Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Page | 1
Superheterodyne AM Receiver
The illustration shown in Figure 17-3 shows the different parts of a superheterodyne
AM receiver and the signal flow through it.
The frequency band for AM broadcast receivers is 540 kHz to 1640 kHz. As we can see
from the figure above, the different parts of the superheterodyne AM receiver are illustrated and
how the signal is processed on each part. The antenna picks up all radiated signals and feeds them
into the RF amplifier. These picked up signals are very small. The RF amplifier can be adjusted or
tuned to select and amplify any carrier frequency within the AM broadcast band. Only the selected
frequency and its two side bands pass through the amplifier. Local oscillator is the circuit that
generates a steady sine wave at a frequency 455 kHz above the selected RF frequency. The mixer
has two inputs that comes from the local oscillator and the RF amplifier. The signals from these
Page | 2
two are mixed by a nonlinear process called heterodyning to produce a sum and difference
frequencies. For the IF or the intermediate amplifier, the input is the 455 kHz AM signal, a copy
of the original AM carrier signal except that the frequency has been lowered to 455 kHz. This also
significantly increase the level of the signal. The detector recovers the modulating signal or the
audio signal from the 455 kHz intermediate frequency. The output of the detector is just the audio
signal since at this point the IF is no longer needed. The audio and power amplifier amplifies the
detected audio signal and drives the speaker to produce sound. Finally, the automatic gain control
or the AGC provides a dc level out of the detector that is proportional to the strength of the received
signal. This level is fed back to the IF amplifier and sometimes to the mixer and RF amplifier to
adjust the gains so as to maintain constant signal levels throughout the system over the wide range
of incoming carrier signal strengths.
FREQUENCY MODULATION
In frequency modulation (FM), the modulating signal (audio) varies the frequency of a
carrier as opposed to the amplitude, as in the case of AM. Figure 17-4 shows the basic frequency
modulation.
The standard FM broadcast band consists of carrier frequencies from the 88 MHz to 108
MHz, which is significantly higher that AM.
Superheterodyne FM receiver
The FM receiver is similar to the AM receiver in many ways, but there are
significant differences. Figure 17-6 shows the different parts of an FM receiver and how
the signal flow through it.
Page | 3
Page | 4
For the multiplier transfer characteristics for a typical IC linear multiplier of two input
voltages Vx and Vy . Values of Vx run along the horizontal axis and the values of Vy are the sloped
lines. To find the ouput voltage from the transfer characteristics graph, find the intersection of the
two input voltages Vx and Vy. Then find the output by projecting the point of intersection over the
vertical axis. The scale factor, K is set to 1/10 which is basically the attenuation that reduces the
output by a fixed amount. This is adjustable but the typical value of 0.1 or 1/10.
Some basic applications of linear multiplier are multiplier, squaring circuit, divide circuit,
square root circuit, and mean square circuit. Figure 17-13 shows the illustration of a multiplier. It
basically multiply two voltages.
Page | 5
AMPLITUDE MODULATION
Amplitude modulation is basically a multiplication process. From the Figure 17-18, we can
see that the carrier signal and the modulation signal are the inputs to the amplitude modulator
which basically a multiplier. Therefore, the output voltage is the input voltage multiplied by the
voltage gain.
For example, if the gain of an amplifier is made to vary sinusoidally at a certain frequency,
and an input signal is applied at a higher frequency, the output signal will have higher frequency.
However the amplitude will vary according to the variation in gain as shown in the figure.
Therefore, amplitude modulation is basically a multiplication process. This is shown in Figure 1719.
Page | 6
Mixer
For this part of the study our aim is to describe and discuss the function of a mixer, AM
demodulator, IF amplifiers, and Audio amplifiers
The basic property of the mixer is that it is actually a linear multiplier whose output is not
directly proportional to its input but to the product of its inputs. The mixer changes the frequency
of a signal to another value. It takes the incoming modulated RF signal along with the signal from
the local oscillator and produces a modulated signal containing not only the original frequency but
also the frequencies equal to the difference and sum of its two input frequencies.
AM Demodulation
Demodulation is the process of separating or extracting the modulation from a signal. A
demodulator is an electronic circuit used to recover the information content from a modulated
carrier wave. An AM signal consists of a carrier which acts as a reference.
