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Chapter Five: Transmitters
Chapter Five: Transmitters
Chapter Five: Transmitters
Introduction
In spite of the wide variety of uses for transmitters, from toys to broadcasting transmitters, there are only a few topologies that are used in their design
Transmitter Requirements
A transmitter must generate a signal with the following criteria:
The correct modulation type Must have sufficient power Must generate at the correct carrier frequency Should be reasonably efficient
Frequency Agility
Frequency agility is the ability to change operating frequency rapidly, without extensive retuning Broadcast transmitters are rarely retuned Other services, such as CB, require rapid and accurate retuning to other channels
Spectral Purity
Spectral purity is a measure of the spurious signals generated by a transmitter All transmitters generate frequencies other than the carrier and the sidebands required for the modulation scheme in use All frequencies except the assigned transmitting frequency must be filtered out to avoid interference with other transmissions
Power Output
There are a number of ways to measure transmitter power, depending upon the modulation scheme employed Transmitters for full-carrier AM are rated in terms of carrier power Suppressed-carrier AM transmitters are rated by peakenvelope power (PEP) FM transmitters are rated by total power output
Efficiency
There are two important reasons for efficient transmitter operation:
Most obvious is energy conservation Power that enters the transmitter but does not exit via the transmitter output is converted into heat Large amounts of heat require significant amounts of additional hardware to remove the heat, adding to the cost of the equipment
Modulation Fidelity
An ideal communication system allows the original information signal to be recovered exactly, except for a time delay Compression is often used to raise the overall modulation level of the signal Compression distorts the overall dynamic range of the original signal, but results in an improved signal-to-noise ratio Other types of distortion such as intermodulation and harmonic distortion must also be kept at a minimum
Transmitter Topology
The figure at the right shows the block diagrams of some typical transmitters There are many varieties of transmitters but most are based upon these structures
AM Transmitters
AM transmitters are a mature technology, but are still in widespread use Examples include:
Standard AM broadcast stations CB radio VHF aircraft radio
AM Transmitter Stages
All of the stages of a transmitter (except the power amplifier and possibly the driver) operate at low power levels This part of the transmitter, exclusive of the powerhandling stages, is called the exciter Other transmitter components include:
The oscillator stage The buffer and multiplier stages The driver stage The power amplifier/modulator
Elements of a CB Transceiver
The oscillator is a frequency synthesizer The audio circuitry consists of a microphone pre-amplifier, followed by an IC amplifier The output circuit for the final amplifier is similar to a T network
Transmitter Section of a CB
Modern AM Technologies
Solid-state RF power amplifiers Pulse-duration modulators Digital amplitude modulation
Single-Sideband AM Transmitters
A typical SSB AM transmitter block diagram is illustrated below:
SSB Generation
Mixing
Mixing in a DSBSC AM transmitter is done by a carrier oscillator and a balanced modulator as shown below:
Power Amplification
Power amplification in a SSB transmitter must be linear SSB typically uses much lower power levels than are found in commercial AM broadcast transmitters as SSB is usually used for point-to-point communications
FM Transmitters
FM Transmitters typically use the following components and configurations:
Direct-FM Modulators Frequency Multipliers Phase-Locked Loop FM Generators Indirect-FM Modulators Digital FM Modulators
FM Stereo Transmitters
FM stereo uses the baseband spectrum shown here:
Generation of FM Stereo