What is the function of a quantizer?

What is the function of a quantizer?

• A. A It converts digital words back to analog voltages
• B. B It increases the sampling rate
• C. C It maps each sampled amplitude to one of a finite set of levels
• D. D It filters out high-frequency components

Answer: (C)

Quantization is the step in analog-to-digital conversion where each sampled amplitude is mapped to a finite set of levels. This means the continuous range of possible sample values is replaced by a discrete value chosen from a fixed number of levels, producing the digital representation. The number of levels determines the resolution: more levels mean finer detail and smaller quantization error, while fewer levels cause larger error. In practice, a quantizer can be uniform, with equal spacing between levels, or nonuniform to better match signal statistics. This function—assigning each sample to one of a limited set of levels—is what defines quantization. The other options describe separate processes: converting digital values back to analog voltages (DAC), increasing the sampling rate (sampling), and removing high-frequency components (filtering).

Quantization is the step in analog-to-digital conversion where each sampled amplitude is mapped to a finite set of levels. This means the continuous range of possible sample values is replaced by a discrete value chosen from a fixed number of levels, producing the digital representation. The number of levels determines the resolution: more levels mean finer detail and smaller quantization error, while fewer levels cause larger error. In practice, a quantizer can be uniform, with equal spacing between levels, or nonuniform to better match signal statistics. This function—assigning each sample to one of a limited set of levels—is what defines quantization. The other options describe separate processes: converting digital values back to analog voltages (DAC), increasing the sampling rate (sampling), and removing high-frequency components (filtering).