University of Pennsylvania

Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering

ESE206: Electrical Circuits and Systems II Lab

Amplitude Modulated Radio Frequency Transmission System

Mini-Project

Part 2: Receiver and Demodulator

Introduction

This mini-project is the continuation of the AM Radio Transmission System lab you did
earlier. In this lab you will build the receiver section (part 2), shown in Fig. 1 below. The
goal of the circuit of part 2 is to recover the modulation signal v m(t) that contains the
information of interest (e.g. the voice or music transmitted over the radio waves).

Figure 1: Elements of a basic AM Radio Transmission System

You will learn how to demodulate an AM signal, using a peak detector (or envelope
detector), and how to amplify this signal using an audio amplifier. Once you have built
these elements you will put the modulator (built during part 1) and the demodulator
together and test out the overall system of Fig. 1.

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This lab is more ambitious than any of the previous labs. It makes use of your knowledge
gained during the previous labs. In order the finish on time, you will need to prepare the
pre-lab carefully and review part 1 (AM Transmitter/Receiver of this mini-project).

Distortion

Signals undergo distortion as a result of non-linearity in the circuits. A good system

should introduce as little distortion as possible. When you did part 1 of this lab, you
noticed that the modulated signal could get distorted when the modulator is not adjusted
properly. Further distortions will be introduced during the demodulation process. In this
lab you will learn how to specify the amount of distortion of a signal. However, first lets
introduce some basic concepts about distortion.

We will consider a pure sinusoidal signal. When no distortion occurs the spectrum of this
signal should be a component at the frequency of the sinusoid (called the fundamental
frequency f 0), shown in Fig. 2a. As a result of non-linearities that are introduced at
several stages of the processing chain, the signal wont be a pure sinusoid anymore. This
results in a spectrum that has components besides the fundamental frequency f 0. These
frequency components are usually at multiples of the fundamental frequency and are
called harmonics. For instance the components at 2f0 , 4f0, etc. are called the even
harmonics while the ones at 3f 0 , 5f0, etc. are called odd harmonics. Fig. 2b shows the
spectrum of a distorted sinusoid. The larger harmonics the spectrum has the larger the
distortion of the pure sinusoid will be.

Figure 2: Spectrum of (a) a pure sinusoid and (b) a distorted sinusoid.

Total Harmonic Distortion (THD)

The distortion is usually expressed by the quantity, called total harmonic distortion or
THD. This is defined as the ratio of the power in the harmonics over the power of the
signal. The power is related to the square of the amplitude of the frequency components.
This allows us to write the THD (%) as,

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 V ( 2 f 0 ) 2 V (3 f 0 ) 2 V (4 f 0 )2 V (5 f 0 )2 ...
THD (1)
V ( f0 ) 2

Since the THD is obtained by taking a ratio, it does not matter whether the amplitude is
expressed in RMS or as a peak amplitude. As can be seen in Fig. 2, the magnitude of the
frequency components in the spectrum is usually given in dB. In order to find the
magnitude (in V) of each component one has to convert from dB into voltage. This can
be easily done through the definition of dB:

A = 20.log10(V) (in dB) (2)

or V = 10A/20 (in Volt) (3)

As can be seen from Eq. (1) the THD is given by the ratio of the harmonics over the
fundamental component. This implies that the difference in dB between the fundamental
and the harmonics determines the amount of distortion. One can give the fundamental
component a reference level of e.g. 0 dB. An example is shown in the figure below.

Figure 3: Spectrum of a distorted sinusoid with fundamental frequency f0=1.68kHz.

The fundamental frequency is f0=1.68kHz. The two most pronounced harmonics are the
2nd and the 3rd ones which are each about 26.5dB below that of the fundamental
component. Using the expressions (1) and (3) one finds that the THD of 6.7%. This is a
pretty bad THD. For high quality audio systems the THD is typically 0.01% and for
digital audio systems is may be as low as 0.002% over the audio frequency range from 20
to 20 kHz.

