Basic AM

Modulation
Amplitude
Spectrum
Carrier
Sideband

v (t ) (1 m cos mt ) EC cos C t

C
C m

Modulation index
0<m<1
How to measure?
Modulated carrier vs baseband signal

What happens when m>1?

Waveforms
Base Band and Modulation
m = 100%

m = 120%
Math
Real

Spectrum
Double Side Band Full Carrier
Spectrum
LSB, USB, Carrier

Efficiency
Efficiency in Using Bandwidth?
Two side bands

Efficiency in Using Power?

Carrier

V 2 Ec2 (sin c t )2 Ec2

Pc

R
R
2R

Side band

m 2 Pc
Plsb Pusb
4

Information in side band

Carrier for synchronization

Variations of AM
Bandwidth Efficiency
Single Side Band
Vestigial Side Band

Power Efficiency
Reduced Carrier
Suppressed Carrier

Complication
Circuits: generation, tuning, detection
Filter, tone variation, carrier recovery

AM Radio
Source
Audio, 20-20 kHz

Carrier Frequency
525 1705 kHz

Performance
5 kHz bandwidth
250-500 km range
50 V sensitivity

AM Radio

Commercial AM Radio
Circuit Diagram

Commercial Radio
Circuit Board

Block Diagram

Crucial Components
RF Amplifier
High dynamic range

Autodyne Oscillator and Mixer

Tuning

Loop Antenna
LC resonator

Intermediate Frequency Amplifiers

455 kHz
Tank circuit (double tuner) with flat center band

Diode RF Rectifier
Envelope detection

Automatic Gain Control

Strong vs weak stations

Audio Amplifier
Speaker

Heterodyne
Incoming RF

vRF (t ) (1 m cos mt ) EC cos C t

RF amplifier
Bandpass filter

Local Oscillator
Mixer

vLO (t ) E LO cos(C IF )t

Nonlinear device or balanced mixer

v (t ) (1 m sin t ) E E cos( )t
Bandpass filter
Signal proportional to local oscillator strength
IF

LO

IF

Intermediate Frequency (AM at 455 kHz)

No further tuning

EMI from Local Oscillator

Detection
Baseband Signal
Coherent Detection

vRF (t ) m A(t )

vRF (t ) (1 m A(t )) EC cos C t

AM modulation
vLO (t ) ELO cos C t
Local oscillator
vM (t ) (1 m A(t )) EC ELO cos C t cos C t
Mixer
vLP (t ) (1 m A(t )) EC E LO / 2
LP filter
vO (t ) m A(t ) EC E LO / 2
AC coupling
High sensitivity for low
S/N

Envelope Detection
Circuit
RF rectifier
Filter
RC time constant
Simple for high S/N

Waveform

Detection
Square Law Detector

Modulation
Nonlinearity
RF filter
Low pass and AC
coupling

vRF (t ) (1 m A(t )) EC cos C t

vsq (t ) (1 m A(t )) 2 EC2 cos2 C t

vRF LF (t ) (1 m A(t )) 2 EC2 / 2

vLF (t ) m A(t ) EC2

Performance

Sensitivity
Fidelity or Bandwidth
Dynamic Range
Selectivity
Adjacent channel

Image Rejection
IF

Spurious Response
Harmonics

Squelch
Noises
Static noise from transmission media
Motor boating noise from drift in frequency

Lab and Projects

Virtual Laboratory
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/load
Category.do
(Search: FM AM)

Matlab project
http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/classes/ee151/Winter01/

Software Radio (http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/Eproject-042805-113037/unrestricted/DASR_MQP_REPORT.pdf)

Simple AM Projects
Experiments
Agilent 33120 AM modulation
MC1496
http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/AN531-D.PDF

AM Transmitter
History
Block Diagram

Automatic Level Control

m<1

AM Modulator
Balanced Mixer
Other Circuit
Base band signal modulates oscillator current

Power Amplifier
Impedance Matching
Maximize Power to the Load
Impedance
Z=V/I

Change V I Relation
Transformer
High current, low voltage
Low current, high voltage

RLC Networks
Frequency dependent impedance

Impedance Matching
MIT Open Courseware
http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Electrical-Engineering-andComputer-Science/6-776Spring-2005/025E9FB7-46C3-4718-98EA-C
BD23EEC9D98/0/lec4.pdf

Berkeley RLC Pi and T LC Network

Calculator
http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research/RF/projects/60GHz/matc
hing/ImpMatch.html

Role of Antenna
Impedance transformation between circuit and
free space

Short Wave Radio

Terrestrial Coverage, HAM

http://n5xu.ece.utexas.edu/hamradio/

Regenerative Receiver Project

http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/receivers/regen-radio-receiver.htm

HAM
http://www.arrl.org/hamradio.html
http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/
Spectral analysis of audio signals

http://www.ac6v.com/
Antenna projects

http://www.radio.org/linux/
Linux HAM

AM Stereo
Two Channels
L+R
L-R

Quadrature Amplitude Modulation

Sin, Cos: orthogonal
Increase Information Capacity Without
Increasing Bandwidth

Motorola CQUAM System

Details
Chip

Modern Application of AM
Advanced Television Systems
Committee (ATSC)
8-VSB Digital Signaling

AM Noise Analysis
DSBFC Signal and Noise
e(t ) (1 m A(t )) EC cos C t n C cos(C t ) n S sin(C t )

Baseband signal power: SM m 2 A2 EC2 / 2

Carrier power: SC EC2 / 2
Noise spectral density: N 0 / 2
Double sideband bandwidth: 2 2W
2
2
N

2
W

n
/
2

n
/2
0
c
s
Total noise power:

Coherent Detection

eD (t ) (1 m A(t )) EC ELO / 2 n C E LO / 2

In phase noise only

2
2
2
S
/
N

E
/ 2WN 0
C
S/N

AM Noise Analysis
Envelope Detection
Signal Dominant Regime
e(t ) [(1 m A(t )) EC ) n C ]2 ns2 (1 m A(t )) EC n C

Similar to coherent detection

Noise Dominant Regime

Noise large
Signal small with random phase
e(t ) nC2 ns2 (1 m A(t )) EC cos

Numerical Analysis

AM Review

AM Waveform
Modulation Index Limit
Double Sideband, Full Carrier
Detection Circuits
Coherent detection
Envelope detection

Variations
SSB, RC or SC
Vestigial sideband

AM Transmitter
Impedance matching
Efficiency