sampling of the message signal m(t) every Ts seconds, where
the sampling rate fs = 1/Ts is chosen in accordance with the sampling
theorem.
 Lengthening the duration of each sample so obtained to some constant value
T.

Sample and Hold Circuit for Generating Flat-top sampled PAM

Principle of Working
 A sample and hold circuit shown in fig.1 is used to produce Flat top sampled
PAM. The working principle of this circuit is quite easy.
 The sample and Hold (S/H) circuit consists of two field effect transistors
(FET) switches and a capacitor.
 The sampling switch is closed for a short duration by a short pulse applied to
the gate G1 of the transistor.
 During this period, the capacitor ‘C’ is quickly charged upto a voltage equal
to the instantaneous sample value of the incoming signal x(t).
 Now, the sampling switch is opened and the capacitor ‘C’ holds the charge.
 The discharge switch is then closed by a pulse applied to gate G2 of the other
transistor.
 Due to this, the capacitor ‘C’ is discharged to zero volts. The discharges
switch is then opened and thus capacitor has no voltage.
 Hence, the output of the sample and hold circuit consists of a sequence of flat
top samples as shown in fig.1(b).

Demodulation of PAM Signals

 For pulse amplitude modulated (PAM) signals, the demodulation is done
using a Holding circuit. Fig.1 shows the block diagram of a PAM
demodulator.
  In this method, the received PAM signal is allowed to pass through a Holding
circuit and a low pass filter (LPF) as shown in fig.1.

 Here the switch ‘S’ is closed after the arrival of the pulse and it is opened at
the end of the pulse. In this way, the capacitor C is charged to the pulse
amplitude value and it holds this value during the interval between the two
pulses.
Hence, the sampled values are held as shown in fig.3.

 After this the holding circuit output is smoothened in Low Pass filter as
shown in fig.3.
 It may be observed that some kind of distortion is introduced due to the
holding circuit. In fact, the circuit of fig.4 is known as zero-order Holding
circuit. This zero-order Holding circuit considers only the previous sample to
decide the value between the two pulses.
Advantages of PAM:
 It is the simple and simple process for modulation and demodulation
 Transmitter and receiver circuits are simple and easy to construct.
Disadvantages of PAM:
 Requires a greater amount of Bandwidth for transmission of PAM signal.
 As the amplitude of PAM pulses changes, interference of noise is maximum
and cannot be removed easily.
 Requires a larger power consumption in many cases.

Pulse Time Modulation (PTM)

 In pulse time modulation, amplitude of pulse is held constant, whereas
position of pulse or width of pulse is made proportional to the amplitude of
signal at the sampling instant.
 There are two types of pulse time modulation.
i. Pulse Width Modulation
ii. Pulse Position Modulation
Three types of pulse-width modulation (PWM) are possible:
 The leading edge of the pulse being constant, the trailing edge varies
according to the message signal.
 The trailing edge of the pulse being constant, the leading edge varies
according to the message signal
 The center of the pulse being constant, the leading edge and the trailing edge
varies according to the message signal (Symmetrical PWM)
Pulse Width Modulation
 PWM is also called Pulse Duration Modulation (PDM), Pulse Length
Modulation (PLM).
Definition:
 In PWM, Width of the pulses of the carrier pulse train is varied in accordance
with the modulating signal.

 As we can observe, the amplitude and the frequency of the PWM wave
remain constant. Only the width changes.
 That is why the information is contained in the width variation. This is similar
to FM.
 As the noise is normally additive noise, it changes the amplitude of the PWM
signal.
 At the receiver, it is possible to remove these unwanted amplitude variations
very easily by means of a limiter circuits.
  As the information is contained in the width variation, it is unaffected by the
amplitude variations introduced by the noise. Thus, the PWM system is more
immune to noise than the PAM signal.

Generation of PWM Signal

 The block diagram of a PWM signal generator is shown in fig.2 below. This
circuit can also be used for the generation of PPM signal.