When demodulating a signal, there are two steps to be considered. First is to create a
baseband signal and second is to use a filer. A basic AM demodulator is shown in figure 1. It is
composed of a linear multiplier to create the baseband signal and a low pass filter to remove any
unwanted high frequency elements from the demodulation process. The critical frequency of the
filter is the highest audio frequency that is required for a given application. For figure 1, the critical
frequency is set to 15 kHz.
Page | 7
Determine the output voltage for a four-quadrant linear multiplier whose transfer
characteristics is given in Figure 17-8. The input voltages are Vx = -2 V and Vy = +10 V.
If a 455 kHz IF modulated by a 1 kHz audio frequency is demodulated, what frequency
or frequencies appear on the output of the demodulator?
Page | 8
FREQUENCY MODULATION
Modulation: A carrier (high frequency signal; usually sinusoidal) is modified by a modulating
signal (voice, video/digital signal, audio, etc.) This can be done using either amplitude modulation
or frequency modulation.
AM versus FM
Amplitude Modulation: Variations in the modulating signal changes the value of the carrier signal
amplitude, with the frequency (of the carrier) being held constant.
Frequency Modulation: Carrier frequency varies according to the state of the modulating signal.
Figure 1 shows the basic frequency modulation of a signal. The frequency of the carrier signal
increases/decreases from its normal value, with the deviation controlled by the amplitude of the
modulating signal. In terms of amplitude, an increasing modulating signal raises the carrier
frequency above the normal value. A decreasing modulating signal likewise decreases the carrier
frequency. These relationships does not always hold true, as the reverse relationships can also be
applied. The amount of variation to normal value of the carrier frequency is referred to as the
frequency deviation. Maximum deviation is then observed during the maximum amplitude of the
modulating signal.
On the other hand, the frequency of the modulating signal determines the rate at which frequency
deviations occur, or how many times (per second) the carrier frequency increases/decreases from
its normal value. So for a modulating signal of a 1 kHz sine wave, the carrier frequency varies
1000 times per second.
Page | 9
A frequency modulated (FM) signal can be produced from a carrier signal by using a voltagecontrolled oscillator. Recall that the frequency generated by a VCO is determined by the input
voltage. For an input voltage that varies over time (e.g. sine wave), the resulting signal is then
frequency modulated, as shown above.
Disadvantages:
Excessive Spectrum Use the wider bandwidth of FM signals occupies more spectrum
space, giving way to unnecessary bandwidths.
Complex Circuitry circuits use in frequency modulation and demodulation are more
complex than the basic circuits needed in AM. FM transmission ICs has so far solved this
problem.
Page | 10
FREQUENCY DEMODULATION
Demodulation: The process of extracting the original modulating signal from a modulated signal
(also known as detection). Demodulator circuits accepts the modulated signal, and outputs the
modulating signal used for modulation.
Some Frequency Demodulation methods:
Slope Detection
Phase-Shift Discrimination
Radio Detection
Quadrature Detection
Phase-locked Loop Demodulation
Demodulation using Phase-locked Loops (PLLs) is one of the widespread methods used for such
purposes. In addition to demodulation, PLLs are also used in other communication applications
such as TV receivers, tone decoder, telemetric receiver, modems, data synchronizers, etc.
Basic PLL Concepts
The phase-locked loop is a frequency-sensitive feedback circuit consisting of three basic
components: the phase detector, a low-pass filter, and a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO).
The phase detector is used to compare the input (incoming signal Vin), with the VCO signal (Vc).
The output from the phase detector is then filtered (low pass), becoming proportional to the phase
difference between Vin and Vc. Filtering is done to rid the signal of high-frequency noise. The
filtered signal is then fed to the VCO, where it forces the VCO output to have the same frequency
with the input. The PLL finishes synchronization when the input and the VCO output attains the
same frequency. Any changes in the input frequency modifies the VCO output. To use the PLL as
a frequency demodulator, we only need to provide an FM signal as the PLL input. In this case, the
PLL will produce an output (VCO output) having the same frequency as the FM input, which is
basically the modulating signal of the FM input.
Page | 11
Page | 12
REFERENCES
1. Floyd, T. L., Electronic Devices 7th Edition (International). 2005
2. Frenzel, L. E., Principles of Electronic Communication Systems 3rd Edition. 2008
3. Amplitude modulation AM demodulation. Retrieved from http://www.radioelectronics.com/info/rf-technology-design/am-reception/amplitude-modulation-detectiondemodulation.php
Images Retrieved from:
http://zone.ni.com/reference/en-XX/help/370592E-01/digitizers/reference_clock/
http://www.sanfoundry.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/NE-565.png
Page | 13