Amplitude Modulation Reception

Receive antenna

Mixer/
RF Bandpass Bandpass IF Bandpass
converter
Section Filter Filter Section Filter
section

AM Bandpass Audio
detector Filter Section
Speaker

RF Section – also called receiver front end used for detecting, bandlimiting &
amplifying the received signals
Mixer/converter – down converts the received RF frequencies to Intermediate
frequencies (IF)
IF – frequencies that fall somewhere between RF and information freq.
IF section – amplifies and select the signal
AM Detector – demodulates the AM wave and converts it to the original info. Signal
Audio section – amplifies the recovered information.
 Receiver Parameters:
1. Selectivity – measure the ability of the receiver to accept a given band of frequencies
and reject all others
- give the bandwidth of the receiver at the -3dB points or at two levels of
attenuation such as -3 dB and -60 dB which ratio is known as shape factor

shape factor - ratio between the -3dB and -60dB, measure the skirt steepness
f4  f3 B60 dB  Where SF – shape factor (unitless)
shape factor  SF  B60dB  - bandwidth 60dB below max signal level
f 2  f1 B3dB 
B3dB  - bandwidth 3dB below max signal level

1 – ideal value of SF (if bandwidth at 03dB and -60dB points are equal
Example 1: -3dB bandwidth = 10kHz example 2: 60 dB bandwidth = 12 kHz;
6 dB bandwidth = 3 kHz
-60dB bandwidth = 20 kHz
20kHz 12
SF  2 shape factor  4
10kHz 3

Note: to achieve ideal SF, use more expensive and sophisticated circuits

shape factor – measure of skirt steepness or skirt selectivity

 the lower the shape factor, the better the skirt selectivity
ideal shape factor = 1
 - using tuned circuit, LC, determined by
X
Q L
R
• Bandwidth of a tuned circuit is measured by its selectivity
f with fr – resonant frequency
BW  r
Q
ex. L = 10 μH, R = 20 Ω, C = 101.4 pF, find BW.

Solution:
1 1
fr    5MHz
2 LC 
2 10 x10 6
101.4 x10 
12

Q  
 
X L 2fL 2 5 x10 6 10 x10 6
 15.7
BW 
f r 5 x10
  318kHz
6

R 20 20 Q 15 .7
upper and lower cut-off frequency = 318 kHz / 2 = 159 kHz
upper fc = 5 + 0.159 = 5.159 MHz = f2
lower fc = 5 – 0.159 = 4.841 MHz = f1
BW = f2 – f1 = 5.159 – 4.841 = 318 kHz
To improve selectivity, let BW = 40 kHz 6
fr 5 x10
Q   125
BW 40 x10 3
XL X L 314 to increase Q, lower coil resistance 
so with Q R   2.512
R Q 125 larger wire gauge

should be careful not to cut-off the sideband since they contain the information although
we wanted to increase Q  to increase selectivity
selectivity curve of a tuned circuit ideal receiver selectivity curve Practical

 better selectivity can be achieved by:

i.cascading tuned circuit
ii.using crystal or mechanical filters
2. Bandwidth Improvement:
- increasing the bandwidth also increase thermal noise, so to improve the
performance, decrease the bandwidth  improve SNR difficult to construct
narrow-band filter
BRF
Bandwidth improvement, BI  where B RF  RF bandwidth ( Hz)
BIF
and B IF  IF bandwidth(Hz)

Noise Figure Improvement, NFimprovemen t  10 log BI

Example: Determine the improvement in the noise figure for a receiver with an
RF bandwidth equal to 200kHz and an IF bandwidth equal to 10kHz
Solution:
200kHz NFimprovemen t  10 log 20  13dB
BI   20 and
10kHz
3. Sensitivity – minimum RF signal level that can be detected at the input to the
receiver and still produce a usable demodulated information signal
- also called receiver threshold

Usable information signal is arbitrary,

a. For AM broadcast-band receivers:
SNR  10dB with Poutput  0.5W (27 dBm) at audio section
b. For broadband microwave receivers:
SNR  40dB and Poutput  5mW (7 dBm) signal power

Typical sensitivity:
a. AM commercial broadcast: Sensitivit y  50 V
b. Two-way mobile radio receiver: Sensitivit y is between 0.1V to 10 V

