In this paper, the problem of signal design for continuous phase modul
ation is examined. Using the performance measures of effective bandwid
th and minimum distance, ''optimal'' signal shapes are calculated for
various receiver observation intervals for full and partial response s
ignalling. For the partial response case, the optimization could only
be done for a receiver observation interval of one symbol due to the d
ifficulty of the optimization. Therefore, a family of signals based on
previously calculated optimal signals is introduced. The tradeoffs th
at result between bandwidth and bit error rate are then compared as a
function of the receiver observation interval and as a function of the
memory length of the signalling scheme. Then, the signals introduced
in this paper are compared to well known signals in terms of their eff
ective bandwidth-minimum distance tradeoffs, power spectra and percent
-in-band-power. The signals obtained by the optimization process are f
ound to have good spectral properties in relation to well known signal
s.