1

Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals

Suppose that the DSB-SC AM signal u(t) is transmitted
through an ideal channel (with no channel distortion and no
noise)
Then the received signal is equal to the modulated signal,

Suppose we demodulate the received signal by
1. Multiplying r(t) by a locally generated sinusoid cos(2tf
c
t + |).
2. We pass the product signal through an ideal lowpass filter with
bandwidth W
) 2 cos( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( t f t m A t c t m t u t r
c c
t = = =
2
Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals
The multiplication of r(t) with cos(2tf
c
t + |) yields










Since the frequency content of m(t) is limited to W Hz, where
W << f
c
, the lowpass filter can be designed to eliminate the signal
components centered at 2 f
c
and to pass the signal components
centered at f = 0
) 4 cos( ) (
2
1
) cos( ) (
2
1
) 2 cos( ) 2 cos( ) ( ) 2 cos( ) (
| t |
| t t | t
+ + =
+ = +
t f t m A t m A
t f t f t m A t f t r
c c c
c c c c
Frequency-domain representation
of the DSB-SC AM demodulation.
3
Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals
Consequently, the output of the ideal lowpass filter



Note that m(t) is multiplied by cos(|)
So the power in the demodulated signal is decreased by a factor of cos
2
|
Thus, the desired signal is scaled in amplitude by a factor that depends
on the phase | of the locally generated sinusoid
1. When | = 0, the amplitude of the desired signal is reduced by the factor
cos(|)
2. If | = 45, the amplitude of the signal is reduced by and the power is
reduced by a factor of two
3. If | = 90, the desired signal component vanishes
) cos( ) (
2
1
) ( | t m A t y
c l
=
2
4
Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals
The preceding discussion demonstrates the need for a phase-
coherent or synchronous demodulator for recovering the
message signal m(t) from the received signal
That is, the phase | of the locally generated sinusoid should
ideally be equal to 0 (the phase of the received-carrier signal)
A sinusoid that is phase-locked to the phase of the received
carrier can be generated at the receiver in one of two ways

5
Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals
One method is to add a carrier component into the
transmitted signal.









We call such a carrier component "a pilot tone."
Its amplitude A
p
is selected to be significantly smaller than those of the
modulated signal u(t).
Thus, the transmitted signal is a double-sideband, but it is no longer a
suppressed carrier signal
Addition of a pilot
tone to a DSB-AM signal.
6
Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals
At the receiver, a narrowband filter tuned to frequency f
c
, filters out the
pilot signal component
Its output is used to multiply the received signal, as shown in below
We may show that the presence of the pilot signal results in a DC
component in the demodulated signal
This must be subtracted out in order to recover m(t)

Use of a pilot tone
to demodulate a
DSB-AM signal.
7
Demodulation of DSB-SC AM Signals
Adding a pilot tone to the transmitted signal has a
disadvantage
It requires that a certain portion of the transmitted signal
power must be allocated to the transmission of the pilot
As an alternative, we may generate a phase-
locked sinusoidal carrier from the received signal
r(t) without the need of a pilot signal
This can be accomplished by the use of a phase-locked
loop, as described in Section 6.4.

8
Conventional Amplitude Modulation
A conventional AM signal consists of a large carrier component,
in addition to the double-sideband AM modulated signal
The transmitted signal is expressed as

The message waveform is constrained to satisfy the condition that
|m(t)| s 1
We observe that A
c
m(t) cos(2tf
c
t) is a double-sideband AM signal
and A
c
cos(2tf
c
t) is the carrier component
) 2 cos( )] ( 1 [ ) ( t f t m A t u
c c
t + =
A conventional AM signal in
the time domain
9
Conventional Amplitude Modulation
As we will see later in this chapter, the existence of
this extra carrier results in a very simple structure for
the demodulator
That is why commercial AM broadcasting generally
employs this type of modulation
As long as |m(t)| s 1, the amplitude A
c
[1 + m(t)] is always
positive
This is the desired condition for conventional DSB AM that
makes it easy to demodulate, as we will describe
On the other hand, if m(t) < -1 for some t , the AM signal is
overmodulated and its demodulation is rendered more complex
10
Conventional Amplitude Modulation
m(t) is scaled so that its magnitude is always less than unity
It is convenient to express m(t) as

