Seneca College - School of Electronics and Computer Engineering Technology - C.

Rodgers

COM455 – Communication Fundamentals

Lab 8 – Amplitude Modulation (AM) – Part 3

Name: __________________________ Student #: _____________________ Section: ______

Lab Objectives
 measure characteristics of various waveforms in the time & freq. domains in the lab
 use scope & spectrum analyzer (SA) to determine differences between linear sums & products of signals
 perform up & down conversion of AM signals
 construct and measure characteristics for a band-pass filter (BPF)
 use a BPF to extract intermediate frequency (IF) signals
 demonstrate principles of super-heterodyne receivers
 describe, compare and contrast time & freq. domains for various signals
Components Required
 proto-board & hook up wires
 various resistors, capacitors & inductors
Equipment/Software Required
 Keysight MSO6032A or MSOX3032T Digital Oscilloscope
 Keysight 33600A Waveform Generator
 BNC/Type-N protection pad
 BNC Tee Connector, two BNC-to-BNC cables, three BNC-to-alligator clip cables
 Keysight VEE Pro or VEE Runtime, OrCAD Lite
Lab Exercise
1. Connect the waveform generator to the scope and spectrum analyzer (SA) using BNC-to-BNC cables and
the BNC Tee connector.

2. Download & launch the VEE Runtime program AM Generator + Local Oscillator + Mixer for 33500A
from the Labs folder. This program will generate various user-specified signals and transfer them to the
waveform generator.

selected
NOTE: The top pane of the slider control is the selected value value
which can be adjusted by moving the slider, using the up/down
arrows or by entering a value directly into the pane. These values max value
may be restricted to specific step sizes, such as 1kHz/step. Don’t
change
The values in the two panes below that are max & min values for min value
the range. In general, do not change these range values.

Leave the Signal Select panel in the initial state,

that is, fc + Local Osc. (LO) as shown at right.

Also leave the fc and f LO settings in their

initial state, that is, fc = 100kHz & f LO = 110kHz

This will produce the linear sum of two sine waves

of specified frequencies.

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Push the Run button on the top menu bar to start the program. The program will then be run from the
program panel.

Push the Select Sig. Gen. IP Addr., enter your

lab station’s waveform generator IP address.

Using all of the initial settings push Transfer Waveform.

3. Carefully examine the signal on the scope. Capture the scope trace in a browser and save it.

Consider the following:

 Does this signal appear to be an AM signal?

Now carefully examine the signal using the FFT on the scope using Centre = 100kHz & Span = 200kHz.

Adjust the scope time base (s/div) to capture as much of the signal as possible to give the best FFT spectrum.

Capture the scope FFT in a browser and save it.

 What frequency components does the FFT show are present in this signal?
 Is this an AM waveform?

Adjust the spectrum analyzer (SA) to also view the signal spectrum using Centre = 100kHz & Span = 50kHz.
Capture the spectrum trace in a browser.

 What frequency components does the SA show are present in this signal?
 The RBW is in Auto mode by default. What is the SA RBW value? What is the sweep time?
HINT: Look at the lower left & lower right of the SA display.

Adjust the SA RBW to Manual and change it to RBW = 100Hz.

 How did the spectrum change?

 What is the sweep time now?
 Does this give you more confidence in the signal’s frequency components?

Return the RBW to Auto mode.

4. On the Signal Select panel select AM as shown at right.

Leave all of the other panel settings in their default position.

Push Transfer Waveform.

Carefully examine the signal in the time domain on the scope.

Capture the scope trace in a browser and save it.

 How does this waveform compare to that captured

in Step 3?
 Do they appear almost the same?

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Also examine the frequency domain of the signal using the FFT & SA as you did above.

 Is this signal an AM signal? How do you know?

 What does this tell you about the importance of frequency domain analysis of signals?5. Also examine
these signals in the time & freq. domains from the VEE Runtime panel. The panel description explains
how you can zoom in on the time & freq. domain displays and left mouse drag cursors to make
measurements which are displayed in the panes below. The image below illustrates these capabilities.

return to
presets NOTE:
t in ms
cursor t’s
left mouse zoom Δt
cursor measurements

return to
presets
cursor f’s
left mouse zoom Δf

If you lose sight of the cursors, right click in the display & select Center Markers
as shown at right.

As well, another version of the program (AM Generator + Local Oscillator + Mixer for 33500A No I-O) is
posted with the lab. This program does not interface with the waveform generator in the lab but still provides
simulated time & freq. domains for examination at home or anywhere where VEE Runtime is available. Please
make use of this tool.

6. On the Signal Select panel select AM + LO and

adjust fi = 5kHz , fc = 1MHz & f LO = 900kHz as shown
at right. Leave Intelligence Shape and m settings as shown.

