Amplitude Modulation Reception

Receive antenna

RF Bandpass Mixer/converte Bandpass IF Bandpass

Section Filter r section Filter Section Filter

AM Bandpass Audio
detector Filter Section
Speaker

RF Section – also called receiver front end used for detecting, bandlimiting &
amplifying the received signals
Mixer/converter – down converts the received RF frequencies to Intermediate
frequencies (IF)
IF – frequencies that fall somewhere between RF and information freq.
IF section – amplifies and select the signal
AM Detector – demodulates the AM wave and converts it to the original info. Signal
Audio section – amplifies the recovered information.
 Receiver Parameters:
1. Selectivity – measure the ability of the receiver to accept a given band of frequencies
and reject all others
- give the bandwidth of the receiver at the -3dB points or at two levels of
attenuation such as -3 dB and -60 dB which ratio is known as shape factor

shape factor - ratio between the -3dB and -60dB, measure the skirt steepness
Where SF – shape factor (unitless)
- bandwidth 60dB below max signal level
- bandwidth 3dB below max signal level
1 – ideal value of SF (if bandwidth at 03dB and -60dB points are equal
Example 1: example 2: 60 dB bandwidth = 12 kHz;
-3dB bandwidth = 10kHz
6 dB bandwidth = 3 kHz
-60dB bandwidth = 20 kHz

Note: to achieve ideal SF, use more expensive and sophisticated circuits

shape factor – measure of skirt steepness or skirt selectivity

🡪 the lower the shape factor, the better the skirt selectivity
ideal shape factor = 1
 - using tuned circuit, LC, determined by

• Bandwidth of a tuned circuit is measured by its selectivity

with fr – resonant frequency

ex. L = 10 μH, R = 20 Ω, C = 101.4 pF, find BW.

Solution:

upper and lower cut-off frequency = 318 kHz / 2 = 159 kHz

upper fc = 5 + 0.159 = 5.159 MHz = f2
lower fc = 5 – 0.159 = 4.841 MHz = f1
BW = f2 – f1 = 5.159 – 4.841 = 318 kHz
To improve selectivity, let BW = 40 kHz

to increase Q, lower coil resistance 🡪

so with larger wire gauge

should be careful not to cut-off the sideband since they contain the information although
we wanted to increase Q 🡪 to increase selectivity
selectivity curve of a tuned circuit ideal receiver selectivity curve Practical

🡪 better selectivity can be achieved by:

i.cascading tuned circuit
ii.using crystal or mechanical filters
2. Bandwidth Improvement:
- increasing the bandwidth also increase thermal noise, so to improve the
performance, decrease the bandwidth 🡪 improve SNR🡪 difficult to construct
narrow-band filter

Bandwidth improvement,

Noise Figure Improvement,

Example: Determine the improvement in the noise figure for a receiver with an
RF bandwidth equal to 200kHz and an IF bandwidth equal to 10kHz
Solution:

and
3. Sensitivity – minimum RF signal level that can be detected at the input to the
receiver and still produce a usable demodulated information signal
- also called receiver threshold

Usable information signal is arbitrary,

a. For AM broadcast-band receivers:

b. For broadband microwave receivers:

Typical sensitivity:
a. AM commercial broadcast:
b. Two-way mobile radio receiver:

-To improve sensitivity, reduce noise level through decreasing temperature

or reduce the bandwidth of the receiver
4. Dynamic Range 🡪 Vmax – Vmin
- input power range over which the receiver is use
Vmin – function of desired signal quality, front-end noise & noise figure
Vmax – function of net gain of receiver

For a single frequency input signal, the high power input signal limit is 1-dB
compression point

1-dB compression point – output power when the RF amplifier response is 1

dB less than the ideal linear-gain response

DR = 100 dB 🡪 highest possible value

-Low DR can cause a desensitizing of the RF amplifiers and result in severe
intermodulation distortion of the weaker input signals
5. Fidelity – measure of the ability of the communication system to produce, at the
output of the receiver, an exact replica of the original source information

distortion – frequency, phase and amplitude variations from the original signal

3 forms of distortion:
a. Amplitude – amplitude vs frequencies characteristics of a signal at the
output is different from those in the input
b. phase – not so much a problem in voice
2 kinds:
i. absolute phase shift – total phase shift of the signal
- can be tolerated as long as all frequencies undergo
the same amount of phase delay
ii. Differential phase shift – when different frequencies
undergo different phase shift
- detrimental in cases such as PSK
c. frequency – resulting from harmonics and intermodulation distortion
2nd order harmonic – problem in broadband
3rd order harmonic – caused by cross-product frequencies
ex.
- can be reduced using square-law devices (can only
produced 2nd order harmonics and can be filtered
out)
6. Insertion Loss (IL) – ratio of the power transferred to a load with a filter in the
circuit to the power transferred to a load without the filter

