IAE Academy

The whole Signals and Systems formula sheet, to print

249 formulas in 9 topics, each with when to use it. Each is explained in the topic notes.

Signals: types, operations, energy, power and averages

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EVEN AND ODD PARTS

Every signal splits this way, uniquely; the DT form is identical with in place of . Example: , so and for .

UNIT STEP, SIGNUM AND RAMP

, so holds for . Derivative chain: , , .

RECTANGULAR AND TRIANGULAR PULSES

For : rect has width and area ; tri has half-width (base ), peak 1 and area . Also . Some texts write the triangle with total base ; read the definition given.

SIFTING AND SAMPLING PROPERTIES OF THE IMPULSE

Requires continuous at . When sits exactly on a limit, the value depends on a convention, so that case is left out. The impulse has unit area, , and .

TIME SCALING OF THE IMPULSE

With : , so the impulse is even. Hence .

IMPULSE OF A FUNCTION

The sum runs over the roots of , and every root must be simple (); at a repeated root is not defined. Example: .

DERIVATIVES OF THE IMPULSE

Requires continuous at . For (the doublet): . The doublet is odd, and , not just .

DISCRETE-TIME IMPULSE AND STEP

is an ordinary finite value, unlike . for every nonzero integer : there is no factor in DT.

ANY SIGNAL AS A WEIGHTED SUM OF SHIFTED IMPULSES

The DT form holds sample by sample, since only the term survives. The CT form is the sifting property with , valid wherever is continuous. Both are the starting point for convolution.

WHERE A POINT OF X LANDS UNDER X(AT+B)

Map each breakpoint of this way. A support becomes , with the ends swapped when . This check does not depend on any order of operations.

EFFECT OF TIME OPERATIONS ON AREA, ENERGY AND POWER

Shifts change none of these. Time scaling divides area and energy by but leaves the power, average and RMS value of a periodic signal unchanged (its period becomes ). Amplitude scaling by multiplies and by .

CT SINUSOID AND SUMS OF CT PERIODIC SIGNALS

Take in lowest terms. For non-constant , with fundamental periods , the converse also holds: if is irrational, is not periodic. The LCM is always a period of the sum, and it is the fundamental period unless components cancel: and both have period , but their sum has period . For a sum of sinusoids with nonzero amplitudes at distinct positive frequencies, the fundamental angular frequency is the GCD of the component frequencies, , and ; a DC term does not change this.

DT SINUSOID PERIODICITY

is in rad/sample. Equivalently, is the smallest positive integer for which is a multiple of ; for that is with the smallest positive integer that makes it an integer. The same test applies to . The one exception is a sequence that is identically zero, such as , which trivially has period 1. A sum of periodic sequences is always periodic: is a period, and it is the fundamental period unless components cancel.

DT FREQUENCY IS DEFINED ONLY MODULO 2Π

For integers and . Distinct DT sinusoids need only (or for real cosines). The fastest oscillation is at : .

ENERGY

Normalised energy, as if were a voltage across . Use , not , for complex signals.

AVERAGE POWER

The window is symmetric about zero, which is why has power . If then ; if then .

POWER OF A PERIODIC SIGNAL

Any one full period, from any starting point. For a periodic signal, .

POWER OF DC PLUS SINUSOIDS

For a finite sum with real amplitudes, whether or not is periodic. Terms at the same frequency must first be merged into one sinusoid; a negative frequency is the same frequency, since . For with distinct (here and do count as different), .

MERGING TWO SINUSOIDS OF THE SAME FREQUENCY

This is phasor addition, . The powers add directly only when ; for example has amplitude .

AVERAGE (DC) VALUE AND RMS VALUE

Over any one full period of a real waveform . is the average power in : the RMS value is the DC level that would dissipate the same power in a resistor.

DC AND AC PARTS

The AC part has zero mean, so it is orthogonal to the DC part. For with distinct positive : . For a waveform with nonzero mean, the ratio (FF as defined below, with the full-period average) is the ripple factor used for rectifier outputs.

STRAIGHT-LINE SEGMENT SHORTCUT

Valid for any straight-line piece, whatever its slope or duration. Weight each segment's mean (or mean square) by its fraction of the period and add. A flat piece at level is the case .

FORM FACTOR AND CREST (PEAK) FACTOR

For a waveform with nonzero mean, is the full-period average. For a zero-mean AC wave that average is zero, so in FF means the average of over a period, which for a sine, square or symmetric triangle wave equals the average over a positive half-cycle. Sine: FF , CF . Square: FF CF . Triangle: FF , CF . Half-wave rectified sine: FF , CF . Full-wave rectified sine: the same as the sine, FF , CF .

LTI systems: properties, impulse response, convolution and correlation

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LINEARITY (SUPERPOSITION)

Must hold for all inputs and all constants (complex constants if the signals may be complex). It combines additivity () and homogeneity (). Zero input giving zero output is necessary, not sufficient.

TIME INVARIANCE

Discrete time: for every integer . Also called shift invariance.

CAUSALITY AND MEMORY

Both must hold for every . A memoryless (static) system is always causal. A causal system need not be memoryless.

BIBO STABILITY

Every bounded input must give a bounded output. One bounded input with an unbounded output proves the system unstable.

CONVOLUTION INTEGRAL

is the integration variable and is held fixed while integrating. In practice the limits shrink to the interval where both factors are nonzero.

CONVOLUTION SUM

Each output sample is a sum of products of samples whose indices add to .

CAUSAL SYSTEM WITH A CAUSAL INPUT

When and are both zero before the origin, is zero there too. If either signal has an impulse at the origin, take the lower limit as so that the impulse is included.