 A sawtooth generator generates a sawtooth signal of frequency f s, and this

sawtooth signal in this case is used as a sampling signal.
 It is applied to the inverting terminal of a comparator.
 The modulating signal x (t) is applied to the non-inverting terminal of the
same comparator.
 The comparator output will remain high as long as the instantaneous
amplitude of x (t) is higher than that of the ramp signal.
 This gives rise to a PWM signal at the comparator output as shown in fig.2
  Here, it may be noted that the leading edges of the PWM waveform coincide
with the falling edges of the ramp signal. Thus, the leading edges of PWM
signal are always generated at fixed time instants.
 However, the occurrence of its trailing edges will be dependent on the
instantaneous amplitude of x(t). Therefore, this PWM signal is said to be trail
edge modulated PWM.

Detection of PWM Signal

 The circuit for the detection of PWM signal is shown in fig.3 below.

The working operation of the circuit may be explained as under:

 The PWM signal received at the input of the detection circuit is contaminated
with noise. This signal is applied to pulse generator circuit which regenerates
the PWM signal.
 Thus, some of the noise is removed and the pulses are squared up.
 The regenerated pulses are applied to a reference pulse generator. It produces
a train of constant amplitude, constant width pulses.
 These pulses are synchronized to the leading edges of the regenerated PWM
pulses but delayed by a fixed interval.
 The regenerated PWM pulses are also applied to a ramp generator. At the
output of it, we get a constant slope ramp for the duration of the pulse. The
height of the ramp is thus proportional to the width of the PWM pulses.
 At the end of the pulse, a sample and hold amplifier retains the final ramp
voltage until it is reset at the end of the pulse.
 The constant amplitude pulses at the output of reference pulse generator are
then added to the ramp signal.
 The output of the adder is then clipped off at a threshold level to generate a
PAM signal at the output of the clipper.
 A low pass filter is used to recover the original modulating signal back from
the PAM signal. The waveforms for this circuit have been shown in fig.4.
Advantages of PWM:
 Noise is less, since in PWM, amplitude is held constant.
 Signal and noise separation is very easy
 PWM communication does not required synchronization between transmitter
and receiver.
Disadvantages of PWM:
 In PWM, pulses are varying in width and therefore their power contents are
variable this requires that the transmitter must be able to handle the power
content of the pulse having maximum pulse width.
 Large bandwidth is required for the PWM as compared to PAM
Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)
 In PPM, the amplitude and width of the pulses is kept constant but the
position of each pulse is varied in accordance with the amplitudes of the
sampled values of the modulating signal.
 The position of the pulses is changed with respect to the position of reference
pulses.
 The PPM pulses can be derived from the PWM pulses as shown in fig.1.
 Here, it may be noted that with increase in the modulating voltage the PPM
pulses shift further with respect to reference.

 The vertical dotted lines drawn in fig.1 are treated as reference lines to
measure the shift in position of PPM pulses.
 The PPM pulses marked 1, 2 and 3 in fig.1 go away from their respective
reference lines. This is corresponding to increase in the modulating signal
amplitude.
 Then, as the modulating voltage decreases, the PPM pulses 4, 5, 6, 7 come
progressively closer to their respective reference lines.
Generation of PPM Signal
 The PPM signal can be generated from PWM signal as shown in fig.2 (a).
  The PWM pulses obtained at the comparator output are applied to a
monostable multivibrator. The monostable is negative edge triggered.
 Hence, corresponding to each trailing edge of PWM signal, the monostable
output goes high.
 It remains high for a fixed time decided by its own RC components.
 Thus, as the trailing edges of the PWM signal keep shifting in proportion
with the modulating signal x(t), the PPM pulses also keep shifting, as shown
in fig.3.

Demodulation of PPM Signal

 The PPM demodulator block diagram has been shown in fig.4.