Where 🡪 Output power of the filter

Input power for frequencies
that fall within the filter’s
passband

7. Noise Temperature and Equivalent Noise

Temperature

Equivalent noise Temperature - indication of the reduction in the SNR

as a signal propagates through a receiver.
Typical values: 🡪 for cool receivers
🡪 for noisy receivers
 AM Receivers
2 Types:
1. Coherent – also called synchronous
- frequencies generated in the receiver and used for demodulation
are synchronized to oscillator frequencies generated in the
transmitter
2. Noncoherent - also called asynchronous
- either no frequencies are generated in the receiver or the frequen-
cies used for demodulation are completely independent from the
transmitter’s carrier frequency
- envelope detector
 2 Kinds:
1. Tuned Radio-Frequency (TRF) - simple

-3 stage TRF receiver

-The three RF amplifiers are used to filter and amplify the received signal,
the detector converts RF signal to information, audio amplifiers amplify
the information signals to a usable level

Disadvantages:
a. Inconsistent bandwidth – unstable frequency 🡪 selectivity is affected
b. Instability 🡪 cause oscillation 🡪 can be corrected by stagger tuning,
different frequencies for each amplifiers
c. Nonuniform gain 🡪 nonuniform L/C ratios of the transformer-coupled
tank circuits
Example: For an AM commercial broadcast-band receiver (535kHz to 1605kHz)
with an input filter Q-factor of 54, determine the bandwidth at the
low and high ends of the RF spectrum.
Solution:
For low-end of AM, center frequency = 540kHz

For high-end of AM, center frequency = 1600 kHz

Note: the 10kHz bandwidth at low end is the desired value but the 29,630
Hz is not at the high-end since it will select 3 stations for an
almost 30kHz bandwidth at high end. To find for the Q factor
that can make the high-end selective, chose B=10kHz and solve
for Q factor:
However at Q=160, the low-end bandwidth will be

This is too selective which will block some info. signal

2. Superheterodyne receiver

- Above is a noncoherent superheterodyne receiver

- has superior quality in terms of gain, selectivity and sensitivity

Heterodyne – mixing of two frequencies in a linear device or to translate

one frequency to another using nonlinear mixing
 Sections:
1. RF section – has a preselector and amplifier
preselector – broad-tuned BPF with an adjustable center frequency tuned
to the desired carrier frequency
- block image frequency, an unwanted frequency from entering
the receiver
- reduces noise bandwidth
- determines the sensitivity and noise figure of the receiver
amplifier – has several advantages:
a. greater gain, thus better sensitivity
b. improved image-frequency rejection
c. better signal-to-noise ratio
d. better selectivity

2. Mixer/converter section –includes RF oscillator (local oscillator) and mixer/

converter (first detector)
mixer – nonlinear device that convert RF to IF, performs heterodyning
most common IF (intermediate frequency) = 455 kHz

3. IF section – consists of IF amplifiers and BPF called IF strip

IF < RF 🡪 to attain high-gain stable amplifiers

4. Detector section - convert IF to original information signal (such as AF)

- also called audio detector or second detector
- can be a single diode or a PLL or a balanced demodulator

5. Audio amplifier section – amplifies the AF signal

 Receiver Operation

Conversion of RF to IF to AF

RF in AM commercial broadcast: between 535 kHz to 1605

kHz
IF in AM broadcast band: 450 kHz and 460 kHz
IF in FM broadcast band: 10.7 MHz
Frequency
conversion
RF signals are combined with LO frequency in a nonlinear device 🡪 harmonics
& cross-product frequencies 🡪 sum & difference frequencies
IF filters 🡪 tuned to the difference frequencies
Preselector & LO frequencies adjustment are gang tuned 🡪 two adjustments
are mechanically tied together so that a single adjustment will change
the center frequency of the preselector at the same time change
the LO frequency

For high-side injection (LO freq. above RF): where

For low-side injection (LO freq. below RF):

Using high-side injection 🡪 tuning the preselector to channel 2 (550kHz carrier
frequency), with 30-kHz passband allows chan 1, 2 & 3 (each with 10-kHz
BW) and mixed it with LO freq=1005kHz to produce 455kHz IF
* although 3 channels are preselected, but since the bandwidth of the IF filter
is only from 450 kHz to 460 kHz, only chan 2 can pass through IF filters