CAUSALITY OF AN LTI SYSTEM

Then uses only present and past input. Necessary and sufficient for an LTI system.

BIBO STABILITY OF AN LTI SYSTEM

Necessary and sufficient for an LTI system. The integral of must be finite, not the integral of . The output is then bounded by . If contains impulses, each term adds to the integral, so (a plain wire) is stable. A doublet term (a differentiator) makes the system unstable.

STEP RESPONSE (CONTINUOUS TIME)

Here is the step response, not the Laplace variable. The step response is the running integral of . For a causal , . For a stable system the final value is , the DC gain. The ramp response is the running integral of the step response.

STEP RESPONSE (DISCRETE TIME)

The step response is the running sum of , and is the first difference of the step response.

INTERCONNECTIONS OF LTI SYSTEMS

In any transform domain a cascade multiplies, , and a parallel connection adds, . The order of LTI blocks in a cascade does not change the overall response.

INVERSE SYSTEM

Examples: the delay has inverse . The accumulator has inverse , because . An inverse need not be causal or stable: for the delay is causal, but its inverse, an advance, is not.

LTI SYSTEM FROM A LINEAR CONSTANT-COEFFICIENT EQUATION

Holds when the system is at rest before the input starts (initial rest), which makes it LTI and causal. is the inverse transform with the ROC to the right of the rightmost pole of , or outside the outermost pole of . Examples: gives and , stable only for . gives and , stable only for . An of finite length is called FIR and one of infinite length IIR. A difference equation with no past outputs () is always FIR, with .

COMMUTATIVE, ASSOCIATIVE AND DISTRIBUTIVE LAWS

Hold for continuous and discrete convolution. Associativity gives the cascade rule and distributivity gives the parallel rule.

CONVOLUTION WITH AN IMPULSE

Discrete time: . Convolving with an impulse train repeats the signal: . Do not confuse convolution with multiplication by an impulse, which samples: , for continuous at .

SHIFT PROPERTY

Shifts add. The same holds in discrete time with integer shifts.

CONVOLUTION WITH THE UNIT STEP

Convolving with is running integration (or running summation). Convolving with differentiates: .

DIFFERENTIATION PROPERTY

Useful for piecewise-constant signals, whose derivatives are impulses. A result found this way must be integrated back, using the fact that is zero before .

AREA (SUM) PROPERTY

Holds whenever both areas (sums) are finite, for example when and are absolutely integrable (summable). The quickest check on any such convolution. In transform terms it is .

WIDTH AND LENGTH RULE

Continuous time: the widths add, . Discrete time: and are the first indices of and , and each length is counted from the first nonzero sample to the last. The first and last output samples are then single products of nonzero end samples, so they are nonzero; interior samples may be zero.

TIME-SCALING PROPERTY

Continuous time only. Scaling both signals by compresses the output time axis by and scales its height by .

CONVOLUTION THEOREM

The ROC of contains the intersection of the ROCs of and . Multiplication in time is convolution in frequency: in the convention, and , without the , in the convention.

EIGENFUNCTION PROPERTY (CONTINUOUS TIME)

Holds for all when lies in the ROC of , the bilateral Laplace transform of . The input exists for all time, .

EIGENFUNCTION PROPERTY (DISCRETE TIME)

must lie in the ROC of . With the eigenvalue is the frequency response .

FREQUENCY RESPONSE

Exists as an ordinary function when is absolutely integrable (summable), that is, when the system is BIBO stable. For a real , is even and is odd in frequency.

LTI RESPONSE TO A SINUSOID

Needs a real and a stable system. Discrete time: . For a sum of sinusoids, apply the rule to each term and add (superposition).

RESPONSE TO A CONSTANT (DC GAIN)

The (or ) case of the sinusoid rule. For use : , with .

CROSS-CORRELATION (ENERGY SIGNALS)

Correlation is convolution with the second signal reversed and conjugated. Because of the reversal it is not commutative: .

AUTOCORRELATION (ENERGY SIGNALS)

For a real, even signal, , so .

DISCRETE-TIME CORRELATION

is the integer lag. The length rule of convolution applies: sequences of lengths and give lags, so the autocorrelation of an -sample sequence has lags.

PROPERTIES OF AUTOCORRELATION

For a real signal, is real and even, and its largest value is at . The last line is the area property of convolution; it needs absolutely integrable.

PROPERTIES OF CROSS-CORRELATION

The inequality is the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. Unlike , the cross-correlation need not peak at .

CORRELATION AND ENERGY SPECTRAL DENSITY

is the energy spectral density. In the convention, (Parseval). Discrete time: and . Because discards phase, and every shifted copy have the same autocorrelation.

AUTOCORRELATION OF POWER SIGNALS

For a periodic signal of period , average over one period; is then periodic with period and returns to its peak at every multiple of . The cross-correlation of power signals uses the same average with in place of . The power spectral density is the Fourier transform of the autocorrelation, , and . Example: has , whatever is, so is its average power and .

CORRELATION THROUGH AN LTI SYSTEM

For , in the convention above. In frequency, and , where is the energy (or power) spectral density.

Fourier series

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EXPONENTIAL FOURIER SERIES (SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS)

Holds for real or complex . is the average (DC) value. Plotting and against gives the two-sided line spectrum.

TRIGONOMETRIC FOURIER SERIES

For real , with the DC value (convention above).

TRIGONOMETRIC COEFFICIENTS

Here ; the factor is for and but for .

COMPACT (AMPLITUDE-PHASE) FORM

For real . This is the one-sided spectrum: is the physical peak amplitude of the -th harmonic, and its phase.

RELATIONS BETWEEN THE COEFFICIENTS

For real and . is the angle of the phasor , so and . The shortcut is right only when ; when , add or subtract .

