Jayson J.

Becosacer Fourth Year / ECEng 4A June 30, 2017

Experiment No. 1
Signal Analysis and Mixing

Objective/s:
1. To investigate how the composition of different amounts of harmonics of a single fundamental
sine wave make up a complex form of a signal.
2. To study how a type of signal can be reproduce using its fundamental frequency and harmonics,
and to analyze how these harmonics contribute to the overall reproduction quality of the said
type of signal.

Required Tools/ Equipment:

Harmonic Generator - 1
Digital Oscilloscope -1
Digital Multimeter -1
Function Generator - 1

Steps Performed:
1. Connect the fundamental and third harmonic of the harmonic generator to the first and
second channel of the oscilloscope, respectively. View the two signals together and try to
add them using the add mode of the oscilloscope.
2. Switch the display to X-Y mode to view both of the signals in a different manner.
3. With the harmonic generator display, in succession, the fundamental tone, then add the third
harmonic, then add the fifth harmonic, and so on until the ninth harmonic. Observe how the
wave form changes.

Results and Discussions:

Based on the discussion given in the laboratory manual, the results were close as to what we
should expect to see. All signals coming from the harmonic generator were sine waves that can be
observed in their time domain form using the oscilloscope. The individual signals (the fundamental and
the third harmonic) may have the same sinusoidal shaped signal but they differ in frequency. Even if it
was the case, the two individual wave forms can still be noticed in their combined form.
Figure 1-1. Wave form combination of the fundamental frequency signal and the third harmonic signal.

Figure 1-1 shows the combined form of the fundamental and third harmonic frequency signal. The
fundamental frequency can be noticed in the parts of the signal where the slope is less compared to the
parts of the signal where the slope is steeper which represents the third harmonic frequency signal. The
display was at 2 volts/division and 500 microsecond/division.

Figure 1-2. Wave form display of both fundamental and third harmonic frequency signals in X-Y mode.
 The next step was to view both of the signals in X-Y mode. In this mode, we can verify if one of
the frequency is the harmonic of the other. As shown if figure 1-2, both signals made an infinity loop
shape and the display was static in X-Y mode. With this observation, we can say that one of the signals
being displayed is the harmonic of the other signal.

Figure 1-3. The combination of the fundamental frequency signal and all of the available odd
harmonics (from third to ninth harmonic).

Figure 1-4. The combination of the fundamental frequency signal and all of the available odd harmonics
(from third to ninth harmonic) with different phase angles
 Same as the signal in figure 1-1, the different odd harmonics can be combined together with their
fundamental frequency signal as shown in figure 1-3. As you can see, the different odd harmonics can
still be recognized in some parts of one cycle of the wave form, especially when they have high
amplitudes. Another noticeable aspect is the formation of a rather poorly shaped square wave. You can
notice that the wave form itself has a steeper (almost vertical) rising and falling edges. Due to some
harmonics with higher amplitudes, however, the top and bottom parts of the wave were not flat. In figure
1-4, the same procedure of adding all the signal was done but with some of the harmonics having a
different phase angle which is 180 degrees.

Problems Encountered:
For this experiment, there was a difficulty in performing some of the experiment due to some
broken parts of the equipment and lack of familiarity in using some of the new ones. Some of the results
were a little bit off but the basics of what to expect were still observed during the experiment.

Conclusion/s:
The experiment was done based on Joseph Fouriers Fourier Series theorem where a complex
periodic signal can be represented by the sum of its individual sinusoidal components. Based on the
observation and results from the experiment, I conclude that with the Fourier Series, one can analyze
and derive mathematically the components that make up a complex signal. In the experiment conducted,
one can make a complex signal by adding the fundamental frequency of the signal together with its
harmonics and it is a proof that analyzing a signal can be done by processing its wave form into more
comprehensive and precise number of harmonics. I can also conclude that creating a complex signal by
adding various harmonics with the fundamental frequency signal can imply that all signals have a number
of harmonics that help them make their waveform.