Example: For an AM superheterodyne receiver that uses high-side injection and has a local osc.
frequency of 1355 kHz, determine the IF carrier, upper side freq. & lower freq. for an RF
wave that is made up of a carrier and upper and lower side freq. of 900 kHz, 905 kHz &
895 kHz, respectively.
Referring to the figure below:

Solution:

*sideband inversion - RF upper side frequency translated to IF lower freq. and RF

lower side freq. translated to IF upper freq.
Local Oscillator Tracking – the ability of the LO to oscillate either above or below
the selected radio frequency carrier by an amount equal to the IF
throughout the entire RF band
Image Frequency – any frequency other than the selected radio frequency carrier
that, if allowed to enter a receiver and mix with LO, will produce
a cross-product frequency that is equal to the IF
- equivalent to a second RF that will produce an IF that will interfere with
the IF from the desired RF

frequency

IF RF LO Image

Image-Frequency Rejection Ratio (IFRR) – numerical measure of the ability

of the receiver to reject image frequency
Example: For an AM broadcast-band superheterodyne receiver with IF, RF and LO
frequencies of 455kHz, 600kHz and 1055 kHz, respectively, determine
a. Image frequency
b. IFRR for a preselector Q of 100
Mixer/converter
RF=600kHz LO-RF=IF 1055-600=455 kHz
Image=1510kHz Image-LO=IF 1510-1055=455 kHz

Local Oscillator
1055 kHz

Solution:
a.

b.

Note: the closer the RF is to the IF, the closer the RF is to the image frequency
 Example: For a citizens band receiver using high-side injection with an RF carrier
of 27MHz and an IF center frequency of 455 kHz, determine:
a. LO frequency b. image frequency
c. IFRR for a preselector Q of 100
d. preselector Q required to achieve the same IFRR as that of the previous
example for RF carrier of 600 kHz
Solution:

Note:
✔ for the two example, it is more difficult to prevent image frequencies for
high RF than low RF
✔ For higher IFRR, this will require high Q – difficult to achieve🡪 use high IF

Double Spotting – when receiver picks up the same station at two nearby points
on the receiver tuning dial
 AM Receiver Circuits

RF Amplifiers Circuit

Characteristics of good RF:

a. Low thermal noise
b. Low noise figure
c. Moderate to high gain
d. Low intermodulation and harmonic distortion (i.e. linear operation)
e. Moderate selectivity
f. High IFRR
Comparing the three kinds of RF amplifier configurations:
1. Bipolar transistor – more nonlinear distortion
2. DEMOS-FET – square law device which offers only second-order harmonic
- less nonlinear distortion
3. Cascoded - high gain and less noise

Low-Noise Amplifiers (LNA) – generally includes 2 stages with impedance

matching networks
1st stage 🡪 moderate gain and minimum noise
2nd stage 🡪 high gain and moderate noise
Silicon BJT or FET 🡪 Up to 2 GHz
GaAs FETs 🡪 more than 2 GHz
🡪 uses MESFET (Mesa Semiconductor FET), a metal-semiconductor
junction at the gate called Schottky barrier
Example of LNA – IC RF Amplifier NE/SA5200
Mixer/Converter
Circuits

From RF amplifier:
From the LO:

Output of the mixer:

•Uses FET
•Conversion loss – IF output signal amplitude lower than RF input signal
Kinds:
1. Self – excited
2. Separately excited mixer
3. Single-diode mixer
4. Balanced diode mixer
5. IC mixer/oscillator – NE/SA602A
IF Amplifier circuit
- operate at lower frequency
- advantage: easy to design stable circuit

Inductive Coupling
- coupling IF amplifiers

Where - voltage magnitude induced in the secondary windings (volts)

- angular velocity of the primary voltage wave (radians per second)
M - mutual inductance (henrys)
- primary current (amperes)

2 kinds of transformers:
1. single-tuned transformers
2. Double-tuned transformers
Single - tuned Double-tuned
Gain for single-tuned = 0.707
two-tuned = (0.707 x 0.707) = 0.5
three – tuned = (0.707 x 0.707 x 0.707) = 0.353
Bandwidth reduction
Over-all bandwidth of n single-tuned stages

Where - bandwidth of n single-tuned stages (Hz)

- bandwidth of one single-tuned stage (Hz)
n - number of stages (any positive integer)

Bandwidth of n double-tuned stages

Where - bandwidth of n double-tuned stages (Hz)
- bandwidth of one double-tuned stage (Hz)
n - number of stages (any positive integer)
 AM DETECTOR CIRCUITS

AM Detector:

