COMP 202.

Introduction
to Electronics
Dr. N. B. Gyan

Central University, Miotso. Ghana

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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We live in an analogue world. There are an infinite amount of

colours to paint an object (even if the difference is indiscernible to
our eye), there are an infinite number of tones we can hear, and
there are an infinite number of smells we can smell.
The common theme among all of these analogue signals is their
infinite possibilities.
Digital signals and objects deal in the realm of the discrete or
finite, meaning there is a limited set of values they can be. That
could mean just two total possible values, 255, 4,294,967,296, or
anything as long as it’s not ∞ (infinity).
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Analogue & Digital

Real-world objects can display data, gather inputs by either analogue or digital means. (From left to right): Clocks, multimeters, and
joysticks can all take either form (analogue above, digital below).

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Analogue & Digital

Working with electronics means dealing with both analogue and

digital signals, inputs and outputs.
All electronics projects have to interact with the real, analogue
world in some way, but most of our microprocessors, computers,
and logic units are purely digital components.
These two types of signals are like different electronic languages;
some electronics components are bi-lingual, others can only
understand and speak one of the two.
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What are signals?

By signals we mean time-varying “quantities” which convey some

sort of information. In electrical engineering the quantity that’s
time-varying is usually voltage (if not that, then usually current).
So think of a signal as a voltage that’s changing over time.
Signals are passed between devices in order to send and receive
information, which might be video, audio, or some sort of encoded
data.
Usually the signals are transmitted through wires, but they could
also pass through the air via radio frequency (RF) waves. Audio
signals, for example might be transferred between your computer’s
audio card and speakers, while data signals might be passed
through the air between a tablet and a WiFi router.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Analogue Signal Graphs

Since a signal varies over time, it’s helpful to plot it on a graph

where time is plotted on the horizontal, x-axis, and voltage on the
vertical, y-axis.
Looking at a graph of a signal is usually the easiest way to identify
if it’s analogue or digital; a time-versus-voltage graph of an analog
signal should be smooth and continuous.
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Analogue Signal Graphs

Several examples of analog signals: (a) a 1-MHz sinusoidal signal with

amplitude 10 V and a phase offset of π/4; (b) a 5-A DC signal; (c) a
1-MHz square wave signal with a 5-V offset; (d) a 1-MHz square wave
signal with zero offset; (e) a signal carrying information in its
amplitude; (f) a signal carrying information in its frequency.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Analogue Signal Graphs

While these signals may be limited to a range of maximum and

minimum values, there are still an infinite number of possible
values within that range.
For example, the analogue voltage coming out of your wall socket
might be clamped between -120V and +120V, but, as you increase
the resolution more and more, you discover an infinite number of
values that the signal can actually be (like 64.4V, 64.42V, 64.424V,
and infinite, increasingly precise values).
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Example Analog Signals

Video and audio transmissions are often transferred or recorded

using analogue signals. The composite video coming out of an old
RCA jack, for example, is a coded analogue signal usually ranging
between 0 and 1.073V.
Tiny changes in the signal have a huge effect on the colour or
location of the video.
Pure audio signals are also analogue. The signal that comes out of
a microphone is full of analogue frequencies and harmonics, which
combine to make beautiful music.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Example Analogue Signals

An analogue signal representing one line of composite video data.

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Digital Signals

Digital signals must have a finite set of possible values. The

number of values in the set can be anywhere between two and
a-very-large-number-that’s-not-infinity.
Most commonly digital signals will be one of two values–like
either 0V or 5V. Timing graphs of these signals look like square
waves.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Digital Signals

Here, we discretize voltage into a finite number of information levels, for example, the two levels named ‘‘0’’ and ‘‘1.’’ Under this
quantization, if a voltage is observed to be below 2.5 V we interpret its value as representing the information level ‘‘0.’’ If its value
is above 2.5 V, we interpret it as representing the information level ‘‘1.’’ Correspondingly, to produce the information level ‘‘0,’’ we
use any voltage less than 2.5 V. For example, we might use 1.25 V. Correspondingly, to produce the information level ‘‘1,’’ we might
use the voltage 3.75 V.
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Digital Systems

