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Contents
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• 1 Telecommunications
• 2 Power delivery
• 3 Voltage Regulation
• 4 Audio effects
• 5 See also
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Telecommunications
In telecommunications, the width of the pulses correspond with specific data values
encoded at one end and decoded at the other.
Pulses of various lengths (the information itself) will be sent at regular intervals
(the carrier frequency of the modulation).
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Clock | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
__| |____| |____| |____| |____| |____| |____| |____| |____
_ __ ____ ____ _
Data | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | |
_________| |____| |___| |________| |_| |___________
Data 0 1 2 4 0 4 1 0
The inclusion of a clock signal is not necessary as the leading edge of the data
signal can be used as the clock if a small offset is added to the data value in order to
avoid the lack of a pulse for zero values.
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Power delivery
PWM is also used to vary the total amount of power delivered to a load without the
losses normally incurred when a power source drops its output voltage through
resistive means. In a PWM system the solid state switch being used to control the
flow of current is either not conducting any current or has very low voltage drop
across it (and is conducting high current); since the instantaneous power dissipated
in the switch is the product of the current and the voltage at any given time, this
means no power would be dissipated if the switch were ideal. With a sufficiently
high modulation rate, simple RC filters are often used to smooth the pulse train into
a steady analog voltage. This method is commonly used in DC motor speed control.
PWM power limits are also used in the simple light dimmers common in homes. In
this case the electricity being modulated is AC. Simple adjustment to the brightness
of the light can be implemented by setting at what voltage in the AC cycle the
dimmer begins to conduct electricity to the light bulb (using a triac). Because the
duty cycle of the modulation is the same as the AC frequency of the line (60hz in
the United States) the human eye sees only the average intensity (see flicker
fusion).
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Voltage Regulation
(main article: switched-mode power supply)
PWM is also used in efficient voltage regulators. By switching voltage to the load
with the appropriate duty cycle, the output will approximate a voltage at the desired
level. The switching noise is usually filtered with an inductor and a capacitor.
One method measures the output voltage. When it is lower than the desired voltage,
it turns on the switch. When the output voltage is above the desired voltage, it turns
off the switch.
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Audio effects
PWM is sometimes used in sound synthesis, in particular subtractive synthesis, as it
gives a nice effect similar to chorus or slightly detuned oscillators played together.
The ratio between the high and low level is typically modulated with a low
frequency oscillator, or LFO.
A new class of audio amplifiers based on the PWM principle is becoming popular.
Called "Class-D amplifiers", these amplifiers produce a PWM equivalent of the
analogue input signal which is fed to the loudspeaker via a suitable filter network to
recover the original audio. These amplifiers are characterised by very good
efficiency figures (>= 90%) and compact size/light weight for large power outputs.
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See also
• Modulation
• Pulse-code modulation
• Pulse-amplitude modulation
• Pulse-density modulation
• Pulse-position modulation
• Radio control
Duty cycle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.