VALUE OF THE SERIES AT A JUMP

When the Dirichlet conditions hold, the series equals wherever is continuous and the midpoint of the jump at a discontinuity . The partial sums are taken symmetrically, to . A square wave switching between and has series value at every switching instant.

HALF-PERIOD COEFFICIENT FORMULAS

For an even signal the DC value is also . Under half-wave symmetry every even- coefficient is zero, so these formulas are used for odd only.

TIME SHIFT AND TIME REVERSAL

A shift leaves every and the power unchanged. A shift of half a period gives .

DIFFERENTIATION AND INTEGRATION

Differentiating removes the DC and boosts high harmonics; integrating smooths. The integration rule needs zero DC in . Any other running integral (textbooks often write the lower limit as ) differs from this one only by a constant, so the DC of the result must be found from the waveform.

PARSEVAL'S POWER THEOREM

The trigonometric forms need real . A DC level carries power and a sinusoid carries . The RMS value is .

TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION

RMS of all harmonics above the fundamental divided by the RMS of the fundamental (DC excluded). For a symmetric square wave, .

COEFFICIENTS FROM THE FOURIER TRANSFORM OF ONE PERIOD

is one period of (zero outside that period) and is its Fourier transform in (rad/s). The series coefficients are samples of the single pulse's transform at the harmonics, scaled by . The transform of the periodic signal itself is a train of impulses of area at ; in the Hz convention it is , with . Example: a rectangular pulse of height and width has , which gives the pulse-train coefficients below.

SQUARE WAVE (ODD, AMPLITUDE A)

on and on : odd and half-wave symmetric. Power , of which the fundamental carries . Shifted to be even ( for ): .

RECTANGULAR PULSE TRAIN

Height , width , centred on (even, so is real); the second form is for . With duty cycle : DC , power , and whenever is a nonzero integer. At the even harmonics vanish; at every third harmonic vanishes.

TRIANGULAR WAVE (EVEN, ZERO MEAN)

for : at , at . Even and half-wave symmetric; power . The unipolar version between and is .

SAWTOOTH WAVE (ODD)

on , rising from to and jumping back. Odd but not half-wave symmetric, so every harmonic is present; power . The ramp on is .

PERIODIC IMPULSE TRAIN

for every : a flat line spectrum that never decays. Impulses of area at give . The average power is infinite.

FULL-WAVE RECTIFIED SINE

is the frequency of the sine before rectification. The period halves to , so the fundamental is and only even multiples of appear. DC ; RMS (power , the same as the unrectified sine).

HALF-WAVE RECTIFIED SINE

The period is unchanged. DC , fundamental amplitude , then even harmonics only. RMS (power ). It equals half of (the sine plus its full-wave rectified version).

COEFFICIENT DECAY RATE

For a piecewise-smooth periodic . "Decays as" describes the envelope of ; individual coefficients can still be zero, as in a pulse train. Each differentiation multiplies by . A jump in itself () gives ; a kink () gives ; impulses in give no decay. The smoother the waveform, the faster its spectrum falls and the fewer terms a good approximation needs.

PERIODIC INPUT TO AN LTI SYSTEM

Steady state of a BIBO-stable LTI system, after any switch-on transient has died out. is needed only at the harmonic frequencies .

SINUSOID THROUGH AN LTI SYSTEM (REAL FORM)

For real , so that . DC passes with gain . Output power by Parseval: .

DTFS SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS

means any consecutive integers, e.g. to . The coefficients are periodic, . For real , . is the average over one period.

DTFS PARSEVAL AND THE DFT

The -point DFT of one period is times the DTFS coefficients. Time shift: . Through a stable LTI system: , where is the DTFT of .

STANDARD DTFS PAIRS

The pulse is for and for the rest of the period, repeated every samples (). It is even, so is real. The ratio-of-sines form is for ; at those , , the average. The ratio of sines is the discrete counterpart of the sinc envelope of a continuous pulse train.

Fourier transform, frequency response, group and phase delay

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FOURIER TRANSFORM PAIR (Ω FORM, USED IN THESE NOTES)

in rad/s. The sits only in the inverse, so it reappears in duality, the multiplication property, Parseval's theorem and the formula for .

FOURIER TRANSFORM PAIR (F FORM)

in Hz; symmetric, with no factor outside the integrals. Convert with , and for impulses use , so becomes .

SINC CONVENTION

Normalised sinc, with zeros at . Some texts use under the same name; every sinc result below is also written in explicit form, so nothing depends on the convention.

LINK WITH THE LAPLACE TRANSFORM

is the bilateral Laplace transform. Example: , , has ROC , which contains the axis. If the ROC boundary is the axis (poles on the axis, as for with ROC ), the Fourier transform exists only with impulses and the substitution misses them. If the ROC excludes the axis altogether (as for , ROC ), there is no Fourier transform.

RECTANGULAR PULSE AND SINC

Pulse of width and height 1. , the pulse area. First nulls at , i.e. : a narrower pulse has a wider main lobe.

IDEAL LOWPASS SPECTRUM AND ITS TIME FUNCTION

The dual of the rect–sinc pair. Peak value at , zeros at (). This is of the ideal lowpass filter with cutoff rad/s.

ONE-SIDED AND TWO-SIDED EXPONENTIALS

, so its transform is . For both signals grow and have no Fourier transform; gives or , which need impulses.

UNIT STEP AND SIGNUM

The impulse in is the transform of its average value: . has zero average, so it has no impulse.

GAUSSIAN

A narrow Gaussian in time (large ) gives a wide Gaussian in frequency. In the form, exactly.