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Receiver with peak detector and audio amplifier

The details of the receiver circuits are shown in Fig. 4. The first section consists of an
antenna and a LC tuned filter followed by a wide-bandwidth amplifier (LF 356 with a
gain-bandwidth product of 5 MHz) . The tuned circuit selects the carrier frequency. The
next section is a simple peak detector that is used to demodulate the AM signal. It
consists of a diode followed by a capacitor in parallel with a resistor (see section3.5.4
Rectifier with a Filter Capacitor or Peak Detector in the textbook by Sedra-Smith, 5th
ed.). This circuit, also called an envelope detector, extracts the modulating signal. The
final stage is an audio amplifier. We have implemented this with an operational amplifier
that has a gain of 10. Notice that a coupling capacitor C c (also called a DC blocking
capacitor) has been added after the peak detector. This is done to block the DC
component in the rectified signal. This DC component does not carry information and can
saturate the audio amplifier. Also, the speaker is connected through a coupling capacitor
C3 to the output of the amplifier. The audio amplifier is usually a power amplifier that is
capable to deliver sufficient power to the speakers. For the purpose of this lab, we are
using the 741 as an audio amplifier. This is done since we are not interested in providing
a lot of power to the speaker in contrast to a conventional audio amplifier that is designed
for large power delivery. When you measure your circuit you will notice that you wont
be able to deliver a large signal to the speaker since the op-amp wont be able to deliver
the necessary current (but for our purpose that is ok).

Figure 4: Receiver circuit consisting of an amplifier stage, a peak-detector and an audio

amplifier.

The peak detector, shown in Fig. 5 can be considered as a half-wave rectifier with a low-
pass filter (RC circuit). The value of the RC circuit determines the peak-to-peak value of
ripple Vr of the rectified signal, according to the following expression,

V r V p (1 e 1/ f cR3C 2 ) (4)

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in which Vp is the peak value of the incoming, signal and fc the frequency of the signal.
When using the circuit to demodulate an AM signal, the RC time constant is chosen such
that,

2fC > 1/ R3C2 > 2f m (5)

in which f c and f m is the carrier and modulating frequency, respectively. The first
condition determines the ripple of the signal while the second inequality assures that the
modulating signal with frequency fm passes through the peak detector (notice that the R3-
C2 circuit forms a low pass filter. To keep the ripple small, you want to make sure that the
you select the R3 C2 such that 2fC >> 1/ R3C2 without violating the second condition
(1/ R3C2 > 2f m). This condition assures that the modulating signal will pass without
being attenuated by the parallel R3C2 circuit.

Figure 5: Envelope or peak detector

We will use as the carrier signal a sinusoid with a frequency f c of about 100 kHz and as
the modulation signal a sinusoid with frequency fm of about 5000 Hz.

Pre-lab assignment

1. Read the introduction of part 1 on AM Radio Frequency Transmission System

2. Consider the following spectrum of a distorted sinusoid. Calculate the THD (in
%) of this signal. Show how you got your result.

Figure 6: Spectrum of a distorted sinusoidal signal of 5 kHz.

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 3. Read the section on peak detectors in your textbook section 3.5.4
(Microelectronics by Sedra and Smith).
4. The LF356 amplifier has a gain bandwidth product of 5 MHz. What is the
bandwidth of the inverting RF amplifier configuration shown in Fig. 4?
5. Design of a peak detector:
a. Find the value of C2 and R3 of the peak detector (Fig. 5), using expression
(5). Use a value of R3 in the range of 2-10 kOhm and select a capacitor
according to expression (5).
b. For the selected values of R3 and C2 calculate the corresponding ripple
Vr/Vp (see expression (4). Assume a frequency fc of 100 kHz.
6. Design the audio amplifier, shown in Fig. 4 such that it has a gain of 11. Use
resistor values in the range of 1 to10 kOhm.
7. Coupling capacitor C3:
a. What is the role of the coupling capacitor?
b. This capacitor forms a high pass filter. What is the lowest frequency that
can be passed un-attenuated, assuming that the speaker has a resistance of
8 Ohm?

In-lab assignment

1 OpAmp 741
1 LF356 Op-Amp
1 Diode 4148
1 Inductor
1 Capacitors: 47 uF and others (TBD)
2 Capacitors: 0.1 uF as decoupling caps
1 Resistors: 5.1k, 240 kOhm and others (TBD)
1 Potentiometer of 50 kOhm

Note: You will be using the modulator circuit that you constructed during the first part of
this mini-project (Fig. 7 part 1).

Procedure:

1. Check that you still have the modulator circuit of the first part of this mini-project,
shown below. You should add a decoupling capacitor between the two power supply
pins (7 and 4) of the op-amp and the ground. Connect all ground wires to a single
point on your protoboard to reduce the noise.

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Figure 7: AM Modulator/transmitter circuit (built during part 1 of the project).

2. Next you will construct the receiver and demodulator circuit of Fig. 4. Construct this
circuit in a corner of the protoboard as far from the modulator circuit as possible to
reduce interference. Start with the tuned LC circuit that you designed earlier in part 1 of
the project.