where m,(t) is normalized such that its minimum value is -1 and


The scale factor a is called the modulation index, which is generally a
constant less than 1
Since |m(t)| s 1 and 0 < a < 1, we have 1 + am
n
( t ) > 0 and the
modulated signal can be expressed as

which will never be overmodulated
) ( ) ( t am t m
n
=
) ( max
) (
) (
t m
t m
t m
n
=
) 2 cos( )] ( 1 [ ) ( t f t am A t u
c n c
t + =
11
Spectrum of the Conventional AM Signal
The spectrum of the amplitude-modulated signal u(t) is








Obviously, the spectrum of a conventional AM signal occupies a
bandwidth twice the bandwidth of the message signal
| | | |
| | | | ) ( ) (
2
) ( ) (
2
) 2 cos( ) 2 cos( ) ( ) (
c c
c
c n c n
c
c c c n c
f f f f
A
f f M f f M
a A
t f A F t f t am A F f U
+ + + + + =
+ =
o o
t t
Conventional AM in both the
time and frequency domain.
12
Power for the Conventional AM Signal
A conventional AM signal is similar to a DSB when m(t) is
substituted with 1 + am
n
(t)
DSB-SC : The power in the modulated signal

where P
m
denotes the power in the message signal
Conventional AM :


where we have assumed that the average of m
n
(t) is zero
This is a valid assumption for many signals, including audio signals.
m
c
u
P
A
P
2
2
=
} }

+ == + =
2 /
2 /
2 2
2 /
2 /
2
)] ( 1 [
1
lim )] ( 1 [
1
lim
T
T
n
T
T
T
n
T
m
dt t m a
T
dt t am
T
P
13
Power for the Conventional AM Signal
Conventional AM,



The first component applies to the existence of the carrier, and this
component does not carry any information
The second component is the information-carrying component
Note that the second component is usually much smaller than the first
component (a < 1, |m
n
(t)| < 1, and for signals with a large dynamic
range, Pm
n
<< 1)
This shows that the conventional AM systems are far less
power efficient than the DSB-SC systems
The advantage of conventional AM is that it is easily
demodulated
n
m m
P a P
2
1+ =
n
m
c c
u
P a
A A
P
2
2 2
2 2
+ =
14
Demodulation of Conventional DSB-AM Signals
The major advantage of conventional AM is the ease in which the signal can
be demodulated
There is no need for a synchronous demodulator
Since the message signal m(t) satisfies the condition |m(t)| < 1, the envelope
(amplitude) 1+m (t) > 0
If we rectify the received signal, we eliminate the negative values without
affecting the message signal, as shown in below
The rectified signal is equal to u(t) when u(t) > 0, and zero when u(t) < 0
The message signal is recovered by passing the rectified signal through a
lowpass filter whose bandwidth matches that of the message signal
The combination of rectifier and lowpass filter is called an envelope detector
15
Demodulation of Conventional DSB-AM Signals
The output of the envelope detector is of the form

where g
l
represents a DC component and g
2
is a gain factor due to the
signal demodulator.
The DC component can be eliminated by passing d(t) through a
transformer, whose output is g
2
m(t).
The simplicity of the demodulator has made conventional
DSB-AM a practical choice for AM-radio broadcasting
Since there are billions of radio receivers, an inexpensive
implementation of the demodulator is extremely important
The power inefficiency of conventional AM is justified by the fact that
there are few broadcast transmitters relative to the number of receivers
Consequently, it is cost-effective to construct powerful
transmitters and sacrifice power efficiency in order to simplify
the signal demodulation at the receivers
) ( ) (
2 1
t m g g t d + =