Anti Aliasing

There are two methods to overcome this problem: Oversampling and Anti-alias filter. We can make the sampling frequency as higher

Nyquist Sampling Rate

The Nyquist Sampling Rate is the lowest sampling rate that can be used without having aliasing. The sampling rate for an analog signal must be at least two times the bandwidth of the signal. For example: an audio signal with a bandwidth of 20 kHz must be sampled at least at 40 kHz to avoid aliasing.

Anti-aliasing Filters - Ideal

1

Gain DESIRED SIGNAL

SIGNAL WILL ALIAS IF NOT FILTERED OUT BEFORE ADC

0 0
IDEAL FILTER RESPONSE

FS/2

Frequency

FS

Summary
Anti-aliasing Filter To understand the need for an anti-aliasing filter, you need to understand the sampling theorem which essentially states: In order to recover a signal, the sampling rate must be greater than twice the highest frequency in the signal.

Stated as an equation, fsample > 2fa(max) where fsample = sampling frequency fa(max) = highest harmonic in the analog signal

If the signal is sampled less than this, the recovery process will produce frequencies that are entirely different than in the original signal. These signals are called aliases.
Floyd, Digital Fundamentals, 10th ed 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved

Summary
Anti-aliasing Filter The anti-aliasing filter is a low-pass filter that limits high frequencies in the input signal to only those that meet the requirements of the sampling theorem.

Filtered analoganalog Unfiltered frequency spectrum frequency spectrum

Sampling frequency spectrum

fc Overlap causes aliasing error

fsample

The filters cutoff frequency, fc, should be less than fsample.

Floyd, Digital Fundamentals, 10th ed 2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved

Summary
Anti-aliasing Filter Most signals have higher frequency harmonic and noise. For most ADCs, the sampling and filter cutoff frequencies are selected to be able to reconstruct the desired signal without including unnecessary harmonics and noise.

An example of a reasonable sampling rate is in a digital audio CD. For audio CDs, sampling is done at 44.1 kHz because audio frequencies above 20 kHz are not detectable by the ear. What cutoff frequency should an anti-aliasing filter have for a digital audio CD? Less than 22.05 kHz.

Floyd, Digital Fundamentals, 10th ed

2009 Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All Rights Reserved