Contents
Introduction
With microprocessors becoming ever increasingly faster, smaller, and cheaper, it is preferable to use digital signal processing as a way to compensate for distortions caused by analog circuitry. One area that this can be applied is in signal reconstruction, where a low pass analog filter is used on the output of a digital-to-analog converter to attenuate unwanted frequency components above the Nyquist frequency.
The problem with analog low pass filters is that higher the order, the more resistors, capacitors, and op-amps are required in its construction. More circuit components means more circuit board space, which is a precious commodity with today's hand-held devices.
Here, it will be explained how up-sampling can be used to relax requirements on analog low pass filter design while decreasing signal distortion.
A Representative DT Signal
For this discussion, a representative signal $ x(t) $ will be used to demonstrate the process of signal reconstruction. We will look at the signal in the frequency domain, as shown in the plot below:
As seen in the plot, the signal $ X(f) $ has a triangular shape and is band-limited by $ f_{max} $. By the Nyquist-Shannon Sampling Theorem, the sampling frequency $ f_s $ must be greater than $ 2f_{max} $. For this discussion, assume $ f_s $ is just slightly greater than $ 2f_{max} $.
Without Up-sampling
With Up-sampling
