What is "phase modulation"

n. A method of sending information by modifying (modulating) the difference in phase (fraction of a wave length) between a signal and a reference.

n. modulation of the phase of the carrier wave [syn: PM]

Phase modulation (PM) is a modulation pattern that encodes information as variations in the instantaneous phase of a carrier wave.

Phase modulation is widely used for transmitting radio waves and is an integral part of many digital transmission coding schemes that underlie a wide range of technologies like WiFi, GSM and satellite television.

Phase modulation is closely related to frequency modulation (FM); it is often used as an intermediate step to achieve FM. Mathematically both phase and frequency modulation can be considered a special case of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM).

PM is used for signal and waveform generation in digital synthesizers, such as the Yamaha DX7 to implement FM synthesis. A related type of sound synthesis called phase distortion is used in the Casio CZ synthesizers.