Pulsed waveforms are an important class of signals in such systems as radar and digital radio. Pulsed signals can present a more difficult measurement problem than continuous waveforms. With a small-resolution bandwidth, the displayed spectrum has discrete spectral lines. With wide-resolution bandwidths, these line spectra are smeared together and the spectrum appears to be continuous. Under such measurement conditions, the settings of the spectrum analyzer greatly affect the measured results. The principles associated with the pulsed waveform (or pulse train) are also applicable to pulsed radio frequency signals. The envelope of the spectrum is the same and depends on the pulse width, but the spectrum is centered on the RF carrier frequency.

Chapter Contents:

• 9.1 Spectrum of a Pulsed Waveform
• 9.2 Effective Pulse Width
• 9.3 Line Spectrum
• 9.4 Pulse Spectrum
• 9.5 Pulsed RF
• 9.6 Pulse Desensitization
• References

Inspec keywords: signal processing; waveform analysis; pulse measurement

Other keywords: pulse measurement; pulsed signal; RF carrier frequency; pulsed waveform; line spectra; spectrum analyzer; small-resolution bandwidth; pulsed radio frequency signal; wide-resolution bandwidth; pulse width; discrete spectral lines; pulse train

Subjects: Signal processing and detection; Mathematical analysis; Signal processing theory; Mathematical analysis