-To improve sensitivity, reduce noise level through decreasing temperature

or reduce the bandwidth of the receiver
4. Dynamic Range  Vmax – Vmin
- input power range over which the receiver is use
Vmin – function of desired signal quality, front-end noise & noise figure
Vmax – function of net gain of receiver

For a single frequency input signal, the high power input signal limit is 1-dB
compression point

1-dB compression point – output power when the RF amplifier response is 1

dB less than the ideal linear-gain response

DR = 100 dB  highest possible value

-Low DR can cause a desensitizing of the RF amplifiers and result in severe
intermodulation distortion of the weaker input signals
5. Fidelity – measure of the ability of the communication system to produce, at the
output of the receiver, an exact replica of the original source information

distortion – frequency, phase and amplitude variations from the original signal

3 forms of distortion:
a. Amplitude – amplitude vs frequencies characteristics of a signal at the
output is different from those in the input
b. phase – not so much a problem in voice
2 kinds:
i. absolute phase shift – total phase shift of the signal
- can be tolerated as long as all frequencies undergo
the same amount of phase delay
ii. Differential phase shift – when different frequencies
undergo different phase shift
- detrimental in cases such as PSK
c. frequency – resulting from harmonics and intermodulation distortion
2nd order harmonic – problem in broadband
3rd order harmonic – caused by cross-product frequencies
ex. 2 f1  f 2 , f1  2 f 2
- can be reduced using square-law devices (can only
produced 2nd order harmonics and can be filtered
out)
6. Insertion Loss (IL) – ratio of the power transferred to a load with a filter in the
circuit to the power transferred to a load without the filter
Pout
ILdB   10 log Where Pout  Output power of the filter
Pin
Pin Input power for frequencies
that fall within the filter’s
passband

7. Noise Temperature and Equivalent Noise Temperature

N
T where T  environmen tal temperatu re (kelvin)
KB
N  noise power (watts)
K  Boltzmann' s constant (1.38 x 10-23 J / K )
B  bandwidth (hertz)

Equivalent noise TemperatureTe  - indication of the reduction in the SNR

as a signal propagates through a receiver.
Typical values: Te   20
o
 for cool receivers
Te   1000  for noisy receivers
o
 Te  T ( F  1) where Te  equivalent noise temperatu re (kelvin)
T  environmen tal temperatu re (kelvin)
F  noise factor (unitless)

AM Receivers
2 Types:
1. Coherent – also called synchronous
- frequencies generated in the receiver and used for demodulation
are synchronized to oscillator frequencies generated in the
transmitter
2. Noncoherent - also called asynchronous
- either no frequencies are generated in the receiver or the frequen-
cies used for demodulation are completely independent from the
transmitter’s carrier frequency
- envelope detector
 2 Kinds:
1. Tuned Radio-Frequency (TRF) - simple

-3 stage TRF receiver

-The three RF amplifiers are used to filter and amplify the received signal,
the detector converts RF signal to information, audio amplifiers amplify
the information signals to a usable level

Disadvantages:
a. Inconsistent bandwidth – unstable frequency  selectivity is affected
b. Instability  cause oscillation  can be corrected by stagger tuning,
different frequencies for each amplifiers
c. Nonuniform gain  nonuniform L/C ratios of the transformer-coupled
tank circuits
 Example: For an AM commercial broadcast-band receiver (535kHz to 1605kHz)
with an input filter Q-factor of 54, determine the bandwidth at the
low and high ends of the RF spectrum.
Solution:
For low-end of AM, center frequency = 540kHz
f 540kHz
B   10kHz
Q 54
For high-end of AM, center frequency = 1600 kHz
f 1600kHz
B   29,630 Hz
Q 54
Note: the 10kHz bandwidth at low end is the desired value but the 29,630
Hz is not at the high-end since it will select 3 stations for an
almost 30kHz bandwidth at high end. To find for the Q factor
that can make the high-end selective, chose B=10kHz and solve
for Q factor:
f However at Q=160, the low-end bandwidth will be
B
Q f 540kHz
B   3,375 Hz
f 1600kHz Q 160
Q   160 This is too selective which will block some info. signal
B 10kHz
2. Superheterodyne receiver