PERIODIC IMPULSE TRAIN

Every Fourier-series coefficient of the impulse train equals , which gives impulses of area . This pair is the basis of sampling theory.

TIME SCALING (WITH SHIFT)

Real . Compressing in time () stretches the spectrum and lowers it. Since , the delay is , not .

DUALITY

In the form there is no : . For an even , .

MODULATION

Each shifted copy has half the height. With instead: . If the copies do not overlap, the energy is halved.

DIFFERENTIATION IN TIME AND IN FREQUENCY

Differentiation removes any DC impulse: , and because .

INTEGRATION

The impulse term vanishes only when . Dividing by alone is the classic error.

CONVOLUTION AND MULTIPLICATION

The belongs to the multiplication property in the form only. The convolution property is why an LTI output is .

AREA AND VALUE THEOREMS

Put in the forward integral, or in the inverse. In the form, . If jumps at , the second integral gives the midpoint of the jump.

PARSEVAL / RAYLEIGH ENERGY THEOREM

For energy signals. Generalised form: .

ENERGY SPECTRAL DENSITY (ESD) AND ENERGY IN A BAND

The band formula is for real . The factor 2 counts the matching negative-frequency band, which carries the same energy because is even.

ESD THROUGH AN LTI SYSTEM

The phase of has no effect on output energy.

FOURIER TRANSFORM OF A PERIODIC SIGNAL

. In the form, with .

FOURIER-SERIES COEFFICIENTS FROM THE TRANSFORM OF ONE PERIOD

is the transform of one period of (taken as zero outside that period). The coefficients are samples of .

FREQUENCY RESPONSE

Putting is valid when the system is BIBO stable (), so the ROC contains the axis. For a stable system described by , .

SINUSOIDAL STEADY STATE

Real , stable system, input applied for all time. The frequency is unchanged; only amplitude and phase change. Superpose for several tones.

DISTORTIONLESS SYSTEM

Here . The conditions are needed only across the band the signal occupies. Adding a multiple of to the phase changes nothing, and a phase of gives , an inverted but undistorted copy. Any other constant phase offset changes the waveform (for a narrowband bandpass signal it shifts only the carrier phase; see below).

PHASE DELAY AND GROUP DELAY

in radians and in rad/s give seconds. Use the unwrapped phase for . For , at every frequency; conversely, at every frequency only when for some constant . In terms of : and .

NARROWBAND OUTPUT: ENVELOPE AND CARRIER DELAYS

The envelope (the information) is delayed by the group delay, also called envelope delay. The carrier is delayed by the phase delay. If varies across the band, the envelope is dispersed.

DISCRETE-TIME GROUP DELAY; LINEAR-PHASE FIR

A length- FIR filter with symmetric coefficients has with real, so its phase is linear (apart from jumps of where changes sign). Antisymmetric coefficients, , give : the same group delay with a constant phase offset. Example: for gives , a delay of 1 sample.

3-DB BANDWIDTH OF A FIRST-ORDER LOWPASS

At the 3-dB point the phase is . The 10–90% step rise time is , so .

HILBERT TRANSFORM

Gain 1 at every , phase for . Its is non-causal, so the ideal Hilbert transformer is also unrealisable.

DTFT PAIR

Any interval of length may replace to . The DTFT is the -transform on the unit circle, , valid when the ROC of contains .

DTFT VALUE THEOREMS

Put or in the forward sum, or in the inverse integral. More generally .

PARSEVAL'S THEOREM FOR THE DTFT

The frequency integral spans one period, wide, never to .

DISCRETE-TIME SINUSOIDAL STEADY STATE

Real , stable system (), input applied for all . and give the same sequence and the same response.

Laplace transform, poles, zeros and system functions

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BILATERAL LAPLACE TRANSFORM

Converges only for in the ROC, which must be quoted with .

UNILATERAL LAPLACE TRANSFORM

Lower limit , so an impulse at is included. It equals the bilateral transform of the part of from onwards, so, when it exists, its ROC is a right half-plane (the whole plane if that part has finite duration) and is usually not written. For a causal signal the two transforms are identical. This is the version used for differential equations with initial conditions.

LINK TO THE FOURIER TRANSFORM

In the Hz form, . If a pole lies on the axis (as for ) the substitution is not valid.

IMPULSE, STEP, RAMP AND POWERS OF T

Also, for all : , and the derivatives of the impulse (so ).

EXPONENTIALS

Valid for real or complex . The left-sided versions are and , with ROC . For real the hyperbolic pairs follow: and , both with ROC .

SINUSOIDS

real. The poles at lie on the axis, which the ROC does not contain, so putting does not give the Fourier transform of these one-sided sinusoids (theirs contains impulses at ).

SINUSOIDS MULTIPLIED BY T (DOUBLE POLES ON THE JΩ AXIS)

From the sinusoid pairs by multiplication by . Combining them gives : a double pole on the axis gives a term that grows like .

DAMPED SINUSOIDS

and real. Poles at . These are the undamped pairs with replaced by (shift in ).

MULTIPLICATION BY POWERS OF T

Same ROC as . With and it gives .

UNILATERAL DIFFERENTIATION (BRINGS IN INITIAL CONDITIONS)

Unilateral transform only. In general . The values are taken at , before the input is applied.

UNILATERAL TIME SHIFT (DELAY)

is the transform of . The whole causal signal must be delayed; is a different signal and does not simply pick up .

INITIAL VALUE THEOREM

Valid when for and has no impulse (or higher singularity) at ; for a rational this means is strictly proper (numerator degree less than denominator degree). If the numerator degree is equal or higher, divide first: the polynomial part is the impulse terms at the origin, which do not affect , and the theorem applies to the strictly proper remainder.