Push Transfer Waveform.

As done previously, carefully examine the signal in the

time & freq. domains (including on the .VXE panel).

 How is this signal different than the previous one?

HINT: Examine the waveform on multiple time scales.
 Can the freq. domain be properly examined using
the scope FFT? Explain.
 What frequency components are present in the signal?

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7. On the Signal Select panel select AM + LO + Product (Mix)

as shown at right, leaving all other settings the same.

Push Transfer Waveform.

This setting will add the AM signal (from fc = 1MHz & fi = 5kHz) to the product of the AM & LO signals, that is,
the non-linear mix of the two signals. The product will include sum and difference frequencies.

HINT: See section on Inter-Modulation Distortion (IMD) in Noise & Non-linearity Lecture Notes.

Examine the AM + LO + Product (Mix) signal in the time & freq. domains (including on the .VXE panel).

 How is this signal different than the previous ones?

 What frequency components are present in the signal?
 How many AM signals are present now?
 What are the carrier frequencies for each AM signal?
 How are the new carrier frequencies related to the original fc and f LO?

8. On the Signal Select panel select Product (Mix) Only as

shown at right, leaving all other settings the same.

Push Transfer Waveform.

 How is this signal different than the previous ones?

 What frequency components are present in the signal?
 How many AM signals are present now?
 What are the carrier frequencies for each AM signal?

NOTE: This demonstrates the main principles involved in up conversion and down conversion which is
used extensively in communication systems. Mixing a Local Oscillator (LO) carrier with a modulated signal
generates new modulated signal with either a higher carrier (up conversion) or a lower carrier (down
conversion). Up conversion is generally used in transmitters (Tx) & down conversion in receivers (Rx).
Down conversion is the main principle behind the Super-heterodyne Receiver (“superhet Rx”) which is
used in virtually all wireless receivers (Wi-Fi, radios, cell phones, etc.).

The down converted component of the signal will now be extracted from the product (mix) signal using a band-
pass filter (BPF).

1kΩ
9. Find the 220µH inductor from your parts kit. VIN VOUT

HINT: Colour code red, red, brown

RS
Measure and record the winding resistance (RS).
e 10nF
On your proto-board construct the BPF shown in
220µH
the schematic at right using the displayed values.

Calculate & record the theoretical centre freq. (fO),

Q & BW for the BPF.

HINT: See section on Band Pass Filters (BPF) in Filters Lecture Notes.
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As done previously, use waveform generator and the scope (with BNC-to-alligator clip leads) to determine the
actual fO for your BPF. You will have to first restore the pure sine wave signal first from Waveforms.

You should find that the BPF fO is very close to down converted AM carrier freq. from the mixed (product)
signal above.

10. Connect the output from the waveform generator to the BPF input. Connect Ch. 1 of the scope to the BPF
input and Ch. 2 to the output.

NOTE: The SA cannot be used to measure the freq. domain characteristics of the BPF signal since it
has a very low input impedance (50Ω) which will adversely affect circuit operation. Therefore the signal
spectrum must be examined using the scope FFT. Luckily the down converted signal has a low enough
frequency to allow this.

On the VXE program push Transfer Waveform to generate for the Product (Mix) Only signal from Step 8.

Carefully examine the BPF input and output signals in the time domain using on multiple time scales.

 What is the difference between these two signals?

Examine the BPF output signal in the time and freq. (FFT) domains.

In a super-heterodyne Rx this BPF output signal would be called the Intermediate Frequency (IF).

 What frequency components are present in the IF signal?

 What is the IF carrier frequency for the signal?
 Is the IF signal a very “clean” signal? If not, how might you improve it?
 How would you demodulate the IF signal?
HINT: Review Lab 7 – Amplitude Modulation Part 2

11. In the IF signal FFT spectrum, measure the amplitudes of the sidebands (SBs) using the cursors.

 Are the two SB amplitudes the same size? Should they be?

You will likely see that the SB amplitudes are not the same. This is likely due to the fact that the actual BPF
centre freq. (fO) determined in Step 9 is not exactly the same as the IF carrier frequency (100kHz).

If the SB amplitudes are not the same the following will “fine tune” the down converter to match your BPF:

On the VXE program, adjust F LO to 900kHz - fO (where fO is the centre freq. determined in Step 9) to the
nearest kHz.

For instance, if you found fO ≈ 110kHz for your BPF, adjust F LO to 900 – 110 = 790kHz.

Push Transfer Waveform then re-examine the IF carrier frequency & the SB amplitudes.

You should find that when the IF carrier matches your BPF f O the two SB amplitudes will be very close. If not
you can quickly step through nearby values of F LO on the VXE program and try again.

12. Summarize your findings for this lab.

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