Amplitude and Frequency Modulation

Chapters 4 and 5 of Textbook

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Commercial Radio Broadcasting

AM broadcasting is done at several frequency bands.

Long Wave: 153-279 kHz with 9 kHz channel spacing

Medium Wave: 526.5 – 1,606.5 kHz with 9 kHz channel spacing
Short Wave: 2.3 - 26.1 MHz with 5 kHz channel spacing

(There are small differences in the frequency ranges used in North

America)

The FM radio band is from 88 to 108 MHz between VHF television Channels
6 and 7.

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 Amplitude modulation

Modulating signal, 𝑚 𝑡

Carrier Signal, 𝑠 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑐 cos 2𝜋𝑓𝑐 𝑡

(for simplicity, let us take 𝐴𝑐 =1)

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 If

Then,

Spectrum of baseband signal Spectrum of modulated signal

Note the two sidebands.

There is no discrete component of carrier frequency.
𝑓𝑐 ≫ 𝐵

It is called double-sideband suppressed carrier (DSB-SC) modulation

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Demodulation
Synchronous Detection or Coherent Detection

Multiply the modulated signal by a carrier (same as the one used for
modulation) followed by a low-pass filter.

What is the effect of

phase (or frequency)
error in coherent
detection ?

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 Amplitude Modulation (AM)

Instead of generating a local carrier at the receiver, we send the carrier

along with the modulated signal.

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AM signal and its envelope.
If

we can use Envelope

detection for
demodulation.

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Envelope detector for AM:

AM uses more power for transmission (due to additional carrier power),

but allows cheaper receivers (since envelope detectors can be used). Ideal
for broadcasting.

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For envelope detection, 𝐴 + 𝑚 𝑡 ≥ 0 for all t.

Let mp be the peak value (positive or negative) of the

signal m(t).

Then, 𝐴 ≥ 𝑚𝑝 .

𝑚𝑝
Define Modulation index 𝜇=
𝐴

Then,

𝟎≤𝝁≤𝟏

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Power efficiency of AM:

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Bandwidth efficient Amplitude modulations
• Single-sideband (SSB) modulation
• Vestigial Sideband (VSB) modulation

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Hilbert Transform

∞
1 𝑥(𝛼)
𝑥(𝑡) 𝑯(𝒇) 𝑥ℎ 𝑡 = 𝑑𝛼
𝜋 𝑡−𝛼
−∞

1
Output is convolution of 𝑥(𝑡) and
𝜋𝑡

Fourier Transform Pairs 𝑋ℎ 𝑓 = −𝑗𝑋 𝑓 𝑠𝑔𝑛(𝑓)

2
𝑠𝑔𝑛(𝑡) ⇔
𝑗2𝜋𝑓 Therefore, 𝑯 𝒇 = −𝒋 𝒔𝒈𝒏(𝒇)

1
⇔ −𝑗 𝑠𝑔𝑛(𝑓)
𝜋𝑡

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For SSB modulation by envelope detection, the carrier amplitude required is
much higher than in AM, and consequently, the efficiency of SSB+C is
pathetically low.
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Single sideband transmission is bandwidth efficient.
Envelope detection works for large carrier power, and
therefore, is power inefficient. Coherent detection is
normally used.

In VSB, instead of rejecting one sideband completely (as in

SSB), a gradual cutoff of one sideband is adopted, using a
shaping filter 𝐻𝑖 (𝑓). The baseband signal can be recovered
exactly by a synchronous detector in conjunction with an
appropriate equaliser filter 𝐻𝑜 (𝑓).

VSB is used in TV broadcasting, where there is sizable power in the low-

frequency region (and therefore difficult to suppress one sideband completely).
Envelope detector can be used by transmitting a sufficiently large carrier.

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 VSB Transmission

Transmitted signal:
𝜑𝑉𝑆𝐵 𝑓 = 𝑀 𝑓 + 𝑓𝑐 + 𝑀(𝑓 − 𝑓𝑐 𝐻𝑖 (𝑓)

At the receiver,
𝑒 𝑡 = 2𝜑𝑉𝑆𝐵 𝑡 cos 𝜔𝑐 𝑡
⇔ Φ𝑉𝑆𝐵 𝑓 + 𝑓𝑐 +Φ𝑉𝑆𝐵 𝑓 − 𝑓𝑐 .

After passing through the LPF,

𝑀 𝑓 = Φ𝑉𝑆𝐵 𝑓 + 𝑓𝑐 +Φ𝑉𝑆𝐵 𝑓 − 𝑓𝑐 𝐻𝑜 (𝑓)
= 𝑀(𝑓) 𝐻𝑖 𝑓 + 𝑓𝑐 + 𝐻𝑖 𝑓 − 𝑓𝑐 𝐻𝑜 (𝑓)

1
𝐻𝑜 𝑓 = 𝑓 ≤𝐵
𝐻𝑖 𝑓 + 𝑓𝑐 + 𝐻𝑖 𝑓 − 𝑓𝑐

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Given 𝐻𝑖 (𝑓), find 𝐻𝑜 (𝑓 .

VSB modulator and receiver filters.

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Television signal spectra: (a) DSB video signal plus audio; (b) signal transmitted.

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