Skip to main content

Pulse Amplitude Modulation and Demodulation



 Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)

Sampling allow us to represent real world continuous signal, such as audio or video, in a format suitable for digital processing and storage. This sampled discrete-time signal is inherently digital. A digital signal is a discrete-time signal that is further quantized in amplitude.

Pulse Amplitude modulation (PAM) is the modulation technique in which amplitude of carrier pulses is made to vary in accordance with the input message signal, similar to Amplitude Modulation (AM). But here we use pulse generator as carrier signal. So, Pulse–amplitude modulation (PAM) is a form of signal modulation where the message information is encoded in the amplitude of a series of signal pulses.


 Fig 1: Pulse Amplitude Modulation




The basic idea in PAM for communication over a Continuous Time (CT) channel is to transmit a sequence of Continuous Time pulses of some per-specified pulse shape, with the sequence of pulse amplitudes carrying the information. 


 Pulse Amplitude Demodulation

To demodulate a PAM signal, pass it through a reconstruction filter. As here, the amplitude of the pulse carrier is varied according to the amplitude of the message signal, we only need to pass this received pulse signal through a low-pass filter with a cut-off frequency the same as the message signal or slightly higher.


If you perform quantization at the transmitter side and assign some levels (amplitude levels), then demodulation is performed by detecting the amplitude level of the carrier at every single period. The number of possible pulse amplitudes in analog PAM is theoretically infinite. Digital PAM reduces the number of pulse amplitudes to some power of two. For example, in 4-level PAM there are (2^2 = 4) possible discrete pulse amplitudes; in 8-level PAM there are (2^3 = 8) possible discrete pulse amplitudes; and in 16-level PAM there are (2^4 = 16) possible discrete pulse amplitudes.
 

Simulator Setup PAM Modulation Demodulation

Instructions for Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)

  • Note: Use the input fields to enter the message frequency and the square pulse carrier frequency.
  • Step 1: Click the "Generate Message" button to generate the input message signal.
  • Step 2: Click the "Generate Carrier" button to generate the carrier signal. Carrier must be > Message.
  • Step 3: Click the "Generate PAM Signal" button to generate the Modulated signal.

PAM Modulation Control Center

Perform Pulse Amplitude Modulation by interacting with the signal generators below.

Ready for Signal Recovery?

After generating your PAM signal, proceed to the Demodulation section to recover the original message using a reconstruction filter.

Go to Demodulation

Instructions for Pulse Amplitude Demodulation

  • The reconstruction filter recovers the original message from the sampled PAM signal.
  • A low-pass filter (LPF) is used with a cutoff frequency at or above the message frequency.
  • Click 'Demodulate' to view the recovered baseband signal.

Technical Definition: PAM Signal

MATLAB Mathematical Representation Copy Snippet
% Ideal Sampling with Pulse Train t = 0:0.001:1; fm = 2; fc = 10; m_t = cos(2*pi*fm*t); c_t = square(2*pi*fc*t); s_pam = m_t .* (c_t > 0); % Low Pass Reconstruction [b,a] = butter(4, fm/(fs/2)); demod = filter(b,a, s_pam);

Further Reading 

📊 MATLAB & ONLINE SIMULATIONS
🎓 GATE SOLUTIONS
📡 WIRELESS & THEORY

Contact Us

Name

Email *

Message *

Popular Posts

Constellation Diagram of FSK in Detail

📘 Overview 🧮 Simulator for constellation diagram of FSK 🧮 Theory 🧮 MATLAB Code 📚 Further Reading 📚 BER vs SNR from Constellation   Binary bits '0' and '1' can be mapped to 'j' and '1' to '1', respectively, for Baseband Binary Frequency Shift Keying (BFSK) . Signals are in phase here. These bits can be mapped into baseband representation for a number of uses, including power spectral density (PSD) calculations. For passband BFSK transmission, we can modulate signal 'j' with a lower carrier frequency and signal '1' with a higher carrier frequency while transmitting over a wireless channel. Let's assume we are transmitting carrier signal fc1 for the transmission of binary bit '1' and carrier signal fc2 for the transmission of binary bit '0'. Simulator for 2-FSK Constellation Diagram Simulator for 2-FSK Constellation Diagram ...
Read more

UGC NET Electronic Science Previous Year Question Papers with Solutions

Home / Engineering & Other Exams / UGC NET 2026 PYQ ⬇️ Download Papers and Solutions 📋 Exam Pattern 💡 Preparation Tips ❓ FAQs 📊 Exam Highlights: Electronic Science (88) Feature Details Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) ₹37,000 + HRA per month Eligibility M.Sc/M.Tech in Electronics (55%) Validity of Certificate JRF (3 Years) | Lectureship (Lifetime) 📥 Download UGC NET Electronics PDFs Complete collection of previous year question papers, answer keys and explanations for Subject Code 88. Start Downloading 📂 View All Question Papers June 2025 - Question Paper Download PDF June 2025 - Solved Paper + Explanation ...
Read more

