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FREQUENCY
MODULATION

History of FM
• In the mid-30s, Major Edwin Armstrong, an
inventor who had already devised a successful
circuit to improve AM radio, came up with a
whole new approach to transmitting radio
signals.
• In 1933, FM radio was patented by inventor
Edwin H. Armstrong.
• In 1937, W1XOJ, the first experimental FM
radio station, was granted a construction permit
by the U.S. Federal Communications
Commission (FCC).
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Edwin H. Armstrong

History of FM
 Armstrong was a technical genius. He is
considered the most productive inventor in
radio's history.
 Even though he had improved AM radio in
significant ways, Armstrong was well aware of
AM radio's major limitations:
 static interference from household
appliances and lighting
 nighttime interference between many
stations, because of ionospheric refraction.

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 Armstrong's new approach

to encoding audio for
transmission eliminated
these problems.
 Armstrong took his
invention to a friend, David
Sarnof, who was head of
RCA and said he would help
him develop it.
 RCA bought into the patents
and helped Armstrong
develop an experimental
radio station.

Frequency Modulation
 Frequency Modulation (FM) was
developed by Edwin H. Armstrong during
the 1930’s in order to produce a noise-
resistant, static free type of radio
transmission.
 Frequency Modulation (FM) is a form of
modulation in which the modulating
signal is used to vary the frequency of a
carrier wave in such a way that the change
in frequency at any instant is proportional
to another signal.
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modulating signal

carrier wave

Frequency Modulated Signal

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Frequency Modulation

Frequency Modulation

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Frequency Modulation
 This is commonly used for broadcasts on VHF
(wideband FM) and for push-to-talk
communications (narrowband FM).
 Result:
A carrier with sidebands at fc +/- all multiples
of the modulating signal frequency.
fc +/- nfm where:
n=0-∞
fc = carrier frequency
fm = modulating frequency

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Frequency Deviation
 The amount by which the frequency of the FM
signal varies/shifts with respect to its resting
frequency (fc):
Δf = kf νm
where:
kf (Hz/V)is modulation sensitivity (system constant)
νm is the instantaneous value of the modulating signal.

 Thus the frequency of the FM signal is:

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Frequency Deviation

Recall: The modulating signal voltage:

νm(t) = Vm sin 2πfmt
then:

fFM = fc + kf Vm sin 2πfmt

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Example Problem
An FM transmitter whose carrier signal is
1MHz, has a modulation sensitivity, kf , of 10
kHz/V. If a 5-kHz, 4 Vp-p sine wave is applied to
this transmitter, determine the frequency
deviation.
Δf = kf ν m

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modulating signal

carrier wave

Frequency Modulated Signal

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MODULATION INDEX
 The MODULATION INDEX of an
FM signal is:
 mf = Δf / fm
Note that mf can be greater than 1.
 It determines the number of
sidebands.

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BESSEL FUNCTION

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Bessel Functions
 Theoretically, there is an infinite
number of side frequencies for any
mf .
 However, only sideband/s with
significant amplitudes, i.e. those
|0.01| are included in the table.
 Bessel-zero or carrier-null points
occur when mf = 2.4, 5.5, 8.65, etc.
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FM
Spectrum

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BESSEL FUNCTIONS
Several examples below will provide some
insight to the meaning of Jn(mf):
 J0(1.0) represents the resting-frequency
amplitude of an FM wave with an index of
modulation equal to 1.0.
 J1(2.5) is the amplitude of the first pair of
sidebands for an FM wave with mf = 2.5.
 J7(mf) is the amplitude of the seventh pair of
sidebands with an unknown index of
modulation, mf.

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BESSEL FUNCTIONS

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FM SideBands

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PROBLEM 1

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PROBLEM 1

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FM
Spectrum

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MODULATION INDEX
PROBLEM
1. If the highest modulating frequency is 3 kHz and
the maximum deviation is 9 kHz, what is the
modulation index?
Solution:

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Power and Bandwidth

of FM Signal
• Regardless of mf , the total power of an FM
signal remains constant because its
amplitude is constant.
• The required BW of an FM signal is:
BW = 2 x n x fm ,where n is the number of pairs
of side-frequencies.
• If mf > 6, a good estimate of the BW is given by
Carson’s rule:
BW  2 (f+fm)

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PROBLEM
If the modulating frequency is 4 kHz and
the highest possible deviation is 10 kHz,
what is the modulation index?
Solution:
m = 10 kHz/4 kHz = 2.5

What is the bandwidth?

BW = 2fmN
» Where N is the number of significant*
sidebands
» BW =

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What bandwidth is required to transmit an FM

signal with intelligence at 12KHz and max deviation 24
kHz.
 24
mf   2
fm 12
Using Bessel function table, for a modulating index
of 2, components that exist are J1,J2,J3,J4 apart from J0.

