INTRODUCTION TO

DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING

Dr. Hugh Blanton

ENTC 4347
 TOPICS

1. Impact of DSP
2. Analog vs. digital: why, what & how
3. Digital system example
4. Sampling & aliasing
5. ADCs: performance & choice
6. Digital data formats

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 Digital vs Analog
Digital Signal Processing

Advantages Limitations

More flexible. A/D & signal processors speed:

Often easier system upgrade.
Data easily stored.
Better control over accuracy
requirements.
Reproducibility.
wide-band signals still difficult to
treat (real-time systems).
Finite word-length effect.
Obsolescence (analog
electronics has it, too!).

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 Impact of DSP on Modern Living
Cellular/mobile telephony Digital audio
Speech and channel coding Stereo and surround sound
Voice and data processing Audio equalization and
Power management mixing
Multipath equaliztion Electronic music

Medical electronics
Automotive
Critical/intensive care
Digital Audio
monitors
Digital Radio
Digital X-rays
Personal communication
ECG analyzers
systems
Cardiac monitors
Active suspension
Medical imaging

Personal computer
Sound cards
Data storage and retrieval
Error correction/concealment
Multimedia
Modems

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 Analog & digital signals
Analog Digital
Continuous function V of Discrete function Vk of
continuous variable t (time, discrete sampling variable tk,
space etc) : V(t). with k = integer: Vk = V(tk).

0.3 0.3
0.2 0.2
Voltage [V]

Voltage [V]
0.1 0.1
0 0
-0.1 -0.1 ts ts
-0.2 -0.2
0 2 4 6 8 10 0 2 4 6 8 10
time [ms] sampling time, tk [ms]
Uniform (periodic) sampling.
Sampling frequency fS = 1/ tS

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 DSP: aim & tools
Predicting a systems output.
Applications Implementing a certain processing task.
Studying a certain signal.

General purpose processors (GPP), -controllers.

Hardware Digital Signal Processors (DSP). Fast real-time
Faster DSPing
Programmable logic ( PLD, FPGA ).

Programming languages: Pascal, C / C++ ...

Software High level languages: Matlab, Mathcad, Mathematica
Dedicated tools (ex: filter design s/w packages).

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 Digital system example
V

DOMAIN
ANALOG
General scheme Filter
ms
Filter
Antialiasing
V
Antialiasing
Sometimes steps missing
ms
- Filter + A/D A
A/D
A/D

DOMAIN
DIGITAL
(ex: economics);
k
- D/A + filter Digital
Processing
Digital
A
(ex: digital output wanted).
k Processing
V
D/A

DOMAIN
ANALOG
Topics of this ms
Filter
V
lecture. Reconstruction

ms

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Digital system implementation
KEY DECISION POINTS:
ANALOG INPUT
Analysis bandwidth, Dynamic range

Antialiasing
Filter Pass / stop bands.
1
Sampling rate.
A/D
No. of bits. Parameters. 2
Digital
Processing Digital format. 3
What to use for processing?
See slide DSPing aim & tools
DIGITAL OUTPUT

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 1 Sampling
How fast must we sample * a continuous
signal to preserve its info content?

Ex: train wheels in a movie.

25 frames (=samples) per second.

Train starts wheels go clockwise.

Train accelerates wheels go counter-clockwise.

Why?
Frequency misidentification due to low sampling frequency.

* Sampling: independent variable (ex: time) continuous discrete.

Quantisation: dependent variable (ex: voltage) continuous discrete.
Here well talk about uniform sampling.

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 1 Sampling - 2
1.2

1
__ s(t) = sin(2f t)
0.8 0
0.6

0.4
s(t) @ fS
0.2

0
f0 = 1 Hz, fS = 3 Hz
-0.2 tt
-0.4

-0.6

-0.8
__ s (t) = sin(8f t)
1 0
-1

-1.2
__ s (t) = sin(14f t)
2 0

s(t) @ fS represents exactly all sine-waves sk(t) defined by:

sk (t) = sin( 2 (f0 + k fS) t ) , k

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 1 The sampling theorem
A signal s(t) with maximum frequency fMAX can be
Theo* recovered if sampled at frequency f > 2 f
S MAX .

* Multiple proposers: Whittaker(s), Nyquist, Shannon, Kotelnikov.

Naming gets
confusing ! Nyquist frequency (rate) fN = 2 fMAX or fMAX or fS,MIN or fS,MIN/2

Example
s(t) 3 cos(50 t) 10 sin(300 t) cos(100 t) Condition on fS?
F1 F2 F3

F1=25 Hz, F2 = 150 Hz, F3 = 50 Hz fS > 300 Hz

fMAX

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 1 Frequency domain (hints)
Time & frequency: two complementary signal descriptions.
Signals seen as projected onto time or frequency domains.
Example
Ear + brain act as frequency analyser: audio spectrum
split into many narrow bands low-power sounds
detected out of loud background.

Bandwidth: indicates rate of change of a signal.

High bandwidth signal changes fast.

Warning: formal description makes use

of negative frequencies !

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1 Sampling low-pass signals
Continuous spectrum
(a) (a) Band-limited signal:
frequencies in [-B, B] (fMAX = B).

-B 0 B f

(b) Discrete spectrum

No aliasing
(b) Time sampling frequency
repetition.
fS > 2 B no aliasing.
-B 0 B fS/2 f

Discrete spectrum
(c) Aliasing & corruption
(c) fS 2B aliasing !

Aliasing: signal ambiguity

0 fS/2 f
in frequency domain

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 1 Antialiasing filter
(a) Signal of interest (a),(b) Out-of-band noise can aliase
Out of band
Out of band into band of interest. Filter it before!
noise
noise

-B 0 B f
(c) Antialiasing filter
(b) Passband: depends on bandwidth of
interest.

Attenuation AMIN : depends on

-B 0 B fS/2 ADC resolution ( number of bits N).
(c) f
AMIN, dB ~ 6.02 N + 1.76
Out-of-band noise magnitude.

Other parameters: ripple, stopband

frequency...

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 1 Under-sampling (hints)
Using spectral replications to reduce Bandpass signal
B
sampling frequency fS reqments. centered on fC

0 fC
2 fC B 2 fC B
fS f
m 1 m

m , selected so that fS > 2B

-fS 0 fS 2fS
f fC
Example
fC = 20 MHz, B = 5MHz Advantages
Without under-sampling fS > 40 MHz. Slower ADCs / electronics
With under-sampling fS = 22.5 MHz (m=1);
needed.

= 17.5 MHz (m=2); = 11.66 MHz (m=3). Simpler antialiasing filters.

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1 Over-sampling (hints)
Oversampling : sampling at frequencies fS >> 2 fMAX .

Over-sampling & averaging may improve ADC resolution

( i.e. SNR, see 2 )

fOS = over-sampling frequency,

fOS = 4w fS w = additional bits required.

Each additional bit implies over-sampling by a factor of four.

Caveat
It works for:
- white noise with amplitude sufficient to change the input
signal randomly from sample to sample by at least LSB.
- Input that can take all values between two ADC bits.

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