Noise immunity of the receiver in QPSK and other methods will

improve if the signal vectors not only differ in phase but also in
amplitude. Thus QASK was introduced where direct modulation
of carrier in quadrature is involved.

The explanation is divided into 4 parts:

• Geometric representation
• QASK transmitter
• QASK receiver
• Bandwidth
There are 4 types of QASK according to geometric
diagram:
• 1) 8 QASK
• 2)16 QASK
• 3)32 QASK
• 4)64 QASK
• Distance from the neighbouring points is
d=2a
• If there is 4 bit signal then 16 possible
systems are required geometrically
• Signals can be equally distributed
• QASK bit energy is greater than PSK
energy but lesser than QPSK energy
• The QASK signal as shown in the figure above can be
mathematically represented as,
Vqask=k₁ au₁ (t) +k₂ au₂ (t)………(I)

Where k₁ and k₂ are each equal to ±1 or ±3.

• We know that,
u₁ (t) = √2/Ts cos wct and
u₂ (t)=√2/Ts sin wct and a= √ 0.1Es

We can substitute these expressions into equation (I)

to get ,

Vqask= k₁ * √ 0.2Es/Ts coswct + k₂ *

√ 0.2Es/Ts sinwct…….(II)
• But Es/Ts=Ps hence the equation for QASK is given by,

Vqask= k₁ *√0.2Ps coswct + k₂ * √0.2Ps sinwct

• The QASK generator is as shown in the figure. The bit stream b(t) is
applied to a serial to parallel converter operating on a clock which has
a period of Ts sec. which is the symbol duration. The bits b(t) are
stored by the converter and then presented in the parallel form.

The four bit symbol is bk+3, bk+2, bk+1,bk.

• Out of these four bits, the first two bits are applied to a D to A
converter and the other two bits are applied to the second D to A
converter.

• The output of the first D to A converter is Ae(t) which is used to

modulate the carrier √Ps cos wct whereas the output of the second
D/A converter i.e Ao(t) is used to modulate the carrier √Ps sinwct in
the balanced modulators.
•The balance modulators outputs are added together to
get the QASK output signal , which is expressed as
follows :

Vqask(t)=Ae(t) * √Ps coswct +Ao(t) * √ Ps sinwct…(III)

• Comparing the equations (II) and (III)

Ae(t) and Ao(t)= ± √ 0.2 or ±3 √ 0.2
• The expression for the QASK ouput is very similar to
that of a M-ary PSK.

• Therefore the plot of the power spectral density also

will be same as that of M-ary PSK.

• From the figure it is evident that main lobe of

the frequency spectrum extends from –fs to +fs
•Therefore the bandwidth of QASK is given by

BW=fs-(-fs)

=2fs …. As fs=1/Ts

=2/Ts …. Ts=N Tb

=2/NTb …. fb=1/Tb

BW =2fb/N