'Modulation'

Modulation is the process of varying a periodic waveform in order to use that signal to convey a message. A device that performs modulation is known as a modulator, one that preforms the inverse is called a demodulator. A device that does both is called a modem.

Amplitude Modulation

It is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. A modulated signal y(t) can be understood as the product of two signals, the information bearing signal x(t) and the carrier signal c(t). Generally c(t) is either a complex exponential or a sinusoidal function.

Both the complex exponential and sinusoidal function have a certain carrier frequency Wc associated with it. For the signal to be successfully demodulated the carrier frequency should be less than the maximum frequency of the modulating signal.

Alumni Liaison

Ph.D. 2007, working on developing cool imaging technologies for digital cameras, camera phones, and video surveillance cameras.

Buyue Zhang