Smallest FFT buffer size given zero-padding

1. Does zero padding affect FFT?
2. Does zero padding improve FFT resolution?
3. What is the use of zero padding in FFT?
4. Does zero padding reduce spectral leakage?

Does zero padding affect FFT?

Zero padding allows one to use a longer FFT, which will produce a longer FFT result vector. A longer FFT result has more frequency bins that are more closely spaced in frequency.

Does zero padding improve FFT resolution?

Zero padding enables you to obtain more accurate amplitude estimates of resolvable signal components. On the other hand, zero padding does not improve the spectral (frequency) resolution of the DFT. The resolution is determined by the number of samples and the sample rate.

What is the use of zero padding in FFT?

In addition to making the total number of samples a power of two so that faster computation is made possible by using the fast Fourier transform (FFT), zero padding can lead to an interpolated FFT result, which can produce a higher display resolution.

Does zero padding reduce spectral leakage?

Zero-padding a signal does not reveal more information about the spectrum, but it only interpolates between the frequency bins that would occur when no zero-padding is applied. In particular, zero-padding does not increase the spectral resolution.