Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Analog to Digital Conversion (ADC) & Digital to Analog Conversion (DAC) playlist.
youtube.com/watch?v=w_YTNCOw-Is&list=PLFxhgwM1F4yy5tz-HjDezfo-xySBnbRgc
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Sent me an email to Technologies.Discussion@gmail.com
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The Simple Analogy: Measuring Cups for Cooking
Imagine you're following a recipe that calls for 1.7 cups of milk.
Milk (Analog Signal): The milk is continuous - it can be any amount (1.7 cups, 1.73 cups, 1.735 cups, etc.).
Your Measuring Cups (Digital Signal): Your measuring cups are digital - they only come in specific sizes: 1 cup, ½ cup, ⅓ cup, ¼ cup.
The Conversion Process: (The ADC)
You look at your 1.7 cups of milk and your limited measuring cups
You decide the closest you can get is: 1 full cup + ½ cup + ¼ cup = 1.75 cups
This is close to 1.7, but not perfect - there's a small error
Recipe (Digital System): Your recipe can now work with this "digital" measurement of 1¾ cups.
What This Shows:
Better Measuring Cups = Better Accuracy: If you had a ⅛ cup measure, you could get even closer to 1.7 cups
ADC Resolution: The more measuring cup sizes you have (the higher the ADC resolution), the more accurate your conversion
The Small Error: The difference between 1.7 cups and 1.75 cups is the tiny error that happens in all ADC conversions
An ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) is an integrated circuit (a chip) that converts a continuous analog voltage signal into a discrete digital number that a microprocessor, computer, or digital circuit can understand.
Why Do We Need ADCs?
We live in an analog world. Most physical phenomena are analog:
Sound from your voice
Temperature
Light intensity
Pressure
Speed
However, our computers, smartphones, and other modern electronics are digital. They only understand 1s and 0s. The ADC is the crucial bridge that allows digital systems to measure, process, and store information from the analog world.
In most applications, signals which are to be transmitted exist in analog form, e.g. speech, video.
To be compatible with a digital system, the analog signals must be converted to digital signals through a process known as Analog to Digital Conversion (ADC).
3 steps of ADC:
The ADC first sample the analog signal at regular intervals, Ts - the outputs are short duration pulses with amplitude equal to the analog signal amplitude (PAM).
The PAM signal is then quantised to the nearest level.
The output pulses are then encoded into a binary word.
An analog signal is continuous in time and it is necessary to convert this to a flow of digital values.
It is therefore required to define the rate at which new digital values are sampled from the analog signal.
The rate of new values is called the sampling rate or sampling frequency of the converter.
An ADC works by sampling the value of the input at discrete intervals in time. Provided that the input is sampled above the Nyquist rate, defined as twice the highest frequency of interest, then all frequencies in the signal can be reconstructed.
Sampling frequency, fs
Nyquist Theorem: fs more than 2fmax where fmax is the maximum frequency of the analog signal.
Aliasing error will occur if fs is less than 2fmax .
Analog to Digital Conversion (ADC) & Digital to Analog Conversion (DAC) playlist.
youtube.com/watch?v=w_YTNCOw-Is&list=PLFxhgwM1F4yy5tz-HjDezfo-xySBnbRgc
For access to this presentation materials, membership is required: I need the Material PPT
Sent me an email to Technologies.Discussion@gmail.com
If you need the whole playlist material, send me email and we discuss.
Give me some time to response. Thanks.
The Simple Analogy: Measuring Cups for Cooking
Imagine you're following a recipe that calls for 1.7 cups of milk.
Milk (Analog Signal): The milk is continuous - it can be any amount (1.7 cups, 1.73 cups, 1.735 cups, etc.).
Your Measuring Cups (Digital Signal): Your measuring cups are digital - they only come in specific sizes: 1 cup, ½ cup, ⅓ cup, ¼ cup.
The Conversion Process: (The ADC)
You look at your 1.7 cups of milk and your limited measuring cups
You decide the closest you can get is: 1 full cup + ½ cup + ¼ cup = 1.75 cups
This is close to 1.7, but not perfect - there's a small error
Recipe (Digital System): Your recipe can now work with this "digital" measurement of 1¾ cups.
What This Shows:
Better Measuring Cups = Better Accuracy: If you had a ⅛ cup measure, you could get even closer to 1.7 cups
ADC Resolution: The more measuring cup sizes you have (the higher the ADC resolution), the more accurate your conversion
The Small Error: The difference between 1.7 cups and 1.75 cups is the tiny error that happens in all ADC conversions
An ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) is an integrated circuit (a chip) that converts a continuous analog voltage signal into a discrete digital number that a microprocessor, computer, or digital circuit can understand.
Why Do We Need ADCs?
We live in an analog world. Most physical phenomena are analog:
Sound from your voice
Temperature
Light intensity
Pressure
Speed
However, our computers, smartphones, and other modern electronics are digital. They only understand 1s and 0s. The ADC is the crucial bridge that allows digital systems to measure, process, and store information from the analog world.
In most applications, signals which are to be transmitted exist in analog form, e.g. speech, video.
To be compatible with a digital system, the analog signals must be converted to digital signals through a process known as Analog to Digital Conversion (ADC).
3 steps of ADC:
The ADC first sample the analog signal at regular intervals, Ts - the outputs are short duration pulses with amplitude equal to the analog signal amplitude (PAM).
The PAM signal is then quantised to the nearest level.
The output pulses are then encoded into a binary word.
An analog signal is continuous in time and it is necessary to convert this to a flow of digital values.
It is therefore required to define the rate at which new digital values are sampled from the analog signal.
The rate of new values is called the sampling rate or sampling frequency of the converter.
An ADC works by sampling the value of the input at discrete intervals in time. Provided that the input is sampled above the Nyquist rate, defined as twice the highest frequency of interest, then all frequencies in the signal can be reconstructed.
Sampling frequency, fs
Nyquist Theorem: fs more than 2fmax where fmax is the maximum frequency of the analog signal.
Aliasing error will occur if fs is less than 2fmax .