This means that apart from the carrier you get J1 at

+/-12kHz, J2 at +/- 24kHz, J3 at +/- 36kHz and J4 at +/-
48 kHz.

Total bandwidth is therefore:

BW = 2 x n x fm = 2x4x12=96kHz
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EXAMPLE:
For FM Modulator with frequency deviation
of 10 kHz, modulating frequency of 10 kHz,
Carrier amplitude voltage of 12V and
Carrier frequency of 500 kHz, determine the
following:
(a)Minimum Bandwidth using Bessel’s
table.
(b)Amplitudes of the side frequencies
and plot the output frequency
spectrum.

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Solution:
f 10 kHz
a) m    1
fm 10 kHz

From Bessel function table, m=1 yields three

sets of significant sidebands. Thus
bandwidth is:

B  2(3  10 kHz )  60 kHz

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J0 = 0.77 (12 V) = 9.24 V

J1 = 0.44 (12 V) = 5.28 V
J2 = 0.11 (12 V) = 1.32 V
J3 = 0.02 (12 V) = 0.24 V
9.24V

5.28V 5.28V

1.32V 1.32V

0.24V 0.24V

470 480 490 500 510 520 530

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Now let’s look at

the operation of
FM Systems

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BASIC BLOCK DIAGRAM OF FM TRANSMITTER

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Block Diagram of FM Transmitter

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How does an FM Transmitter Works?

1. The audio signal from the output of the

microphone is sent to the pre-amplifier,
which boosts the level of the modulating
signal.
2. This signal is then passed to high pass
filter, which acts as a pre-emphasis
network to filter out the noise and
improve the signal to noise ratio.
3. The signal is feed to the FM modulator
circuit.
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4. The oscillator circuit generates a high

frequency carrier, which is sent to the
modulator along with the modulating
signal.
5. Several stages of frequency multiplier are
used to increase the operating frequency.
6. RF power amplifier is used to increase the
signal power of the modulated signal.
7. This FM modulated output will be feed to
the antenna ready for transmission.

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HOW DOES MODULATOR WORKS?

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FM RECEIVER

BLOCK DIAGRAM OF AN FM RECEIVER

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FM Receivers
A Superheterodyne FM Receiver is similar to
the AM receiver in many ways but there are
some significant differences. The key
differences between AM and FM are:
 FM frequencies are higher (88 - 108 MHz).
 Mixer output is 10.7 MHz
 The demodulator or discriminator
performs the function of separating the
audio from the carrier
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FM Receivers
 RF amplifier → selects and amplifies the
desired station from the many signals it
receives. It is adjustable so that the selection
frequency can be altered. This is called
TUNING.
 The mixer and oscillator form the FREQUENCY
CHANGER circuit.
 The IF is a fixed frequency of 10.7 MHz. No
matter what the frequency of the selected radio
station is, the IF is always 10.7 MHz.

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THE AMPLITUDE LIMITER

A limiter is often used to ensure the received
signal is constant in amplitude before it enters the
discriminator or detector.

Clipping removes part of the positive or negative peaks of a signal

or both.
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 The demodulator must extract the

information signal from a frequency,
rather than an amplitude modulated
wave.
 The detecting device must be constructed so
that its output amplitude will vary linearly
according to the instantaneous frequency of
the incoming signal.
 An FM demodulator produces an output
voltage that is proportional to the
instantaneous frequency of the input.

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HOW DOES DEMODULATOR WORKS?

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Audio and Power

Amplifier
The audio signal voltage is
increased in amplitude by a
voltage amplifier. The power level
is increased sufficiently by the
power amplifier to drive the
loudspeaker.
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IF, Bandwidth &

Guardband
AM FM
IF 455 KHz 10.7 MHz
Bandwidth 10 KHz 200 KHz
(BW) Narrow Wide
Guardband 500 Hz 25 kHz
(GB)

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FM Commercial Radio

Carrier Center Frequency

75 KHz 75 KHz

25 KHz 25 KHz

Guard Band Guard Band

200 KHz Bandwidth

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Commercial Radio
AM: 535-1605 kHz FM: 88-108 MHz
AM Radio System IF - 455 kHz BW – 10 kHz
FM Radio System IF - 10.7 MHz BW – 200 kHz

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ADVANTAGES OF FM OVER AM
Improved signal to noise ratio with respect
to man made interference.
FM radio is broadcast in stereo, meaning
two channels of information.
Less radiated power.
Smaller geographical interference between
neighboring stations.
Well defined service areas for given
transmitter power.

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DISADVANTAGES OF FM

Much more Bandwidth (as

much as 20 times).
More complicated receiver
and transmitter.

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Why is AM radio at a lower band

than FM radio?
 Due to history.
 AM was invented before FM.
 When AM radio was invented, electronic
capabilities were fairly limited. Hence
lower frequencies were allocated.
 Later when FM radio was developed, it
was assigned unused frequencies at a
higher band.

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