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Electrical & Electronics Engineering vocabulary · Signals and Analog Electronics

Bandwidth

Meaning in electrical & electronics engineering, with examples

/ˈbændˌwɪdθ/nounCommon term

In electrical & electronics engineering, bandwidth means: The range of frequencies a circuit, instrument or channel can handle well, usually up to the point where the signal falls by 3 dB. In communications it also means data capacity.

In Turkish: bant genişliği

How it is used

Used for amplifiers, filters, oscilloscopes and communication links. Engineers say an oscilloscope has 100 MHz of bandwidth, an amplifier's bandwidth is too low, or a signal needs more bandwidth. In networking, bandwidth is given in Mbps or Gbps.

Example sentences

  1. A 20 MHz scope doesn't have enough bandwidth to show these fast edges.

  2. Limit the bandwidth of the amplifier to 10 kHz to cut the noise.

Common collocations

  • signal bandwidth
  • 3 dB bandwidth
  • limit the bandwidth
  • oscilloscope bandwidth
  • frequencyThe number of times a signal repeats its cycle in one second, measured in hertz (Hz). Mains electricity in Turkey has a frequency of 50 Hz.
  • filterA circuit that lets some frequencies pass and blocks or weakens others. Common types are low-pass, high-pass, band-pass and notch filters.
  • gainThe ratio of a circuit's output to its input, showing how much it amplifies a signal. It can be given as a plain number, such as ×10, or in decibels.
  • oscilloscopeAn instrument that draws a voltage as a graph over time, so you can see the shape, size and timing of a signal. Engineers often just call it a scope.
  • decibelA logarithmic unit (dB) that compares two power or voltage levels. An increase of 3 dB roughly doubles the power, and 20 dB means ten times the voltage.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Signals and Analog Electronics

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