Demodulation

Demodulation is extracting the original information- 2 Techniques

bearing signal from a modulated carrier wave. A demod-
ulator is an electronic circuit (or computer program in a There are several ways of demodulation depending on
software-dened radio) that is used to recover the infor- how parameters of the base-band signal such as ampli-
mation content from the modulated carrier wave.[1] There tude, frequency or phase are transmitted in the carrier
are many types of modulation so there are many types signal. For example, for a signal modulated with a lin-
of demodulators. The signal output from a demodulator ear modulation like AM (amplitude modulation), we can
may represent sound (an analog audio signal), images (an use a synchronous detector. On the other hand, for a
analog video signal) or binary data (a digital signal). signal modulated with an angular modulation, we must
These terms are traditionally used in connection with use an FM (frequency modulation) demodulator or a PM
radio receivers, but many other systems use many kinds (phase modulation) demodulator. Dierent kinds of cir-
of demodulators. For example, in a modem, which is a cuits perform these functions.
contraction of the terms modulator/demodulator, a de- Many techniques such as carrier recovery, clock recov-
modulator is used to extract a serial digital data stream ery, bit slip, frame synchronization, rake receiver, pulse
from a carrier signal which is used to carry it through a compression, Received Signal Strength Indication, error
telephone line, coaxial cable, or optical ber. detection and correction, etc., are only performed by de-
modulators, although any specic demodulator may per-
form only some or none of these techniques.
Many things can act as a demodulator, if they pass the
radio waves on nonlinearly. For example, near a powerful
1 History radio station, it has been known for the metal sides of a
van to demodulate the radio signal as sound.

Demodulation was rst used in radio receivers. In the

wireless telegraphy radio systems used during the rst
3 decades of radio (1884-1914) the transmitter did not
communicate audio (sound) but transmitted information
in the form of pulses of radio waves that represented text
messages in Morse code. Therefore, the receiver merely
had to detect the presence or absence of the radio sig-
nal, and produce a click sound. The device that did this
was called a detector. The rst detectors were coherers,
simple devices that acted as a switch. The term detector
stuck, was used for other types of demodulators and con-
tinues to be used to the present day for a demodulator in
a radio receiver.
The rst type of modulation used to transmit sound over
radio waves was amplitude modulation (AM), invented
by Reginald Fessendon around 1900. An AM radio sig-
nal can be demodulated by rectifying it, removing the ra-
dio frequency pulses on one side of the carrier, convert-
ing it from alternating current (AC) to a pulsating direct
current (DC). The amplitude of the DC varies with the
modulating audio signal, so it can drive an earphone. Fes-
sendon invented the rst AM demodulator in 1904 called
the electrolytic detector, consisting of a short needle dip-
ping into a cup of dilute acid. The same year John Am-
brose Fleming invented the Fleming valve or thermionic
diode which could also rectify an AM signal.
3 AM radio
An AM signal encodes the information onto the carrier
wave by varying its amplitude in direct sympathy with the
analogue signal to be sent. There are two methods used
to demodulate AM signals:
The envelope detector is a very simple method of
demodulation that does not require a coherent de-
modulator. It consists of an envelope detector that
can be a rectier (anything that will pass current in
one direction only) or other non-linear that enhances
one half of the received signal over the other and a
low-pass lter. The rectier may be in the form of
a single diode or may be more complex. Many nat-
ural substances exhibit this rectication behaviour,
which is why it was the earliest modulation and de-
modulation technique used in radio. The lter is
usually an RC low-pass type but the lter function
can sometimes be achieved by relying on the lim-
ited frequency response of the circuitry following
the rectier. The crystal set exploits the simplicity
of AM modulation to produce a receiver with very
few parts, using the crystal as the rectier and the

1
2 8 REFERENCES

limited frequency response of the headphones as the 6 QAM

lter.
Main article: QAM Receiver
The product detector multiplies the incoming sig-
nal by the signal of a local oscillator with the same
frequency and phase as the carrier of the incoming QAM demodulation requires a coherent receiver.
signal. After ltering, the original audio signal will
result.
7 See also
SSB is a form of AM in which the carrier is reduced or
suppressed entirely, which require coherent demodula- Detection theory
tion. For further reading, see sideband.
Detector (radio)

Fax demodulator
4 FM radio
Frequency modulation (FM) has numerous advantages
8 References
over AM such as better delity and noise immunity.
[1] Demodulator - Denitions from Dictionary.com. dic-
However, it is much more complex to both modulate and
tionary.reference.com. Retrieved 2008-05-16.
demodulate a carrier wave with FM and AM predates it
by several decades. [2] The ratio detector
There are several common types of FM demodulators:

The quadrature detector, which phase shifts the sig-

nal by 90 degrees and multiplies it with the unshifted
version. One of the terms that drops out from this
operation is the original information signal, which is
selected and amplied.

The signal is fed into a PLL and the error signal is

used as the demodulated signal.

The most common is a Foster-Seeley discriminator.

This is composed of an electronic lter which de-
creases the amplitude of some frequencies relative
to others, followed by an AM demodulator. If the
lter response changes linearly with frequency, the
nal analog output will be proportional to the input
frequency, as desired.

A variant of the Foster-Seeley discriminator called

the ratio detector[2]

Another method uses two AM demodulators, one

tuned to the high end of the band and the other to
the low end, and feed the outputs into a dierence
amplier.

Using a digital signal processor, as used in software-

dened radio.

5 PM
Main article: Phase modulation
 3

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