✔ demodulate the AM signal 🡪 recover or reproduce the

❑ frequencies of original signal
❑ relative amplitude
✔ also called second detector
• mixer/converter 🡪 1st detector

Kinds of Detector:
1. Peak Detector - noncoherent

RC filter output 🡪 difference frequencies

of LSF, Carrier and USF
Ex.Vout freq= 300 – 298 kHz
= 2kHz
•Difference between AM modulator & AM demodulator:
- AM modulator 🡪 output is tuned to the sum frequencies (up-converter)
- AM demodulator🡪 output is tuned to the difference freq.
(down-converter)
Percent of Modulation:
a. no modulation 🡪 peak detector is a filtered halfwave rectifier
🡪 output voltage = peak input voltage – 0.3A
b. With modulation 🡪 increase in the variations in the output voltage
🡪 follows the shape of the AM envelope

Detector Distortion: 🡪 based on the RC value 🡪 short RC time constant is neede

a. Rectifier distortion 🡪 short RC
b. Diagonal clipping 🡪 long RC

For 70% modulation:

Automatic Gain Control Circuits 🡪 adjusts the voltage gain of received signal to
increase weak signals and decrease strong RF signal that may overdrive
the receiver

Types of AGC:
1. Simple AGC – monitors the received signal level and sends a signal back to the
RF and IF amplifiers to adjust their gain automatically
2. Delayed AGC – prevents the AGC feedback voltage from reaching the RF
and IF amplifiers until the RF level exceeds a predetermined magnitude
3. Forward AGC – receive signal is monitored closer to the front end of the receiver
and correction voltage is fed forward to the IF amplifiers

Squelch Circuit – to quiet a receiver in the absence of a received signal

- keeps the audio section of the receiver turned off or muted RF signal the
absence of a received signal
disadvantage – weak RF signals will not produce an audio output.
Noise Limiters & Blankers
Noise limiters - use diode limiters or clippers in the audio section
- limiting or clipping threshold level is normally established
just above the max. peak level of the audio signal.
Blanking ckt - detects the occurrence of a high-amplitude, short duration
noise spike, then mutes the receiver by shutting off a portion
of the receiver for the duration of the pulse
Alternate Signal – to – Noise Measurements

To measure sensitivity, measure the

A. Signal Plus Noise-to-noise reading 🡪(S+N)/N

Steps:
1. An RF carrier modulated 30% by a 1-kHz tone is applied to the input of the recei
2. Measure the total audio power at the receiver’s output 🡪 S+N
3. Remove the modulation from the RF signal
4. Measure the total audio power again 🡪 N
5. Get the (S+N)/N value

B. Signal-to-notched noise ratio

Steps:
1. An RF carrier modulated 30% by a 1-kHz tone is applied to the input of the recei
2. Measure the total audio power at the receiver’s output 🡪 S+N
3. Insert 1-kHz notch filter between receiver output and the power meter
4. Measure power (with noise)

🡪 meaningful only if the notch filter has extremely narrow bandwidth and introduc
40 dB or more of attenuation to the signal
 Linear IC AM receivers:
a. LM 1820
b. LM 386 – LIC audio amplifier
Double-Conversion AM Receivers
- for good image-frequency rejection 🡪 use high IF 🡪 leads to unstable IF
- use two IF to solve the problem

First IF 🡪 relatively high frequency for good image-frequency rejection

second IF 🡪 low frequency for easy amplification

First IF = 10.625 MHz

- pushes the image-freq.
21.25 MHz away from the
desired RF
Second IF = 455 kHz
Net Receiver Gain – ratio between the modulated signal level at the output of the
receiver (audio) to the RF signal level at the input of the receiver
- difference between the audio signal level in dBm and the RF signal level
in dBm

Where
gains = RF amplifier gain + IF amplifier gain + audio amplifier gain
losses = preselector loss + mixer loss + detector loss

Example: For an AM receiver with a -80dBm RF input signal level and the following
gains and losses, determine the net receiver gain and the audio signal level

Gains: RF amplifier=33 dB, IF amplifier = 47 dB, audio amplifier =25 dB

Losses: preselector loss =3 dB, mixer loss = 6 dB, detector loss=8 dB
Solution:
the sum of the gains is = 33 + 47 + 25 = 105 dB
the sum of the losses is = 3 + 6 + 8 = 17 dB
net receiver gain, G = 105 – 17 = 88 dB
audio signal level = -80 dBm + 88 dB = 8 dBm

Net receiver gain = includes only the components within the receiver
System gain = includes all the gains and losses incurred by a signal as it propagates from
the transmitter output stage to the output of the detector in the receiver
and includes antenna gains, transmission line and propagation losses