Question

What is a transducer in a communication system?

Answer 1

Hint: The process by which one form of energy is converted to any other form is known as transduction. The transducer used in the communication system in general converts many forms of energy into electric signals and vice versa.

Complete step-by-step answer:
A transducer is a device that does transduction i.e. conversion of one form of energy into another. As we know, there are many energy types like chemical, electrical, thermal, mechanical, electromagnetic, acoustic, etc. They can be interconverted as per requirement.
Any form of energy can be made as an input. Some of the common examples of transducers that we see around us are loudspeaker, image sensor etc. Mainly there are two types of transducer which are mechanical transducer and electronic transducer. Electronic transducers are more often used in a communication system.
Mechanical transducer- They convert a physical form of energy to mechanical forms whereas electronic transducer converts mechanical forms to electrical quantity, mainly into signals.
Based on the direction of information the transducer can be a sensor or actuator.
A sensor responds to physical stimuli and passes information in the form of a signal accordingly.
An actuator is controlled by signal and it converts energy to motion. The robot control system is an example.
In the electronic communication system, the transducer is of great importance. They convert various other forms into electric signals. Some of the most commonly used transducers are microphones, speakers, radio transmitters etc.

Additional information:
There are bidirectional transducers that act both as a sensor and as an actuator. Antenna is one of the examples of a bidirectional transducer.

Note: Transducers can be widely seen in our daily life. Transducers are present in various fields for example fluorescent lamps, light-emitting diodes are electro-optical transducers whereas piezo-electric crystals, Hydrophones, etc. are electroacoustic transducers.