Waveform

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Sine, square, triangle, and sawtooth waveforms
A sine, square, and sawtooth wave at 440 Hz
A composite waveform that is shaped like a teardrop.
A waveform generated by a synthesizer

In

period. The term can also be used for non-periodic or aperiodic signals, like chirps and pulses.[3]

In electronics, the term is usually applied to time-varying

phase shift
of the signal.

The waveform of an electrical signal can be visualized in an

Waveform generators
, that can output a periodic voltage or current with one of several waveforms, are a common tool in electronics laboratories and workshops.

The waveform of a steady periodic sound affects its

keyboards can generate sounds with many complicated waveforms.[1]

Common periodic waveforms

Simple examples of periodic waveforms include the following, where is time, is wavelength, is amplitude and is phase:

  • Sine wave: . The amplitude of the waveform follows a
    trigonometric
    sine function with respect to time.
  • Square wave: . This waveform is commonly used to represent digital information. A square wave of constant period contains odd harmonics that decrease at −6 dB/octave.
  • Triangle wave: . It contains odd harmonics that decrease at −12 dB/octave.
  • Sawtooth wave: . This looks like the teeth of a saw. Found often in time bases for display scanning. It is used as the starting point for subtractive synthesis, as a sawtooth wave of constant period contains odd and even harmonics that decrease at −6 dB/octave.

The Fourier series describes the decomposition of periodic waveforms, such that any periodic waveform can be formed by the sum of a (possibly infinite) set of fundamental and harmonic components. Finite-energy non-periodic waveforms can be analyzed into sinusoids by the Fourier transform.

Other periodic waveforms are often called composite waveforms and can often be described as a combination of a number of sinusoidal waves or other

basis functions
added together.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Waveform Definition". techterms.com. Retrieved 2015-12-09.
  2. , CRC Press, 2002, p. 62
  3. ^ "IEC 60050 — Details for IEV number 103-10-02: "waveform"". International Electrotechnical Vocabulary (in Japanese). Retrieved 2023-10-18.

Further reading

External links