3. Construct the amplifier using the LF356 as shown in Fig. 4. The pins of the amplifier
are given in the parts list (Fig. 7). Use a voltage of +12V, and 12V for the power supply.
Place 0.1 uF decoupling caps between the power supply pins ( 4 and 7) and ground.
Check that the amplifier functions properly. You can apply a small input voltage and
measure the output voltage. Notice that the amplification is about 50. Do not saturate the
amplifier.

4. Construct the peak detector. Use for the resistor R3 a 50 kOhm potentiometer, so that
you can adjust the resistor value to optimize the rectified and filtered signal. Be careful to
use short connections and use a single point to which you connect all the grounds of your
instruments and circuit. When finished, you should ensure that the receiver works
properly. You can apply a small AM modulated sinusoidal signal at the input of the
operational amplifier and verify the operation. To generate the AM signal, use the HP
Function generator and select an AM signal (carrier frequency of 100 kHz, modulation
frequency of 5000 Hz and modulation depth of 50%). Display the AM signal and the
output of the peak detector on the oscilloscope. Take a snapshot of the waveforms.

[For use of the function generator see:

http://www.ese.upenn.edu/rca/instruments/HPfuncgen/WaveFormGen/WaveFormGen.html#b.%20Example%202:%20Advanced]

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5. Construct the audio amplifier. When finished check the operation and verify that it
amplification is 11. Display the output on the oscilloscope and take a snapshot.

6. When all the circuits work properly (RF amplifier, peak detector and the audio
amplifier) you can connect these together.

7. Verify that the modulator/transmitter circuit that you built in a previous lab still works
properly. For the carrier signal v c(t) use the same frequency as the one you used in part 1
of the previous lab (this should be around 100 kHz - see your lab notebook or report).
Use the HP 33120 function generator for the carrier signal. For the modulation signal
vm(t) use a sinusoid of 5000 Hz with an offset voltage of 1V. Use the Krohn-Hite 1200A
function generator for this signal. As you did in the previous lab, observe the output
signal vam while you adjust the amplitude V m and the offset voltage Vo of the modulation
signal in order to produce a maximum linear output of about 2 Vp-p for vam.

8. Connect a 1 to 2-ft long wire as antenna to the transmitter and receiver circuits (Fig. 1).
Place the antennas parallel to each other, at a close distance (if necessary twist the two
wires to get better coupling). Since the transmission and reception efficiency at these
relatively low frequencies is low, we suggest that you couple the output of the transmitter
to the input of the receiver through a 15 pF capacitor. This will increase the received
signal considerably.

Display the output signal of the audio amplifier together with the transmitted AM signal
vam(t) on the oscilloscope. Verify that the output signal corresponds to the modulation
signal. When the output of the audio amplifier is a scaled version of the modulation
signal, your circuit works properly. Record the amplitude of the waveforms. Take also a
snapshot of the waveforms.

9. Connect the output of the audio amplifier to the input of a speaker, using a 47 F
coupling capacitor C3 . Listen to the output signal. Change the frequency of the
modulation signal from 5000 to about 1000 Hz, you should hear the different tone being
transmitted. Since the output amplifier is a regular op-amp (uA 741) the output current is
limited to about 20mA. This will also limit the maximum amplitude you can put over the
speaker. Adjust (reduce) the volume-control potentiometer R4 susch that the output
signal is relatively distortion free.

10. When the received output signal looks undistorted (sinusoidal), display the spectrum
of the output signal using the FFT function of the oscilloscope. If needed adjust the
amplitude, the off-set voltage of the modulating frequency, or the value of the
potentiometer R4 until the output looks undistorted. Observe the fundamental and the
harmonics in the spectrum. Take a snapshot of the spectrum and write down the
horizontal and vertical scales.

To use the FFT function on the oscilloscope, see also

http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~ese206/labs/FFTScopeTutorialPart2.pdf

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Report:

Under the experimental results include:

a. RF amplifier and peak detector.

i. Circuit with component values.
ii. Measured output characteristic for an AM input signal.
b. Audio amplifier:
i. The circuit
ii. Output signal for an AM input signal
iii. Spectrum of the output signal, corresponding to the time domain signal
shown in ii. above.
c. Calculation of the power delivered by the audio amplifier to the 8 Ohm resistor
(speaker) for the signal shown in ii above.
d. Calculation and value of the THD of the output signal.

Modified and Updated by Jan Van der Spiegel

March 21, 2006

9 March 28, 2005