- Above is a noncoherent superheterodyne receiver

- has superior quality in terms of gain, selectivity and sensitivity

Heterodyne – mixing of two frequencies in a linear device or to translate

one frequency to another using nonlinear mixing
 Sections:
1. RF section – has a preselector and amplifier
preselector – broad-tuned BPF with an adjustable center frequency tuned
to the desired carrier frequency
- block image frequency, an unwanted frequency from entering
the receiver
- reduces noise bandwidth
- determines the sensitivity and noise figure of the receiver
amplifier – has several advantages:
a. greater gain, thus better sensitivity
b. improved image-frequency rejection
c. better signal-to-noise ratio
d. better selectivity

2. Mixer/converter section –includes RF oscillator (local oscillator) and mixer/

converter (first detector)
mixer – nonlinear device that convert RF to IF, performs heterodyning
most common IF (intermediate frequency) = 455 kHz

3. IF section – consists of IF amplifiers and BPF called IF strip

IF < RF  to attain high-gain stable amplifiers

4. Detector section - convert IF to original information signal (such as AF)

- also called audio detector or second detector
- can be a single diode or a PLL or a balanced demodulator

5. Audio amplifier section – amplifies the AF signal

 Receiver Operation

Conversion of RF to IF to AF

RF in AM commercial broadcast: between 535 kHz to 1605 kHz

IF in AM broadcast band: 450 kHz and 460 kHz
IF in FM broadcast band: 10.7 MHz

Frequency conversion

RF signals are combined with LO frequency in a nonlinear device  harmonics

& cross-product frequencies  sum & difference frequencies
IF filters  tuned to the difference frequencies
Preselector & LO frequencies adjustment are gang tuned  two adjustments
are mechanically tied together so that a single adjustment will change
the center frequency of the preselector at the same time change
the LO frequency

f LO  f RF  f IF
For high-side injection (LO freq. above RF): where
f LO  LO freq. (Hz)
For low-side injection (LO freq. below RF): f LO  f RF  f IF f RF  RF ( Hz)
f IF  IF ( Hz)
Using high-side injection  tuning the preselector to channel 2 (550kHz carrier
frequency), with 30-kHz passband allows chan 1, 2 & 3 (each with 10-kHz
BW) and mixed it with LO freq=1005kHz to produce 455kHz IF
* although 3 channels are preselected, but since the bandwidth of the IF filter
is only from 450 kHz to 460 kHz, only chan 2 can pass through IF filters

Example: For an AM superheterodyne receiver that uses high-side injection and has a local osc.
frequency of 1355 kHz, determine the IF carrier, upper side freq. & lower freq. for an RF
wave that is made up of a carrier and upper and lower side freq. of 900 kHz, 905 kHz &
895 kHz, respectively.
Referring to the figure below:

Solution:
f IF  f LO  f RF  1335kHz  900kHz  455kHz
f IF (usf )  f LO  f RF ( lsf )  1355kHz  895kHz  460kHz
f IF (lsf )  f LO  f RF ( usf )  1355kHz  905kHz  450kHz

*sideband inversion - RF upper side frequency translated to IF lower freq. and RF

lower side freq. translated to IF upper freq.
Local Oscillator Tracking – the ability of the LO to oscillate either above or below
the selected radio frequency carrier by an amount equal to the IF
throughout the entire RF band
Image Frequency – any frequency other than the selected radio frequency carrier
that, if allowed to enter a receiver and mix with LO, will produce
a cross-product frequency that is equal to the IF
- equivalent to a second RF that will produce an IF that will interfere with
the IF from the desired RF
f im  f LO  f IF
f im  f RF  2 f IF

2 f IF
f IF f IF
frequency

IF RF LO Image

Image-Frequency Rejection Ratio (IFRR) – numerical measure of the ability

of the receiver to reject image frequency

IFRR  (1  Q 2  2 ) where   f im f RF    f RF f im 
Example: For an AM broadcast-band superheterodyne receiver with IF, RF and LO
frequencies of 455kHz, 600kHz and 1055 kHz, respectively, determine
a. Image frequency
b. IFRR for a preselector Q of 100
Mixer/converter
RF=600kHz LO-RF=IF 1055-600=455 kHz
Image=1510kHz Image-LO=IF 1510-1055=455 kHz

Local Oscillator
1055 kHz

Solution:
a. f im  1055kHz  455kHz  1510kHz or
f im  600kHz  2(455kHz)  1510kHz
b. 1510kHz 600kHz
   2.113
600kHz 1510kHz
IFRR  1  100 2 2.113 2   211 .3