FINAL VALUE THEOREM

Valid, for a rational , only if every pole of lies in the open LHP; equivalently, every pole of is in the open LHP except at most a single simple pole at . With a pole in the RHP, a repeated pole at the origin, or any other pole on the axis, has no finite limit and the value the formula returns is not the final value.

COEFFICIENT AT A SIMPLE POLE (COVER-UP)

Each term inverts to if the ROC is to the right of , or to if the ROC is to the left of .

COEFFICIENTS AT A POLE OF ORDER R

Only the top coefficient is plain cover-up; each lower one needs one more derivative. Inversion: for an ROC to the right of , and for an ROC to the left.

COMPLEX-CONJUGATE POLE PAIR (COMPLETE THE SQUARE)

Causal case, ROC , with , , , real and . Residue form of the same result, for a real signal: if the pole has residue , the pair contributes .

TRANSFER FUNCTION FROM A DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION

Replace each by , with zero initial conditions. The equation alone does not fix the ROC; a statement such as causal, stable or initially at rest does.

POLE-ZERO-GAIN FORM

Zeros are the roots of the numerator and poles the roots of the denominator, after cancelling common factors. is proper if and strictly proper if . On a pole-zero plot poles are marked and zeros . For real the coefficients are real, so complex poles and zeros come in conjugate pairs. The plot fixes only up to the gain .

INTERCONNECTED SYSTEMS

The cascade result assumes the second block does not load the first. In the feedback loop is the forward path and the feedback path; with positive feedback the denominator is . Writing and , the negative-feedback system is , so its poles are the roots of (after cancelling any common factor), not the poles of or .

SINUSOIDAL STEADY STATE

Stable LTI system with real ; the input is applied for all time, or is the steady state after the transients have died out. .

GEOMETRIC (VECTOR) EVALUATION

is the vector from the zero to the point on the axis; likewise for each pole. Magnitude: product of zero-vector lengths over product of pole-vector lengths. Phase: sum of zero-vector angles minus sum of pole-vector angles, each measured anticlockwise from the positive real direction. if .

FIRST-ORDER ALL-PASS

Pole at , zero at . The phase falls from to ; the group delay is . The form is the same system times , with phase .

MINIMUM-PHASE CONDITION

Among causal stable systems with the same , the minimum-phase one has the least group delay at every and the least net phase lag over , because each all-pass factor has positive group delay and only adds lag. When the numerator and denominator degrees are equal, is also causal and stable. Some texts also allow zeros on the axis; the open-LHP version is the one used here.

ZERO-INPUT PLUS ZERO-STATE

and are the polynomials that multiply and . collects the initial-condition terms (terms in vanish for a causal input). The natural modes come from the roots of , the forced part from the poles of .

CIRCUIT ELEMENTS IN THE S-DOMAIN

Unilateral transform of , and , with the passive sign convention (current entering the terminal). The terms and act as voltage sources in series with the impedances and . With zero initial conditions only the impedances , and remain, and a circuit's transfer function follows by ordinary impedance algebra.

Sampling and reconstruction

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IMPULSE TRAIN AND ITS TRANSFORM

In : the transform is , with .

SPECTRUM OF THE IDEALLY SAMPLED SIGNAL

Replicas of at every multiple of , each scaled by . In : — the scale factor is still , not .

SUM OF THE SAMPLES

Put in the spectrum formula above. The first equality holds generally; the second needs for every , which a signal band-limited to guarantees — the rate does not have to reach the Nyquist rate for this. It turns an infinite sum of sinc-type samples into a single transform value.

SAMPLING THEOREM

For a signal band-limited to Hz. If has impulses exactly at (the highest component is a sinusoid), the inequality must be strict: .

NYQUIST RATE AND NYQUIST INTERVAL

Nyquist rate = twice the HIGHEST frequency present (equal to twice the bandwidth only for a lowpass signal). Nyquist interval = the largest allowed sampling interval. In rad/s: .

BAND LIMITS OF THE SINC FORMS

for ; for . So reaches Hz and its square reaches Hz. In : is band-limited to rad/s Hz, so its Nyquist rate is samples/s.

APPARENT (ALIASED) FREQUENCY

The frequency an ideal reconstruction filter of cutoff outputs for a tone at sampled at . If , and — no aliasing.

SINUSOID SAMPLED AT EXACTLY TWICE ITS FREQUENCY

The samples depend only on : a sine () gives all-zero samples, and different pairs give identical samples. A sinusoid therefore needs strictly. In the spectrum, the impulses at fall on each other's replicas at .

RECONSTRUCTION FILTER AND ALLOWED CUTOFF

Passband gain restores the amplitude. The range exists only when ; at it shrinks to the single value . The endpoints are also acceptable when has no impulses at .

SINC INTERPOLATION FORMULA

Exact for band-limited to , using . For any other allowed cutoff: .

NATURAL SAMPLING

times a unit-height rectangular pulse train (width , period , pulses centred on ). are the pulse train's Fourier-series coefficients — one constant per replica. The baseband copy is , undistorted; an ideal LPF with gain recovers .

FLAT-TOP (SAMPLE-AND-HOLD) SAMPLING

Impulse samples convolved with the hold pulse (width , starting at each sampling instant), whose transform is . The factor varies with , so the baseband copy itself is distorted — the aperture effect — and delayed by .

APERTURE-EFFECT ATTENUATION AND EQUALISER

Attenuation relative to DC, worst at the top of the band . The equaliser, placed with the reconstruction filter, undoes the magnitude distortion; the delay is simply left in. The effect is small when : with the loss even at is under 0.04 dB.

