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The Voltage Controlled Oscillator

Soumyadip Mondal
210108048

In the last class we were talking about wideband frequency modulation.We saw that spectral
analysis of the wide-band FM wave is

s(t) = Ac cos[2πfc t + βsin(2πfm t)] (1)

This can be written as

s(t) = Re[Ac ej(2πfc t+βsin(2πfm t) ] (2)

= Re[s̃(t)ej2πfc t ]

After doing some calculation we have got an expression of s̃(t) as

∞
X
s̃(t) = Ac Jk (β)ej2πkfn t (3)
k=−∞

And s(t) can be written as

∞
X
s(t) = Ac Jk (β)cos(2π(fc + kfm )t) (4)
k=−∞

where ∞
X (−1)l (β/2)k+2l
Jk (β) =
n=1
l!(k + l)!
Some properties of bessel function:
1) It is an odd function in k. i.e

Jk (β) = (−1)k j−k (β)

2) The power contained within all sideband of F.M signal is fixed. i.e
∞
X
|jk (β)|2 = 1
k=−∞

3) For small values of β, J0 (β) = 1 and Jk (β) is generally zero for β<k .J0 (β) is the
componenet corresponding to k = 0 and It is called carrier component.

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Fig. 1: Plot of bessel functions

In general,J0 (β) reperesent strength of kth sideband and Jk2 (β) represent the power con-
tained within the sideband.
4) Jk (β) has peaks around β ≈ k+1

I. CARSON ’ S RULE

The theoretical bandwidth of an FM transmission is unlimited, but the practical bandwidth

may be approximated using the number of significant sidebands. In general for a modulation
signal with a maximum frequency fm , the bandwidth is approximated as

B = 2(1 + β)fm (5)

II. G ENERATEION OF FM SIGNAL

We have analyzed F.M signal.Now the question is how to generate and demodualte a F.M
signal.We can generate F.M signal in two ways.

A. using voltage controlled oscillator with varactor diode

Incase of F.M the frequency fi of the output is function of voltage of message signal.hence
we need an oscillator whose frequency of oscillation can be applied via an external applied
voltage.This type of setup is called Voltage controlled oscillator.
let’s first discuss about basic LC oscillator.It is an inductor connected in parallel with a capaci-
tor.The resonant frequency of the output for the LC oscillator is
1
f0 = √ (6)
2π LC

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Next is Varactor Diode.Consider an pn junction in reverse bias.As the reverse bias voltage is
increased, current flowing through the diode is increased.As a result the width of the depletion
layer increases.We can consider it as a capacitor.And the capacitance is
ϵA
C= (7)
w
where w is the width of the depletion region.
Since capacitance is dependent on length, and here we are able to change this length(length
of the depletion region increases with increasing current) by varying the current, thus what we
have is a variable capacitor in the diode ,or Varactor Diode.
But after a certain reverse bias voltage capacitance of the diode becomes almost linear .Now
if we add the varactor diode in parallel with the lc oscillator in reverse bias,the capacitance
becomes
cnet = c0 + kVin (8)

where Vin is the input voltage and k is the sensitivity factor.this capacitance is called parasitic
capacitance.

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Fig. 2: Voltage Controlled Oscillator

we can easily calculate the frequency of our output using equation 8.

1
fi (t) = √
2π LCnet
1
= p
2π L(C0 + km(t)
1 1
= √ q
2π LC0 1 + km(t)
C0

1 km(t) −1
= √ (1 + )2
2π LC0 C0
1 km(t) km(t)
= √ (1 − ) = fc (1 − )
2π LC0 2C0 2c0
This is approximately a VCO which generates F.M waves with negative slope.

B. using 555 timer

Here,Instantaneous frequency is controlled by Instantaneous volatge.This is same as using 555

timer as a voltage controlled oscillator.But we will talk about it later.

III. D EMODULATING F.M SIGNAL

We will discuss mainly two ways to demodulate FM signal.One way is to convert FM signal
to AM signal using a low pass filter to reduce the signal to its low pass form and then use

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envelope detector to demodulate the AM signal.

We know, transfer function of a series RLC circuit is dirac delta.And frequency response of FM
signal is similar to that of a LCR resonance circuit (figure 3) where,
1
fc + δf = √ (9)
2π LC

Fig. 3: Frequency Response

This means that a LCR circuit can be used to produce the response that is required.It can be
shown that FM signal can be converted into a AM signal by the LCR lowpass filter circuit. This
AM signal can now be passed through an envelope detector to recover the message signal.
The second and main way to demodulate FM signal is using Phase locked loop(PLL). We will
discuss about it in next class.

September 2, 2023 DRAFT