Note: the closer the RF is to the IF, the closer the RF is to the image frequency
Example: For a citizens band receiver using high-side injection with an RF carrier
of 27MHz and an IF center frequency of 455 kHz, determine:
a. LO frequency b. image frequency
c. IFRR for a preselector Q of 100
d. preselector Q required to achieve the same IFRR as that of the previous
example for RF carrier of 600 kHz
Solution:
a. f LO  27 MHz  455kHz  27.455MHz
b. f im  27.455MHz  455kHz  27.91MHz
27.91MHz 27 MHz
c.     1.0337  0.9673  0.0663
27 MHz 27.91MHz
IFRR  1  Q 2  2  1  1002 0.06632   6.77

d. Q 
IFRR 2
 1

211.3 1
2
 3167
2 0.06632

Note:
 for the two example, it is more difficult to prevent image frequencies for
high RF than low RF
 For higher IFRR, this will require high Q – difficult to achieve use high IF

Double Spotting – when receiver picks up the same station at two nearby points
on the receiver tuning dial
 AM Receiver Circuits

RF Amplifiers Circuit

Characteristics of good RF:

a. Low thermal noise
b. Low noise figure
c. Moderate to high gain
d. Low intermodulation and harmonic distortion (i.e. linear operation)
e. Moderate selectivity
f. High IFRR

VN  4 RKTB where VN  noise voltage

R - load resistance
K - Boltzmann' s constant  1.38x10 -23 joules / o K
T - absolute temp.  290 o K
B - bandwidth (Hz)
Comparing the three kinds of RF amplifier configurations:
1. Bipolar transistor – more nonlinear distortion
2. DEMOS-FET – square law device which offers only second-order harmonic
- less nonlinear distortion
3. Cascoded - high gain and less noise

Low-Noise Amplifiers (LNA) – generally includes 2 stages with impedance

matching networks
1st stage  moderate gain and minimum noise
2nd stage  high gain and moderate noise
Silicon BJT or FET  Up to 2 GHz
GaAs FETs  more than 2 GHz
 uses MESFET (Mesa Semiconductor FET), a metal-semiconductor
junction at the gate called Schottky barrier
Example of LNA – IC RF Amplifier NE/SA5200
Mixer/Converter Circuits

From RF amplifier: sin(2f RF t )

From the LO: sin(2f LOt )

Output of the mixer: 1 1

Vout  sin(2f RF t )sin 2f LO t   cos2  f RF  f LO t  cos2  f RF  f LO t 
2 2

•Uses FET
•Conversion loss – IF output signal amplitude lower than RF input signal
Kinds:
1. Self – excited
2. Separately excited mixer
3. Single-diode mixer
4. Balanced diode mixer
5. IC mixer/oscillator – NE/SA602A
IF Amplifier circuit
- operate at lower frequency
- advantage: easy to design stable circuit

Inductive Coupling
- coupling IF amplifiers
Es  MI p
Where Es - voltage magnitude induced in the secondary windings (volts)
 - angular velocity of the primary voltage wave (radians per se
M - mutual inductance (henrys)
I p - primary current (amperes)

2 kinds of transformers:
1. single-tuned transformers
2. Double-tuned transformers
Single - tuned Double-tuned
Gain for single-tuned = 0.707
two-tuned = (0.707 x 0.707) = 0.5
three – tuned = (0.707 x 0.707 x 0.707) = 0.353
Bandwidth reduction
Over-all bandwidth of n single-tuned stages

 1  Where Bn - bandwidth of n single-tuned stages (Hz)

Bn  B1  2 n  1 
  B1 - bandwidth of one single-tuned stage (Hz)
n - number of stages (any positive integer)

Bandwidth of n double-tuned stages

1

Bndt  B1dt 2
1
n
 1
4
Where Bndt - bandwidth of n double-tuned stages (Hz)
  B1dt - bandwidth of one double-tuned stage (Hz
n - number of stages (any positive integer)
 AM DETECTOR CIRCUITS

AM Detector:

 demodulate the AM signal  recover or reproduce the

 frequencies of original signal
 relative amplitude
 also called second detector
• mixer/converter  1st detector

