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AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
AM demodulation is the reverse process of AM
modulation.
A conventional DSBFC AM receiver simply
converts received amplitude-modulated wave
back to the original source information
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
RF section is the first stage of the receiver and is
responsible for detecting, bandlimiting and amplifying the
received RF signals.
Mixer/converter section downconverts the received RF
frequencies to intermediate frequencies (IF). IFs are
frequencies that fall somewhere between the RF and
information frequencies (baseband).
IF section its primary functions are amplification and
selectivity.
AM detector demodulates the AM wave and converts it to
the original information signal.
Audio section amplifies the recovered information.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
One common way of evaluating the selectivity of
a radio receiver is to give the bandwidth at the -3
dB points.
This bandwidth, however, is not necessarily a good
means of determining how well the receiver will
reject unwanted frequencies.
Instead, it is better to give the receiver bandwidth
at two levels of attenuation: -3 dB and -60 dB.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
AM Receiver Block Diagram
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Receiver parameters are commonly used to
evaluate the ability of a receiver to successfully
demodulate a radio signal.
The two most important parameters are selectivity
and sensitivity.
Selectivity is the measure of the ability of the
receiver to accept a given band of frequencies
and reject all others.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Shape factor is the ratio of the two bandwidth levels. It is
mathematically expressed as:
% = 100
where SF = shape factor (unitless)
B(-60 dB) = bandwidth 60 dB below maximum signal level
B(-3 dB) = bandwidth 3 dB below maximum signal level
Ideally, the bandwidth at the -3 dB and -60 dB points
would be equal and the shape factor would be 1.
However, this value is impossible to achieve in a practical
circuit.
A radio receiver must be capable of separating the desired
channels signals without allowing interference from an
adjacent channel to spill over into the desired channels
passband.
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AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Recall that thermal noise is directly proportional to
bandwidth.
Bandwidth improvement is the noise reduction
ratio achieved by reducing the bandwidth.
where BI is the bandwidth improvement, BRF is the RF
bandwidth and BIF is the IF bandwidth.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Dynamic Range
is defined as the difference in decibels between the
minimum input level necessary to discern a
signal and the input level that will overdrive the
receiver and produce distortion.
In other words, the dynamic range is the input
power range over which the receiver is useful.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Phase distortion is brought about by filtering (both wanted
and unwanted). It is not particularly important for voice
transmission (since the human ear is relatively insensitive to
phase variations), however, it can be devastating to data
transmission.
Absolute phase shift is the total phase shift encountered by a
signal and can generally be tolerated as long as all
frequencies undergo the same amount of phase delay.
Differential phase shift occurs when different frequencies
undergo different phase shifts and may have a
detrimental effect on a complex waveform, especially if the
information is encoded into the phase of the carrier as it is
with phase shift keying modulation.
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AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Sensitivity of a receiver is the minimum RF signal
level that can be detected at the input to the receiver
and still produce a usable demodulated information
signal. (Although the quality of a usable information
signal is arbitrary.) It is also known as the receiver
threshold.
The sensitivity of a receiver is usually stated in
microvolts (V) of received signal.
The sensitivity of an AM receiver depends on:
the noise power present at the input to the receiver,
the receivers noise figure,
the sensitivity of the AM detector, and
the bandwidth improvement factor of the receiver.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Fidelity
is a measure of the ability of a communications
system to produce, at the output of the receiver, an
exact replica of the original source information.
Any frequency, phase, or amplitude variations that
are present in the demodulated waveform that
were not in the original information signal are
considered distortion.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Insertion loss (IL) is generally defined as the ratio
of the power transferred to a load with a filter in
the circuit to the power transferred to a load
without the filter. Hence, it is associated with the
frequencies that fall within the passband of a filter.
Ratio of the output power of a filter to the input
power for frequencies that fall within the filters
passband and is stated mathematically in decibels
as
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AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Noise Temperature and Equivalent Noise Temperature
Noise can be expressed in degrees as well as watts or
volts:
Equivalent noise temperature (Te) is often used in low-
noise, sophisticated radio receivers rather than noise
figure. Te is an indication of the reduction in the SNR as
a signal propagates through a receiver. The lower the
equivalent noise temperature, the better the quality
of the receiver.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Tuned Radio-Frequency Receiver
One of the earliest types of AM receiver was the
tuned radio frequency (TRF) receiver.
The TRF includes an RF stage, a detector stage and an
audio stage.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Superheterodyne Receiver
The non-uniform selectivity of the TRF led to
the development of the superheterodyne receiver
near the end of WWI. It has remained in use until
today because its gain, selectivity, and sensitivity
are superior to those of other receiver
configurations. Heterodyne means to mix two
frequencies together in a nonlinear device or to
translate one frequency to another using nonlinear
mixing.