ZERO-ORDER HOLD (DAC) RECONSTRUCTION

Flat-top with : each sample is held until the next, giving a staircase. It droops across the band (needs a equaliser) and passes attenuated images (needs a smoothing lowpass filter).

MINIMUM BANDPASS SAMPLING RATE

is the greatest-integer function. If is an integer multiple of , . In general .

ALL ALIAS-FREE UNIFORM SAMPLING RATES

For the upper limit is : ordinary sampling at . Rates in the gaps between these windows alias, so a rate above the minimum is not automatically safe.

CT TO DT FREQUENCY MAPPING

One-to-one only on the baseband, . sampled gives with ; reduce modulo into to read off the alias.

PERIODICITY OF A SAMPLED SINUSOID

A continuous-time sinusoid is always periodic; its samples need not be — , from , never repeats. Examples: 1 kHz sampled at 3 kHz gives , ; 700 Hz sampled at 1 kHz gives , . A sum of such sequences with periods and repeats every samples.

z-transform and discrete-time systems

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BILATERAL Z-TRANSFORM

Defined only for in the ROC, the set of where the sum converges absolutely. Always quote together with its ROC.

UNILATERAL Z-TRANSFORM

Ignores for ; it equals the bilateral transform of . When it exists, its ROC is the exterior of a circle, (including ), so it is usually not written. For a causal sequence the two transforms are identical.

LINK TO THE DTFT

Valid only when the ROC contains the unit circle . is periodic in with period .

RIGHT-SIDED EXPONENTIAL

With : , . With (limit): for all .

LEFT-SIDED EXPONENTIAL

Same algebraic transform as ; only the ROC differs. Note the minus sign and the (it starts at ).

RAMP-WEIGHTED EXPONENTIAL

Follows from differentiation in . Useful variants: and , both right-sided.

DAMPED COSINE AND SINE

Here and are real. ROC ; poles at . Put for the undamped and , whose poles lie on the unit circle (ROC ).

TIME SHIFT (BILATERAL)

ROC unchanged except possibly for or . A delay of samples multiplies by . For the unilateral version with initial conditions see Section 5.

TIME REVERSAL

The ROC inverts: becomes . A pole at moves to .

SCALING IN Z (MULTIPLICATION BY AN EXPONENTIAL)

ROC scales to ; every pole and zero moves from to . With (modulation) the pole-zero plot rotates by .

DIFFERENTIATION IN Z

Same ROC. Apply it twice for .

CONVOLUTION

ROC contains (it can be larger if a pole cancels against a zero).

ACCUMULATION

ROC contains . The inverse operation, the first difference , gives .

CONJUGATION

Same ROC. For a real sequence , so complex poles and zeros come in conjugate pairs.

INITIAL VALUE THEOREM

For a causal ( for ), or for any with the unilateral transform. The next sample is . A rational whose numerator degree in exceeds the denominator degree cannot be the transform of a causal sequence, and the theorem does not apply. For an anticausal ( for ) the mirror result is .

FINAL VALUE THEOREM

For a causal (or the unilateral transform of any ), and only when the limit exists: every pole of must lie strictly inside the unit circle. itself may have one simple pole at .

PARTIAL-FRACTION COEFFICIENT (SIMPLE POLE)

Equivalent form in : with . That form needs the numerator degree in to be less than the denominator degree; otherwise divide out the polynomial part first (it gives impulses).

INVERSION INTEGRAL AND RESIDUES

is a counter-clockwise circle centred on the origin and lying in the ROC. For a causal it encloses every pole. For small , check whether adds a pole at (for example at when has no zero at the origin) and include its residue.

RESIDUE AT A POLE OF ORDER M

For a simple pole () this is just evaluated at .

SYSTEM FUNCTION OF A DIFFERENCE EQUATION

Take the transform term by term with and zero initial conditions. Sign convention: every output term is on the left. If the equation is written , the feedback coefficient changes sign when moved across: .

FREQUENCY RESPONSE

Exists when the ROC contains the unit circle (a stable system). is the point (DC) and is (the highest digital frequency). has period .

STEADY-STATE RESPONSE TO A SINUSOID

For a stable LTI system with real . It is exact for an input present for all ; for an input switched on at it is the response once the transients have died out. A constant input gives the output .

UNILATERAL DELAY PROPERTY

The cases used most: and .

UNILATERAL ADVANCE PROPERTY

For : . For : .

THE S-TO-Z MAPPING

is the sampling period. The digital frequency is rad/sample. A continuous-time pole at appears at in the transform of the sampled signal.

SAMPLED EXPONENTIAL

For real . The pole maps to , inside the unit circle when .

ZERO-ORDER HOLD WITH PLANT

Exact at the sampling instants: is times the transform of the sampled step response of the plant.

ZOH WITH A FIRST-ORDER PLANT

For . From . Without the hold, , a different answer.

CASCADED BLOCKS IN A SAMPLED-DATA SYSTEM

When a sampler separates and , their pulse transfer functions multiply. When none does, multiply in first and then transform; in general . Example with and : with a sampler between them, ; without, .

CLOSED LOOP WITH THE SAMPLER ON THE ERROR

is the forward path after the sampler (hold included) and the continuous feedback path. Because and are not separated by a sampler, they are multiplied before transforming. The loop is stable when every root of lies inside the unit circle.

STEADY-STATE ERROR OF A UNITY-FEEDBACK SAMPLED LOOP

Unity feedback, the sampler on the error, the pulse transfer function of the forward path (hold included), and a stable closed loop (otherwise the final value theorem does not apply). From and the final value theorem, with for a step and for the sampled ramp. The constants are often written and , so that for a step and for a ramp. Each pole of at plays the part of an integrator.