FM Bandwidth and FM Band Explained

FM radio uses the frequency band from 88 MHz to 108 MHz , which is a 20 MHz-wide spectrum . This is the range of carrier frequencies available to stations. 108 MHz − 88 MHz = 20 MHz However, a single FM station occupies only about 200 kHz . This is the bandwidth of the modulated FM signal. 1. Why One FM Station Needs ~200 kHz FM uses frequency modulation . The bandwidth depends on how far the carrier swings. Carson's Rule gives the approximate FM bandwidth: B = 2 ( Δf + f m ) ...
Read more

What is Frequency Resolution?

  Formula for Frequency Resolution (in general) The frequency resolution is the smallest frequency difference between two adjacent frequency points in your sampling range. It is determined by the total frequency range and the number of frequency samples  N . The formula for the frequency resolution (or step size)  Δf  is: Δf = (f max  - f min ) / (N - 1) Where: f min  is the minimum frequency in the range (in this case, -50 Hz). f max  is the maximum frequency in the range (in this case, 50 Hz). N  is the number of frequency points / frequency bins. Using the Given Values: From the function: f min  = -50 Hz f max  = 50 Hz N  = 1000 The frequency resolution is: Δf = (50 - (-50)) / (1000 - 1) = 100 / 999 ≈ 0.1001 Hz   Understanding Frequency Resolution in Signal Processing Alternative Formula Using Time Duration Another common way to define frequency resolution, especially in time-domain signal processing, is: Δf = 1 / T W...
Read more

Ph.D. admissions in IITs without a GATE score

PhD Admission in IITs With Low CGPA approximately 6.5 – 7.0 / 10 No valid GATE score Willing to strengthen research proposal, contact faculty, apply to multiple institutes Expanded List of IITs: Eligibility & Links IIT Eligibility & Notes PhD Info Link IIT Gandhinagar Minimum: 60% marks or 6.0 CGPA (General) or 55%/5.5 (SC/ST/PD) in qualifying degree.  GATE/NET may be waived in certain cases; but short‑listing criteria likely higher. iitgn.ac.in/admissions/phd IIT Kharagpur Minimum eligibility: 60% marks or 6.5 CGPA in qualifying exam for many branches.  However brochure notes “for test & interview this minimum must be met and higher cut‑offs may apply”. iitkgp.ac.in/phd_brochure.pdf IIT Bhubaneswar Minimum: Engineering Schools – M.Tech/ME with minimum 60% marks or 6.5 CGPA....
Read more

BER performance of QPSK with BPSK, 4-QAM, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, etc (MATLAB + Simulator)

📘 Overview 📚 QPSK vs BPSK and QAM: A Comparison of Modulation Schemes in Wireless Communication 📚 Real-World Example 🧮 MATLAB Code 📚 Further Reading   QPSK provides twice the data rate compared to BPSK. However, the bit error rate (BER) is approximately the same as BPSK at low SNR values when gray coding is used. On the other hand, QPSK exhibits similar spectral efficiency to 4-QAM and 16-QAM under low SNR conditions. In very noisy channels, QPSK can sometimes achieve better spectral efficiency than 4-QAM or 16-QAM. In practical wireless communication scenarios, QPSK is commonly used along with QAM techniques, especially where adaptive modulation is applied. Modulation Bits/Symbol Points in Constellation Usage Notes BPSK 1 2 Very robust, used in weak signals QPSK 2 4 Balanced speed & reliability 4-QAM ...
Read more

BER vs SNR for M-ary QAM, M-ary PSK, QPSK, BPSK, ...(MATLAB Code + Simulator)

Bit Error Rate (BER) & SNR Guide Analyze communication system performance with our interactive simulators and MATLAB tools. 📘 Theory 🧮 Simulators 💻 MATLAB Code 📚 Resources BER Definition SNR Formula BER Calculator MATLAB Comparison 📂 Explore M-ary QAM, PSK, and QPSK Topics ▼ 🧮 Constellation Simulator: M-ary QAM 🧮 Constellation Simulator: M-ary PSK 🧮 BER calculation for ASK, FSK, and PSK 🧮 Approaches to BER vs SNR What is Bit Error Rate (BER)? The BER indicates how many corrupted bits are received compared to the total number of bits sent. It is the primary figure of merit f...
Read more