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AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
AM RECEIVERS
There are two basic types of radio receivers: coherent
and noncoherent.
Coherent receiver also known as synchronous receiver,
must see to it that the frequencies generated in the
receiver and used for demodulated are synchronized to
oscillator frequencies generated in the transmitter. It has
to have some mechanism on how to retrieve the carrier
and synchronize to it.
Noncoherent receiver also known as envelope detector,
detects the shape of the modulated envelope of the
received waveform to recover the information.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
There are three distinct disadvantages of the TRF:
1. Its bandwidth is inconsistent and varies with center
frequency when tuned over a wide range of input
frequencies. This is caused by skin effect.
2. It is unstable due to the large number of RF
amplifiers all tuned to the same center frequency. High-
frequency, multi-stage amplifiers are susceptible to
breaking into oscillations. This can be reduced by a
technique called stagger tuning wherein each amplifier
is tuned to a slightly different frequency, slightly above
or below the desired center frequency.
3. Its gain is not uniform over a very wide frequency
range due to the non-uniform L/C ratios of the
transformer-coupled tank circuits in the RF amplifiers.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
SUPERHETERODYNE RECEIVER
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AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Components of a Superheterodyne Receiver
RF section consists of a preselector and an amplifier stage.
Preselector is a broad-tuned bandpass filter with an
adjustable center frequency that is tuned to the desired carrier
frequency.
Its primary purpose is to provide initial bandlimiting to prevent a
specific unwanted radio frequency, called the image frequency.
It also reduces the noise bandwidth of the receiver and provides the
initial reduction of the overall receiver bandwidth to the minimum
bandwidth required to pass the information signals.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Mixer/converter section includes a RF oscillator stage
(local oscillator) and a mixer/converter stage (first
detector).
Local oscillator can be any oscillator circuit
depending on the required stability and accuracy.
Mixer stage - is a nonlinear device the purpose of
which is to convert RF to intermediate frequencies (IF).
Despite the frequency translation (most common IF used
in AM broadcast-band receivers is 455 kHz), the shape
of the AM envelope remains the same. (IFs range from
450 kHz to 460 kHz.)
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Detection section its purpose is to convert the IF
signals back to the original source information. It is
generally called an audio detector or the second
detector. The detector can be as simple as a single
diode or as complex as a phase-locked loop (PLL)
or balanced demodulator.
Audio amplifier section comprises several
cascaded audio amplifiers and one or more
speakers. The number of amplifiers used depends
on the audio signal power desired.
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AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
RF amplifier determines the sensitivity of the receiver
(i.e., sets the signal threshold).
It is a predominant factor in determining the noise
figure of the receiver since it is the first active device
encountered by a received signal. The advantages of
including RF amplifiers in a receiver are as follows:
Greater gain, thus better sensitivity
Improved image-frequency rejection
Better signal-to-noise ratio
Better selectivity
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
IF section consists of a series of IF amplifiers and
bandpass filters and it is often called the IF strip. Most
of the receiver gain and selectivity is achieved in this
section.
The IF center frequency and bandwidth are constant for
all stations and are chosen so that their frequency is
less than any of the RF signals to be received.
Why at a lesser frequency than RF?
It is easier and less expensive to construct high-gain,
stable amplifiers for the low-frequency signals.
IF amplifiers are less likely to oscillate than their RF
counterparts.
AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION
Frequency Conversion in an AM Superheterodyne Receiver
Frequency conversion in the mixer/converter stage is
identical to the frequency conversion in the modulator stage
of a transmitter except that in the receiver, the frequencies
are down-converted rather than up-converted.
RF signals are combined with the local oscillator frequency
in a nonlinear device. (Caveat: The local oscillator frequency
is not the same as the carrier frequency, since a
superheterodyne receiver is the noncoherent-type.)
The output frequencies of the mixer include the sum and
difference frequencies between the desired RF carrier and
local oscillator frequencies.
The local oscillator is designed such that its frequency of
oscillation is always above or below the desired RF carrier
by an amount equal to the IF center frequency.
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AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION

As a consequence, the difference between the RF and Mathematically, the local oscillator frequency is
the local oscillator frequency is always equal to the IF.
For high-side injection
The adjustment for the center frequency of the
For low-side injection
preselector and the adjustment for the local oscillator
frequency are gang tuned. Where fLO = local oscillator frequency (hertz)
Gang tuning means that the two adjustments are
fRF = radio frequency (hertz)
mechanically tied together.
When the local oscillator is tuned above the RF, it is fIF = intermediate frequency (hertz)
called high-side injection or highbeat injection.
When the local oscillator is tuned below the RF, it is
called low-side injection or lowbeat injection.
In AM broadcast-band receivers, high-side injection is
always used.

AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION

EXAMPLE:
For an AM superheterodyne receiver that uses high-
side injection and has a local oscillator frequency of
1355 kHz, determine the IF carrier, IF upper side
frequency, and the IF lower side frequency for an RF
wave that is made up of a carrier and upper and
lower side frequencies of 900 kHz, 905 kHz and 895 Note: Sideband inversion occurred during the
kHz, respectively. heterodyning process.

AMPLITUDE MODULATION RECEPTION