Lecture Note: Data Acquisition–Sampling
[Link] Aunsri, Ph.D.
School of Applied Digital Technology
Mae Fah Luang University
[Link]@[Link]
August 25, 2025
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Sampling
Periodic (Uniform) Sampling
In practice we mostly process digital signals on processors
Sampling is a continuous to discrete-time conversion
Most common sampling is periodic
x[n] = xc (nT ), −∞ < n < ∞ (1)
T is the sampling period in second, fs = 1/T is the sampling
frequency in Hz
Sampling frequency in radian-per-second Ωs = 2πfs rad/s
This is the ideal case not the practical but close enough; in practice it
is implemented with an analog-to-digital converters - We get digital
signals that are quantized in amplitude and time
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Sampling
Periodic (Uniform) Sampling
Figure: Display of the analog (continuous) signal and the digital samples versus
the sampling time instants.
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Sampling
Figure: Sample-and-hold analog voltage for ADC.
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Sampling
Sampling Theorem
An analog signal can be in theory perfectly recovered as long as the
sampling rate is at least twice larger than the highest frequency of the
analog signal to be sampled
Example: To sample a speech signal containing frequencies up to 4
kHz, the minimum sampling rate is chosen to be at least 8 kHz, or
8,000 samples per second
Example: For an audio signal with frequencies up to 20 kHz, sample
the audio signal at the sampling rate of at least 40,000 samples per
second, or 40 kHz
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Sampling
CASE 1: Sampling
condition is satisfied.
fmax = 40 Hz, fs = 100
Hz.
CASE 2:
Undersampling: Signal
aliasing would occur
when the sampling
condition is not satisfied.
fmax = 90 Hz, fs = 100
Hz
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Sampling
View of Sampling
P∞
Figure: The simplified sampling process, p(t) = n=−∞ δ(t − nT ).
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Sampling
Sampling Example
Figure: Plots of the sampled signal spectrum.
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Sampling
Nyquist frequency
Sampling theorem establishes a minimum sampling rate for sampling
a given band-limited analog signal with the highest frequency
component of fmax .
fs ≥ 2fmax
If the sampling condition is satisfied, then the analog signal can be
recovered via its sampled values
The half of the sampling frequency = Nyquist frequency (Nyquist
limit) = folding frequency.
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Sampling
Example
Given analog signal
x(t) = 5 cos(2000πt)u(t)
and is sampled at sampling rate of 8 kHz. Sketch
(a) original spectrum of x(t)
(b) spectrum of the sampled signal from 0 up to 20 kHz.
Solution
(a) From Euler’s formula, we have
e j2π·1000t + e −j2π·1000t
x(t) = 5 cos(2000πt) = 5
2
= 2.5e j2π·1000t + 2.5e −j2π·1000t
This is FS expansions for CT signal in exponential form, and
c1 = 2.5, c−1 = 2.5.
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Sampling
Sampling Example
Figure: Spectrum of the analog signal x(t).
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Sampling
Solution (cont’d)
(b) After the analog signal is sampled at the rate of 8 kHz, the
sampled signal spectrum and its replicas centered at the frequencies
±nfs , each with a scaled amplitude of 2.5/T.
Figure: Spectrum of the sampled signal.
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Sampling
Signal Reconstruction
Figure: Signal notations at the reconstruction stage.
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Sampling
Perfect Sampling Example
Figure: Spectrum of the analog signal x(t).
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Sampling
Perfect Sampling Example (cont’d)
Figure: Spectrum of the sampled signal when fs = 2fmax .
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Sampling
Perfect Sampling Example (cont’d)
Figure: Spectrum of the sampled signal when fs > 2fmax .
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Sampling
Perfect Sampling Example (cont’d)
Figure: Spectrum of the sampled signal when fs < 2fmax .
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Sampling
Example
Given analog signal and is sampled at sampling rate of 8 kHz.
Sketch
(a) x(t) = [5 cos(4000πt) + 3 cos(6000πt)]u(t)
(b) x(t) = [5 cos(4000πt) + cos(10000πt)]u(t)
Determine if the sampling rate of 8 kHz is suitable.
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Sampling
Solution
(a)
Figure: Spectrum of the sampled signal.
Figure: Spectrum of the recovered signal.
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Sampling
Solution
(b)
Figure: Spectrum of the sampled signal.
Figure: Spectrum of the recovered signal.
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Sampling
Thank you
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