Kinds of Detector:
1. Peak Detector - noncoherent

RC filter output  difference frequencies

of LSF, Carrier and USF
Ex. Vout freq= 300 – 298 kHz
= 2kHz
•Difference between AM modulator & AM demodulator:
- AM modulator  output is tuned to the sum frequencies (up-converter)
- AM demodulator output is tuned to the difference freq.
(down-converter)
Percent of Modulation:
a. no modulation  peak detector is a filtered halfwave rectifier
 output voltage = peak input voltage – 0.3A
b. With modulation  increase in the variations in the output voltage
 follows the shape of the AM envelope

Detector Distortion:  based on the RC value  short RC time constant is neede

a. Rectifier distortion  short RC
b. Diagonal clipping  long RC

1m 1
2
f m (max) 
2RC

For 70% modulation:

1
f m (max) 
2RC
Automatic Gain Control Circuits  adjusts the voltage gain of received signal to
increase weak signals and decrease strong RF signal that may overdrive
the receiver

Types of AGC:
1. Simple AGC – monitors the received signal level and sends a signal back to the
RF and IF amplifiers to adjust their gain automatically
2. Delayed AGC – prevents the AGC feedback voltage from reaching the RF
and IF amplifiers until the RF level exceeds a predetermined magnitude
3. Forward AGC – receive signal is monitored closer to the front end of the receiver
and correction voltage is fed forward to the IF amplifiers

Squelch Circuit – to quiet a receiver in the absence of a received signal

- keeps the audio section of the receiver turned off or muted RF signal the
absence of a received signal
disadvantage – weak RF signals will not produce an audio output.
Noise Limiters & Blankers
Noise limiters - use diode limiters or clippers in the audio section
- limiting or clipping threshold level is normally established
just above the max. peak level of the audio signal.
Blanking ckt - detects the occurrence of a high-amplitude, short duration
noise spike, then mutes the receiver by shutting off a portion
of the receiver for the duration of the pulse
Alternate Signal – to – Noise Measurements

To measure sensitivity, measure the

A. Signal Plus Noise-to-noise reading (S+N)/N

Steps:
1. An RF carrier modulated 30% by a 1-kHz tone is applied to the input of the receiver
2. Measure the total audio power at the receiver’s output  S+N
3. Remove the modulation from the RF signal
4. Measure the total audio power again  N
5. Get the (S+N)/N value

B. Signal-to-notched noise ratio

Steps:
6. An RF carrier modulated 30% by a 1-kHz tone is applied to the input of the receiver
7. Measure the total audio power at the receiver’s output  S+N
8. Insert 1-kHz notch filter between receiver output and the power meter
9. Measure power (with noise)

 meaningful only if the notch filter has extremely narrow bandwidth and introduces
40 dB or more of attenuation to the signal
 Linear IC AM receivers:
a. LM 1820
b. LM 386 – LIC audio amplifier
Double-Conversion AM Receivers
- for good image-frequency rejection  use high IF  leads to unstable IF
- use two IF to solve the problem

First IF  relatively high frequency for good image-frequency rejection

second IF  low frequency for easy amplification

First IF = 10.625 MHz

- pushes the image-freq.
21.25 MHz away from the
desired RF
Second IF = 455 kHz
Net Receiver Gain – ratio between the modulated signal level at the output of the
receiver (audio) to the RF signal level at the input of the receiver
- difference between the audio signal level in dBm and the RF signal level
in dBm
GdB  gains dB  losses dB

Where
gains = RF amplifier gain + IF amplifier gain + audio amplifier gain
losses = preselector loss + mixer loss + detector loss

Example: For an AM receiver with a -80dBm RF input signal level and the following
gains and losses, determine the net receiver gain and the audio signal level

Gains: RF amplifier=33 dB, IF amplifier = 47 dB, audio amplifier =25 dB

Losses: preselector loss =3 dB, mixer loss = 6 dB, detector loss=8 dB
Solution:
the sum of the gains is = 33 + 47 + 25 = 105 dB
the sum of the losses is = 3 + 6 + 8 = 17 dB
net receiver gain, G = 105 – 17 = 88 dB
audio signal level = -80 dBm + 88 dB = 8 dBm

Net receiver gain = includes only the components within the receiver
System gain = includes all the gains and losses incurred by a signal as it propagates from
the transmitter output stage to the output of the detector in the receiver
and includes antenna gains, transmission line and propagation losses