The operation of the demodulator circuit may be explained as under:

 The noise corrupted PPM waveform is received by the PPM demodulator
circuit.
 The pulse generator develops a pulsed waveform at its output of fixed
duration and applies these pulses to the reset pin (R) of a SR flip-flop.
 A fixed period reference pulse is generated from the incoming PPM
waveform and the SR flip-flop is set by the reference pulses.
 Due to the set and reset signals applied to the flip-flop, we get a PWM signal
at its output.
 The PWM signal can be demodulated using the PWM demodulator.
Advantages of PPM:
 Like PWM, in PPM, amplitude is held constant thus less noise interference.
 Signal and noise separation is very easy
 Because of constant pulse widths and amplitudes, transmission power for
each pulse is same
Disadvantages of PPM:
 Synchronization between transmitter and receiver is required.
 Large bandwidth is required for the PPM as compared to PAM

PULSE CODE MODULATION(PCM)

 Pulse code modulation is used to convert analog signal to digital data. 0’s and
1’s
 In PCM, 1’st we do sampling to convert analog to discrete signal.
 After sampling we do quantization to convert discrete signal into digital
signal.
 After that, we encoding of that digital signal.

Basic Elements of PCM

 The transmitter section of a Pulse Code Modulator circuit consists
of Sampling, Quantizing and Encoding, which are performed in the analog-
to-digital converter section. The low pass filter prior to sampling prevents
aliasing of the message signal.
 The basic operations in the receiver section are regeneration of impaired
signals, decoding, and reconstruction of the quantized pulse train. Following
is the block diagram of PCM which represents the basic elements of both the
transmitter and the receiver sections.
Low Pass Filter
 This filter eliminates the high frequency components present in the input
analog signal which is greater than the highest frequency of the message
signal, to avoid aliasing of the message signal.
Sampler
 This is the technique which helps to collect the sample data at instantaneous
values of message signal, so as to reconstruct the original signal.
 The sampling rate must be greater than twice the highest frequency
component W of the message signal, in accordance with the sampling
theorem.
Quantizer
 Quantizing is a process of reducing the excessive bits and confining the data.
The sampled output when given to Quantizer, reduces the redundant bits and
compresses the value.
Encoder
 The digitization of analog signal is done by the encoder. It designates each
quantized level by a binary code.
 The sampling done here is the sample-and-hold process.
 These three sections LPF, Sampler, and Quantizer LPF, Sampler, and
Quantizer will act as an analog to digital converter. Encoding minimizes the
bandwidth used.
Regenerative Repeater
 This section increases the signal strength. The output of the channel also has
one regenerative repeater circuit, to compensate the signal loss and
reconstruct the signal, and also to increase its strength.
Decoder
  The decoder circuit decodes the pulse coded waveform to reproduce the
original signal. This circuit acts as the demodulator.
Reconstruction Filter
 After the digital-to-analog conversion is done by the regenerative circuit and
the decoder, a low-pass filter is employed, called as the reconstruction filter
to get back the original signal.
 Hence, the Pulse Code Modulator circuit digitizes the given analog signal,
codes it and samples it, and then transmits it in an analog form. This whole
process is repeated in a reverse pattern to obtain the original signal.

PCM Standards
 There are two standards of PCM namely
 The European Standard
 The American Standard
 They differ slightly in the detail of their working but the principles are the
same.
 European pcm = 30 channels
 North American pcm = 24 channels
 Japanese pcm = 24 channels
 In India we follow the European pcm of 30 channels system working.

BIT RATE AND BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENTS OF PCM

 The bit rate of a PCM signal can be calculated by
To Improve Quality of Message Signal at Receiver

ADVANTAGES OF PCM
 Uniform Transmission Quality
 It is robust against noise and interference.
 Efficient SNR.
 It provides Secure Data Transmission.
 Low Manufacturing Cost.
 Good Performance Over Very Poor Transmission Paths.
 It is easy to add or drop channels.
DISADVANTAGES OF PCM
 Large Bandwidth required for Transmission
 Noise and crosstalk leave low but attenuation will increase.
 Encoding, Decoding and Quantizing circuit of PCM iv very complex.
APPLICATION
 In compact disk
 Digital telephony
 Digital audio applications