ES440 Lab#4

ES440. Lab 4
Amplitude Modulation and Demodulation

I. Objective
1. Build simple AM modulator by using Crystal Oscillator.
2. Build simple envelope detector for AM demodulation.

II. Introduction
For AM signals, the information is carried by the amplitude (or envelope) of the
signal. There are many ways to detect the envelope of AM signals. Here we will
consider the simplest, used by most portable radios, the envelope detector, as shown
in Fig. 1.

Fig. 1 Envelope Detector

This is essentially just a halfwave rectifier which charges a capacitor to a voltage to

the peak voltage of the incoming AM waveform. When the input wave's amplitude
increases, the capacitor voltage is increased via the rectifying diode. When the input's
amplitude falls, the capacitor voltage is reduced by being discharged by a ‘bleed’
resistor, R. The main advantage of this form of AM Demodulator is that it is very
simple and cheap! Just one diode, one capacitor, and one resistor. That's why it is
used so often. However, it does suffer from some practical problems, as shown in Fig.
2.

Tc Tm

Fig. 2 Operations of Envelope Detector

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Whenever the amplitude of the AM signal starts to drop, the capacitor will discharge
through the resistor. Denote the maximum amplitude of the AM signal as V p , then
the capacitor discharge will follow the following equation
V p' = Vp exp( −t / τ )
where τ = RC is the time constant of the RC circuits.

It can be seen from Fig. 2 that, in order to minimize the ripple effect at high voltage,
we should have τ >> Tc , where Tc is the period of the carrier. On the other hand, in
order to minimize the negative peak clipping, we wish the voltage drops as fast as
possible, thus τ << Tm , where Tm is the period of the modulating signal (envelope).
Based on the discussion above, the value of R and C should be chosen such that
Tc << RC << Tm .

III. Pre-lab
1. Consider an AM signal s( t ) = Ac [1 + m( t ) ]cos( 2πf ct ) with amplitude Ac = 3V and
carrier frequency f c = 1 KHz. The modulation signal (envelope) is
m(t ) = 0.5 cos( 2πf mt ) with modulating frequency f m = 10 Hz.
(a) Find out Tc and Tm .
(b) An envelope detector with time constant τ = 10 ms is used for demodulation.
Will this envelope detector successfully perform demodulation? If the
capacitor is 10 µF , calculate the value of the resistor.

IV. Procedures

A. Amplitude Demodulation with Envelope Detector

1. Use the function generator generate an AM signal

s( t ) = 3[1 + 0.5 cos( 2πf mt )] cos( 2πf c t ) with f m = 10 Hz and f c = 1 KHz. Capture the
time domain signal in the oscilloscope. (Label the value of Amax and Amin in your
report).
2. Construct the circuit shown in Fig. 1 with the prototype board. Use IN4001 as the
diode. The time constant of the circuit is chosen to be 10ms (why?). The capacitor
is 10uF. Choose the resistor based on your pre-lab calculation.
3. Apply the AM signal to the input of the envelope detector. Use channel 1 of the
oscilloscope to observe the AM signal.
4. Use channel 2 of the oscilloscope to measure the output of the envelope detector.
To get a stable display, set the trigger signal to channel 2. Capture the display.
5. Change the modulating signal to square wave. Capture the display.
6. Set f m = 100 Hz and f c = 1 KHz. What do you observe and why? Capture the
display.

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 ES440 Lab#4

7. Set f m = 10 Hz and f c = 1 00Hz. What do you observe and why? Capture the
display.

B. Amplitude Modulation with Crystal Oscillator

In this section we are going to build a simple AM radio transmitter by using a
1MHz crystal oscillator. The circuit diagram of the AM radio transmitter is shown
in the following figure.

Fig. 2 A simple AM radio transmitter

1. Build the circuit as shown in Fig. 2 with the audio transformer and 1MHz crystal
oscillator. (IMPORTANT: A voltage higher than 9V will destroy the crystal
oscillator).
2. Connect the mono-plug or stero-plug to a music player or computer, and play
music.
3. Tune the AM radio to 1MHz. Adjust the volume until you have clear reception of
the music.

C. Amplitude Demodulation with AM Radio

In this section we are going to demodulate the AM signal with a portable AM
radio, and listen to the demodulated signal.

1. Use the function generator to generate an AM waveform

s( t ) = 3[1 + 0.5 cos( 2πf mt )] cos( 2πf c t ) with f m = 500 Hz and f c = 1 MHz. Attach a
long wire at the output of the function generator as antenna. Theoretically, the
length of the antenna should be ¼ of the carrier wavelength. What is the
theoretical length of the antenna?
2. Tune your radio to 1MHz. Adjust the volume until you hear the tone.
3. Use the knob the freely adjust the value of f m , and listen to the change of tone
frequency in the radio. Identify the highest frequency and lowest frequency that
you can hear.
4. Adjust the modulation index. What happens? Explain.

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