STABILITY TEST FOR A SECOND-ORDER CHARACTERISTIC POLYNOMIAL

For real coefficients, all three conditions together are necessary and sufficient for both roots to lie strictly inside the unit circle (the Jury conditions for order 2). For with the first condition becomes . At any order , with a positive leading coefficient, and are necessary. For a full test at higher orders, use the Jury table, or substitute and apply the Routh test to the polynomial in .

DTFT, DFT and FFT

Read the notes

DTFT (ANALYSIS EQUATION)

Bilateral sum over all , with in rad/sample. Defined when the sum converges (see existence below).

INVERSE DTFT (SYNTHESIS EQUATION)

The integral may be taken over any interval of length . In the convention the belongs to the inverse.

VALUES AT SPECIAL POINTS

Put or in the analysis equation, or in the inverse. These evaluate such sums and integrals without finding at all.

RIGHT-SIDED EXPONENTIAL

For real the magnitude is . With it peaks at at and falls to at (low-pass); for the roles swap (high-pass). For there is no DTFT as an ordinary function.

DIRICHLET KERNEL (LENGTH-N RECTANGULAR PULSE)

Value at (as a limit). Zeros at for integers that are not multiples of . The main lobe is rad/sample wide, null to null. Unlike the continuous-time sinc, the whole expression is periodic with period . The ratio on its own has period only for odd ; for even it changes sign after , and the linear-phase factor changes sign too, so the product is still -periodic.

IDEAL LOW-PASS (SINC) SEQUENCE

(as a limit). The sequence is not absolutely summable but is square summable, with energy by Parseval. It is non-causal and infinitely long, so it cannot be realised exactly.

TIME SHIFT AND FREQUENCY SHIFT

A delay of samples adds the linear phase and leaves unchanged. Multiplying by shifts the spectrum by , which turns a low-pass sequence into a high-pass one.

SYMMETRY OF A REAL SEQUENCE

So and are even in , while and are odd. A real, even has a real, even ; a real, odd has a purely imaginary, odd . More generally, for real the even part transforms to and the odd part to .

CONVOLUTION THEOREM

Linear (aperiodic) convolution. This is why the output spectrum of an LTI system is the input spectrum times its frequency response.

MULTIPLICATION (PERIODIC CONVOLUTION)

The integral runs over one period only, so this is a periodic convolution. Windowing by smears with the window's kernel, which is the origin of spectral leakage.

DIFFERENTIATION IN FREQUENCY

Useful for and, together with Parseval, for .

PARSEVAL'S THEOREM

Energy in time equals the energy spread over one period of frequency. The general form is .

SINUSOIDAL RESPONSE OF A STABLE LTI SYSTEM

For real and an input applied for all . Evaluate at the input frequency in rad/sample; reduce modulo first if it is outside .

DFT

. is complex in general, even when is real.

INVERSE DFT (IDFT)

Some texts put in both directions (the unitary DFT), and then Parseval has no . These notes keep in the inverse only.

DFT AS SAMPLES OF THE DTFT

Exact when is zero outside ; a length- sequence with is zero-padded to . The samples are spaced apart over one period .

SAMPLING THE DTFT ALIASES IN TIME

If is longer than (or infinitely long), samples of its DTFT recover this time-aliased sum, not . It is the time-domain counterpart of the aliasing caused by sampling a signal too slowly.

DTFT OF A PERIODIC SEQUENCE (DISCRETE FOURIER SERIES)

is the -point DFT of one period, extended periodically in . A periodic sequence is not summable, so its DTFT is a train of impulses at the bin frequencies . If the Fourier-series coefficients are defined as , the same result reads . Check: gives at multiples of and elsewhere, hence .

FREQUENCY OF BIN K

For a sequence sampled at . Bins and correspond to : for , bin represents the negative frequency . For even , bin is .

DFT MATRICES FOR N = 2 AND N = 4

with (row , column , both counted from ). is symmetric. With memorised, a 4-point DFT needs only additions, subtractions and multiplications by (a swap of real and imaginary parts with a sign change).

INVERSE AND POWERS OF THE DFT MATRIX

, so is unitary. Applying the DFT twice returns the circularly time-reversed sequence scaled by ; four applications return . Hence every eigenvalue of is one of , .

CONJUGATE SYMMETRY FOR A REAL SEQUENCE

For . So is real and, for even , is real. Only to need computing for even ( to for odd ); the rest are conjugates. If is real and circularly even, , then is real and circularly even; if it is real and circularly odd, , then is purely imaginary and circularly odd.

CIRCULAR CONVOLUTION

Both sequences are treated as length (zero-padded if shorter). Multiplying two -point DFTs and inverting always gives the circular convolution, not the linear one.

PARSEVAL'S RELATION FOR THE DFT

With and in the inverse, the is on the frequency side. Leaving it out gives an answer times too large.

VALUES AT K = 0, N = 0 AND N/2

The last two need even. is times the mean of , and is the mean of the .

CIRCULAR CONVOLUTION IS ALIASED LINEAR CONVOLUTION

Valid whenever . For , only the first samples can differ from the linear result; samples to equal it.

LENGTH NEEDED FOR LINEAR CONVOLUTION BY DFT

and are the lengths of the two sequences. For a radix-2 FFT, take the next power of at or above .

BIN SPACING

is the DFT length, including any zero padding.

RECORD-LENGTH RESOLUTION (RECTANGULAR WINDOW)

is the number of genuine data samples and the observation time. This is a rule of thumb, not an exact threshold: the main lobe of the rectangular window is wide null to null, and whether two tones about apart show as two peaks also depends on their relative phase. Only a longer record improves it. Other windows lower the side lobes at the cost of a wider main lobe.

