Technological Institute of the Philippines

1338 Arlegui St. Quiapo, Manila

College of Engineering and Architecture

ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL AND DIGITAL-TO ANALOG CONVERSION

Experiment no. 5

Submitted by: Tabo, Jessica A.

Submitted to: Engr. Mark Nelson E. Pangilinan

Date:October 8, 2016

I. Objectives / Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the process of analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion and
the concepts,
principles and theories behind.
2. Create a VI that will demonstrate the sampling process, the effect of aliasing, the
quantization and
coding processes, quantization error and signal reconstruction.
3. Apply the concepts learned in practical signals.
II. Data and results: (Screenshots)

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.3

Figure 1.4

Figure 1.5
III. Observations
In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC, A/D, AD, or A-to-D) is a system
that converts an analog signal, such as a sound picked up by a microphone or a landscape
being photographed with a digital camera, into a digital signal. An ADC may also provide an
isolated measurement such as an electronic device that converts an input analog voltage or

current to a digital number proportional to the magnitude of the voltage or current.

IV. Conclusion
Digital-to-analog converter (DAC) performs the reverse function; it converts a digital
signal into an analog signal. Analog-to-Digital converters - a.k.a. A/D converters - are widely
used by many engineers and scientists of all types, often without their realizing it. Whenever
they make a measurement of a voltage, and that measurement is taken into a computer, an
A/D is used.
If you're going to take measurements - and just about every engineer will do a lot
of that - then you will be better off if you understand some of the basic ideas behind A/D
converters. There are two simple goals for this lesson.

Given an A/D converter with a given range and number of bits,

To be able to calculate the resolution of the converter.

Given an A/D converter in the laboratory,

To be able to determine the resolution of the converter and the number of bits
used in the converter.

V. Questions and Answers

Activity 4.1 Sampling of Continuous-time Signals and Aliasing
a. Discuss the functionality of the VI.
The constructed VI produced samples of continuous-time signal and alias wherein
in signal processing and related disciplines, aliasing is an effect that causes different
signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of one another) when sampled. It also
refers to the distortion or artifact that results when the signal reconstructed from
samples is different from the original continuous signal.

b. Explain the choice of constants for the number of samples and the dt of the Sine
Wave.vi and Build Waveform nodes respectively.
A sampled continuous-time signal (a discrete-time signal) must have its values
discretized to make it a digital signal. The process of converting a discrete-time
continuous- value signal into a digital signal by expressing each sample value as a finite
(instead of an infinite) number of digits is called quantization. Since each sample is
being converted into one with discrete values during the process of quantization, an
error, called the quantization error quantization noise.

c. Question: Adjusting the values of the Analog Frequency F (Hz), complete the table
below.
Input Analog Frequency F (Hz)

Normalized Frequency (f)

Alias Frequency (Fa)

100

100000

-99999000

300

300000

-299999000

500

500000

-499999000

700

700000

-699999000

800

800000

-799999000

900

900000

-899999000

1000

1000000

-999999000

d. Based on the table above, what analog frequencies did have an alias frequency? In
general, what range of frequencies of signals will have aliases based on the observations
that can be drawn from the table above? What is the relationship of frequencies of
signals which did have aliases to the sampling frequency?
Input analog frequency with 100 300 500 700 800 900 1000 are frequencies with
alias. Alias frequency range from -2999999000 up to -9999999000. Aliasing is an effect
that causes different signals to become indistinguishable (or aliases of one another)
when sampled. It also refers to the distortion or artifact that results when the signal
reconstructed from samples is different from the original continuous signal .

e. As stated in the Background Information part of this activity, a signal can be

reconstructed from its samples if the sampling process satisfies the Nyquist criterion.
The Nyquist criterion requires that the samples of the signal do not belong to the alias of
the original signal. What then is this Nyquist criterion?
Nyquist criterion may refer to: Nyquist stability criterion, a graphical technique
for determining the stability of a feedback control system. Nyquist frequency, of the
sampling rate of a discrete signal processing system. Nyquist rate, a rate used in signal
processing.
4.2

