Fourier Transform of a Rectangular Pulse Function

The rectangular pulse function (RPF) is dened as

(t) =
_
1

2
t <

2
0 else
.
The Fourier transform of the RPF is calculated as follows,
P

() = F [

(t)] ,
=
_

(t) dt,
=
_
2

2
e
jt
dt,
=
1
j
e
jt

2
,
=
j

_
e
j
2
e
j
2
_
.
Since we know from Eulers equations that Ae
j
= A, we may represent the complex value in trigonometric terms, Ae
j
=
Acos() + jAsin(). Substituting this into the above, we nd,
P

() =
j

_
cos
_

2
_
+ jsin
_

2
_
cos
_

2
_
jsin
_

2
__
.
Now, since basic trigonometry tells us that cos() = cos() and sin() = sin(), we obtain
P

() =
j

_
cos
_

2
_
jsin
_

2
_
cos
_

2
_
jsin
_

2
__
,
=
2

_
j
2
_
sin
_

2
_
,
=
2

sin
_

2
_
.
The nal solution above is cumbersome to work with, as it is of the form g(x) =
f(x)
x
. So, we will convert the above solution
to be in terms of the sinc function which is dened as
sinc(a) =
sin(a)
a
.
We now work our solution for the Fourier Transform of the RPF to be in terms of sinc,
P

() =
2

sin
_

_
,
=
2

sin
_

2
__
,
=
2

sin
_

2
__

2
_

2
_,
=
2

2
__
sin
_

2
__

2
_ ,
=
sin
_

2
__

2
_ ,
= sinc
_

2
_
.
And so, with the above, we have found a simple expression for the Fourier transform of the RPF

(t) = F
1
_
sinc
_

2
__
,
F [

(t)] = sinc
_

2
_
.