DECIMATION-IN-TIME (DIT) SPLIT

and are the -point DFTs of the even-indexed samples and the odd-indexed samples . Repeat the split until only 2-point DFTs remain.

DECIMATION-IN-FREQUENCY (DIF) SPLIT

For . The first and second halves of the input are combined, and the even- and odd-indexed outputs each come from an -point DFT.

COST OF A DIRECT DFT

Complex multiplications and complex additions : each of the outputs needs products and additions.

COST OF A RADIX-2 FFT

stages of butterflies. The count includes trivial multiplications by and by , which a practical program skips; use the formula as stated unless a question says otherwise. One complex multiplication, done directly as , costs 4 real multiplications and 2 real additions.

FIR and IIR filters

Read the notes

FIR FILTER OF LENGTH N

Order , taking and . Writing shows that its only poles are poles at . So a causal FIR filter is always BIBO stable.

IIR FILTER AND ITS SIGN CONVENTION

Numerator order , denominator order . The minus sign in the difference equation puts in the denominator. So an equation written as gives , with a pole at . The causal filter is stable if and only if every pole left after cancelling common factors satisfies .

LINEAR-PHASE CONDITION AND FREQUENCY RESPONSE

is real. Antisymmetry forces the middle sample of an odd-length filter to be zero, since .

GROUP DELAY OF EVERY LINEAR-PHASE FIR FILTER

The same for all four types, at every where . It is an integer for odd (Types I and III) and a half-integer for even (Types II and IV). In seconds it is .

SYMMETRY IN THE Z-DOMAIN AND THE FORCED ZEROS

Put , where . Symmetric with even: , so . Antisymmetric: , so always. With odd, also , so .

DELAYED IDEAL LOWPASS IMPULSE RESPONSE

is in rad/sample. It is written with explicitly, so no sinc convention is needed. The centre value is the limit as . For even , is a half-integer and no sample falls at .

OTHER IDEAL RESPONSES BUILT FROM THE LOWPASS

The term needs an integer , i.e. odd . So a windowed highpass or bandstop design is Type I, consistent with the forced zero at that rules out Type II.

COMMON WINDOWS (0 TO N-1, ZERO ELSEWHERE)

For . This is one common form; some texts use in place of so that the end samples of the Hann window are not zero. All four are symmetric about , so linear phase is kept. The Hamming window's end samples are , not zero.

FREQUENCY-SAMPLING DESIGN

This is the -point inverse DFT, with so that . The designed response passes exactly through the specified samples and is interpolated between them. For a real, linear-phase Type I result ( odd), take with .

IMPULSE INVARIANCE

Needs a strictly proper with simple poles (do the partial fractions first). The sample at uses . Each analog pole becomes the digital pole ; zeros do not map by this rule. With the factor , for when aliasing is small. Some texts use without it, which scales by , so check which one a question uses.

BILINEAR TRANSFORMATION

Substitute into to get an of the same order. The whole left half -plane maps inside , so stability is preserved. The entire axis maps once onto the unit circle: goes to and goes to . There is no aliasing.

FREQUENCY WARPING OF THE BILINEAR TRANSFORMATION

in rad/s (analog), in rad/sample (digital). The relation is nearly linear, , only for small . The whole infinite analog axis is squeezed into .

BUTTERWORTH MAGNITUDE RESPONSE

Order (in this section is the prototype's order, not an FIR length), cut-off in rad/s. and , i.e. dB at the cut-off for every . The response is monotonic in both bands. It is maximally flat: the first derivatives of are zero at . The asymptotic roll-off is dB/decade.

BUTTERWORTH ORDER

is the maximum attenuation (dB) allowed over the passband . Because the response is monotonic, the attenuation there is largest at . is the minimum stopband attenuation (dB) at . Round up to the next integer. If the passband edge is the 3-dB cut-off ( dB, ), then .

BUTTERWORTH POLES

The poles are equally spaced by on a circle of radius , all in the left half-plane and symmetric about the real axis. There is a real pole at only when is odd.

NORMALISED BUTTERWORTH DENOMINATORS (UNIT CUT-OFF)

For a cut-off , replace by . Each quadratic factor is for , with a factor added when is odd. For the factor has damping ratio .

CHEBYSHEV TYPE I (IN BRIEF)

Equiripple in the passband, monotonic in the stopband. Passband ripple dB. At DC, for odd and for even . obeys with , .

ANALOG FREQUENCY TRANSFORMATIONS (FROM A LOWPASS PROTOTYPE WITH CUT-OFF 1 RAD/S)

Here and . The prototype's edge at rad/s lands on , or on and . The bandpass and bandstop substitutions double the order. In a bilinear design, prewarp every digital edge first, then apply the substitution to the prototype.

GAIN FROM THE POLE-ZERO PLOT

This uses . Poles or zeros at the origin are at distance 1 from every point on the circle, so they change only the phase.

SECOND-ORDER NOTCH FILTER

Zeros at give an exact null at ; poles at . The closer is to 1, the narrower the notch. With close to 1, the gain away from is close to 1. Without the poles, is an FIR notch with a much wider dip.

ALL-PASS FILTER

Pole at , zero at . Higher orders are products of such sections. With a real denominator of order , , i.e. the numerator coefficients are the denominator coefficients in reverse order. Used to correct phase (delay) without changing the magnitude.

L-POINT MOVING AVERAGE

A lowpass, symmetric (Type I or II) FIR filter with DC gain 1 and group delay . Its zeros are at , (the zero cancels the pole at ), so it has nulls at .

COMB FILTERS

is an integer. removes DC and every multiple of , for example a mains frequency and its harmonics when equals the mains frequency. Both are linear-phase FIR filters (antisymmetric and symmetric respectively) with group delay .