Quantization and Quantization Error

a. Discuss the functionality of the VI. How did the VI quantize the input signal?
VI quantize the input signal by the process of mapping a large set of input values
to a (countable) smaller set. Rounding and truncation are typical examples of
quantization

processes. Quantization is involved to some degree in nearly all

digital signal processing, as

ordinarily involves rounding.

the process of representing a signal in digital form

b. Discuss how the plot of the Quantization Error waveform graph was generated.
Quantization noise is a model of quantization error introduced by quantization in
the analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) in telecommunication systems and signal
processing. It is a

rounding error between the analog input voltage to the ADC

and the output digitized value. The

noise is non-linear and signal-dependent. It can

be modelled in several different ways.

c. What is a histogram? Interpret the histogram of the quantization error as displayed

in the waveform graph.
A histogram is a graphical representation of the distribution of numerical data. It
is an estimate of the probability distribution of a continuous variable (quantitative
variable) and was first introduced by Karl Pearson. To construct a histogram, the first
step is to "bin" the range of valuesthat is, divide the entire range of values into a
series of intervalsand then count how many values fall into each interval. The bins
are usually specified as consecutive, non- overlapping intervals of a variable. The
bins (intervals) must be adjacent, and are usually equal size.

d. What is the data that is contained in the first and second columns of the spreadsheet
file?
The data that is contained in the first and second columns of the spreadsheet
file is a series of number that refers to SQNR by absolute and by decibel.

f. What does the SQNR parameter indicate with regards to the performance of an
analog-to- digital converter?
An ADC is defined by its bandwidth and its signal-to-noise ratio. The bandwidth

of an ADC is characterized primarily by its sampling rate. The dynamic range of an

ADC is influenced by many factors, including the resolution, linearity and accuracy
(how well the quantization levels match the true analog signal), aliasing and jitter. The
dynamic range of an ADC is often summarized in terms of its effective number of bits
(ENOB), the number of bits of each measure it returns that are on average not noise.
Activity 4.4 Signal Reconstruction
a. Discuss the functionality of the Add Zeros and Sinc Function subVIs
The Add zeroes is used to insert zeros between consecutive samples to
simulate oversampling and the sinc function VI is used to generate samples of a sinc
function with a specified number of zero-crossings.

b. Discuss the functionality of the main VI.Interpret the output of the waveform graphs.
It is assumed that a unity amplitude sinusoid of 10 Hz is sampled at 80
Hz. To display the reconstructed analog signal, one sets the sampling frequency and
number of samples to 100 times those of discrete signal.

c. Adjusting the Oversampling Rate value while keeping the # of Period of Sinc
Function constant, what can be said about the reconstructed signal in comparison with
the original Analog signal?
The amplitude of reconstructed signal change upon oversampling rate change
over period of time and as oversampling rate increase , the sample signal produced
also increase over period of time.

d. Adjusting the # of Period of Sinc Function value while keeping the Oversampling Rate
constant, what can be said about the reconstructed signal in comparison with the

original Analog signal?

In initial signal of reconstructed is same as zer0-inserted sample and same as
analog signal pattern and sooner refined and phase of the signal change as number of
period of sinc function increases.

VI.

Machine Problems

Create a VI that will illustrate the analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion of an audio
signal. The VI will read a recorded audio, convert it into digital form and back to the analog
form. The VI must illustrate the ADC process (sampling, quantizing, coding) as well as the
signal reconstruction using the sincfunction and write the reconstructed signal back to WAV
file. It must also demonstrate what will happen if aliasing occurs, and how to prevent it from
occurring. Call the main VI of this machine problem as macpro05.vi.
Answer:
Correct your Pre-Lab Question calculation of the full scale voltage of the DAQ by
measuring the actual high level output of the DAQ.[11] Build a LabVIEW driver for your
DAC.[12] Your drivers front panel should look something like:

where the Bit Pattern indicator is included for debugging purposes. You will have
to scale the output voltage to a bit pattern. LabVIEW already has Vis for many common

tasks such as this, try to find the right one for the job before you implement your own
(Try searching Boolean array). You should make sure that you cannot drive your DAC
with an out-of-range bit pattern. A convenient way to assure that you dont is to use

The programs front panel should look something like