Discrete signals offer better noise immunity than analog signals,

but they do so at the expense of precision.
If the noise that corrupts a discrete signal does not move its
physical value past a discretization threshold, then the noise will be
ignored.
For example, suppose the information level ‘‘0’’ in Figure above is
represented by a 1.25-V signal, and the information level ‘‘1’’ is
represented by a 3.75-V signal.
Provided the voltage does not rise above 2.5 V for ‘‘0,’’ or does not
fall below 2.5 V for a ‘‘1,’’ it will be interpreted correctly.
Thus, this discrete signal representation is immune to ±1.25-V
noise. Notice, however, the loss in precision our coarse two-level
representation is unable to distinguish between small changes in
the voltage.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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For applications that care only about whether a signal is above or

below some threshold, the loss in precision is of no consequence,
and a two-level representation is sufficient.
However, for other applications that care about small changes in a
signal, the basic two-level representation of a signal must be
extended.
Briefly, to recover some precision while retaining noise immunity,
digital systems quantize signals into a large number of levels for
example, 256 and code these levels into a few binary digits 8, in
our example, where each binary digit can be represented as a
two-level voltage on a single wire.
This method converts an analog signal on a single wire into a
binary encoded signal on several wires, where each wire carries a
voltage that can vary between two levels.
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Example Digital Signals

Not all audio and video signals are analogue. Standardized signals
like HDMI for video (and audio) and MIDI, I2 S, or AC’97 for
audio are all digitally transmitted.
Most communication between integrated circuits is digital.
Interfaces like serial, I2 C, and SPI all transmit data via a coded
sequence of square waves.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Example Digital Signals

Serial peripheral interface (SPI) uses many digital signals to transmit

data between devices.
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Analogue Electronics

Most of the fundamental electronic components – resistors,

capacitors, inductors, diodes, transistors, and operational amplifiers
– are all inherently analogue.
Circuits built with a combination of solely these components are
usually analogue.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Analogue Electronics

Analog circuits are usually complex combinations of op amps, resistors,

caps, and other foundational electronic components. This is an example
of a class B analogue audio amplifier.
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Analogue Electronics

Analogue circuits can be very elegant designs with many

components, or they can be very simple, like two resistors
combining to make a voltage divider.
In general, though, analogue circuits are much more difficult to
design than those which accomplish the same task digitally. It
takes a special kind of analogue circuit wizard to design an
analogue radio receiver, or an analogue battery charger; digital
components exist to make those designs much simpler.
Analogue circuits are usually much more susceptible to noise
(small, undesired variations in voltage). Small changes in the
voltage level of an analogue signal may produce significant errors
when being processed.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Digital Electronics

Digital circuits operate using digital, discrete signals. These

circuits are usually made of a combination of transistors and logic
gates and, at higher levels, micro-controllers or other computing
chips.
Most processors, whether they’re big beefy processors in your
computer, or tiny little micro-controllers, operate in the digital
realm.
Digital circuits usually use a binary scheme for digital signaling.
These systems assign two different voltages as two different logic
levels–a high voltage (usually 5V, 3.3V, or 1.8V) represents one
value and a low voltage (usually 0V) represents the other.
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Digital Electronics

Although digital circuits are generally easier to design, they do tend

to be a bit more expensive than an equally tasked analogue circuit.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Digital Electronics
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Analog and Digital Combined

It’s not rare to see a mixture of analogue and digital components in

a circuit.
Although micro-controllers are usually digital beasts, they often
have internal circuitry which enables them to interface with
analogue circuitry (analogue-to-digital converters, pulse-width
modulation, and digital-to-analogue converters.
An analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) allows a micro-controller
to connect to an analogue sensor (like photocells or temperature
sensors), to read in an analogue voltage. The less common
digital-to-analogue converter allows a micro-controller to produce
analogue voltages, which is handy when it needs to make sound.

Analogue vs Digital Systems

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Find out some more

(a) https://electronicsclub.info/analogue.htm
(b) More on the differences between analogue and digital signals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxJKXGugfh8
(c) Watch some of the differences between analogue and digital music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzRvSWPZQYk