Chapter 2

AMPLITUDE MODULATION
Principles of Amplitude
Modulation
 It is a process of changing the amplitude of a
relatively high frequency carrier signal in
proportion with the instantaneous value of
the modulating signal.
 It is relatively less expensive used for

commercial broadcasting of both audio and

video.
 AM modulators are nonlinear devices.
The AM envelope
 double- sideband full carrier (DSBFC) is most
commonly used type of AM.
 fig. shows an AM waveform when a single

frequency modulating signal acts on a carrier.

 Output waveform contains all the frequencies

that make up the AM signal and used to

transport information. The shape of
modulated wave is called as AM envelope.
 The modulation process cause other signal called

sidebands to be generated at frequency above

and below the carrier frequency by an amount
equal to the modulating frequency.
 Amplitude Modulation Envelope
 Most commonly used is
AM double-sideband
full carrier (DSBFC), or
sometimes called
conventional AM or AM.

NB :
 Repetition rate of the
envelope ≈ frequency of
the modulating signal.
 Shape of the envelope ≈
shape of the modulating
signal

AM Envelope Generation
4
 AM Envelope
 Example – An AM signal can be produced by
using instantaneous amplitude of the
information signal (the baseband or
modulating signal) to vary the peak amplitude
of a higher-frequency signal. (a) Modulating Signal

 Figure (a) shows a 1kHz sinewave, which

combined with the 10kHz signal shown in
Figure (b) to produce the AM signal in Figure
(c).
(b) Carrier Signal
 If the peaks of the individual waveform of the
modulating signal are joined, the resulting
envelope resembles the original modulating
signal.

 It repeats at the modulating frequency and

the shape of each “half” (i.e positive or
negative) is the same as that of the
modulating signal.
(c) Modulated Signal
5
AM Frequency Spectrum and
BW
 Output envelope is a complex wave made of a DC
voltage, carrier frequency and sum(fc + fm) and
difference(fc-fm) frequencies.
 Sum and difference frequencies are displaced
from carrier frequency by an amount equal to
modulating signal frequency.

 Modulation index:
no. lying between 0 and 1
 From fig. the equation for AM can be written as

 The instantaneous voltage of resulting AM wave is

 From trigonometric relation

Frequency Domain
 The frequency domain provides an alternative
description of signal in which the time axis is
replaced by a frequency axis.

Taken from UMP

The relationship between the time and
frequency domains

Taken from UMP

Sidebands and the Frequency Domain

Figure : The AM wave is the

algebraic sum of the
carrier and upper and
lower sideband sine
waves.
a) Intelligence or modulating
signal.
(b) Lower sideband.
(c ) Carrier.
(d ) Upper sideband.
(e ) Composite AM wave.

Taken from UMP

 For an AM DSBFC modulator with a carrier frequency fc
=100kHz and a maximum modulating frequency
fm(max)=5kHz, determine
a. Frequency limits for the upper and lower bandwidths
b. Bandwidth
c. Upper and lower frequencies produced when a modulating
signal is a single frequency 3 KHz tone.
d. Draw the output spectrum
Modulation index and %modulation
 Modulation index is a term used to describe the
amount of amplitude change present in the AM wave.
 mathematically

where m = modulation index

Vm= peak change in amplitude of output waveform voltage
Vc= peak amplitude of the un-modulated carrier voltage
 Percent modulation M is
• For the AM waveform shown in fig. determine
a. Peak amplitude of the upper and lower side frequencies
b. Peak amplitude of un-modulated carrier (Ec)
c. Peak change in the amplitude of the envelope(Em)
d. Modulation index
e. Percent modulation
a. Eusf=Elsf= 4V
b. Ec=10V
c. Em= 8V
d. m=0.8
• One input to conventional Am modulator is a 500 kHz carrier
with an amplitude of 20 Vp. The second input is a 10kHz
modulating signal that is of sufficient amplitude to cause a
change in input wave of ± 7.5 Vp. Determine
a. Determine lower side frequencies
b. Modulation index and percent modulation.
c. Peak amplitude of modulated carrier and upper and lower side
frequency voltages
d. Maximum and minimum amplitudes of envelope
e. Expression of modulated wave.
a. fusf = 510kHz ; flsf = 490kHz
b. m= 0.375 ; M = 37.5%
c. Ec(modulated)= Ec(unmodulated)= 20Vp ; Eusf =Elsf =mEc/2 = 3.75 Vp
d. Vmax= Ec+Em =27.5Vp ; Vmin =Ec-Em =12.5 Vp
e. Vam=
f. .
g. .
 If modulating signal is pure single frequency sine wave then
percent modulation can be derived as

and

therefore

Where, and
Coefficient & Percent of Modulation

(a) modulating signal

(b) unmodulated signal

(c) 50% modulated wave

(m = 0.5)

(d) 100% modulated wave

(m = 1.0)

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 Coefficient & Percent of Modulation

Overmodulation and Distortion

 The modulation index should be a number between
0 and 1.
 If the amplitude of the modulating voltage is higher
than the carrier voltage, m will be greater than 1,
causing distortion.
 If the distortion is great enough, the intelligence
signal becomes unintelligible.

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Coefficient & Percent of Modulation

Overmodulation and Distortion

 Distortion of voice transmissions produces garbled,
harsh, or unnatural sounds in the speaker.
 Distortion of video signals produces a scrambled
and inaccurate picture on a TV screen.

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AM Power Distribution
 Recall that the average power dissipated by resistor R is with a
sinusoidal source of amplitude Epk is given
 The average power dissipated in a load by unmodulated carrier is equal
to the rms carrier voltage, Ec squared divided by the load resistance, R.
 Mathematically, power in unmodulated carrier, Pc is:

( Ec ( rms ) ) 2 ( Ec ( pk ) 2 )2 Ec ( pk ) 2
Pc   
R R 2R

23
Taken from UMP
AM Power Distribution
 Since the vAM is composed of three sinusoids



the total average power dissipated by the antenna R is given

AM Power Distribution
 The upper and lower sideband powers:
(mEc 2) 2 m 2 Ec 2
Pusb  Plsb  
2R 8R
where mEc/2 is the peak voltage of usf and lsf.
Then,
2
m 2  Ec  m 2
Pusb  Plsb    Pc
4  2R  4

 Total transmitted power in DSBFC AM envelope:

Pt  Pc  Pusb  Plsb
m2 m2
 Pc  Pc  Pc
4 4
m2  m2 
 Pc  Pc  Pc 1  

2  2  25
AM Power Distribution
m2 m2 m2  m2 
Pt  Pc  Pusb  Plsb  Pc  Pc  Pc  Pc  Pc  Pc 1  
4 4 2  2 

Power Spectrum for

AM DSBFC wave

Note:
 Carrier power in the modulated signal is the same in the unmodulated signal i.e
carrier power is unaffected by the modulation process.
The total power in an AM envelope increase with modulation (i.e as m , Pt ).
 Major disadvantage of AM DSBFC is most of the power is wasted in the carrier.
(It does not contain info, info is contained in the sidebands).

26
• For an AM DSBFC wave with a peak unmodulated carrier voltage Vc=10Vp, a load
resistance RL= 10Ω, and an modulation index(coefficent) m=1, determine
a. Powers of carrier and upper and lower sidebands
b. Total sideband power
c. Total power of modulated wave
d. Draw the power spectrum
e. Repeat steps for m= 0.5
a. 5W ; 1.25W
b. 2.5W
c. 7.5W
d. fig
 Amplitude Modulated Transmitter

The carrier wave must meet two main criteria…

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AM Transmitter
 Common features in low level and high level
modulation are
◦ RF Source
◦ Power amplifiers
 Only difference is the point at which
modulation takes place.
 Higher the modulation level larger the audio

power required to produce modulation.

 On the other hand if any stage except the

output stage is modulated each following

stage must handle sideband power as well as
carrier.
 Each systems has one great advantage; low

modulating power requirements in one case

and much more efficient RF amplification with
Triode=Transistor
Grid Modulated Class C
amplifier
 Introduction of modulating voltage in series
with grid bias. Modulating voltage is
superimposed on fixed bias, therefore
amount of bias is proportional to the
amplitude of modulating signal.
 Then RF input voltage is superimposed on

total bias. The resulting plate current flows in

pulses, the amplitude of each pulse being
proportional to instantaneous bias therefore
to modulating voltage.
 This system will operate without distortion

only if the transfer characteristic is perfectly

linear, which can never be so.
 Max. output power from grid modulated

amplifier is much less. This disadvantage is

Plate modulated class C amplifier.
 Most widely used for amplitude modulation for
broadcasting & other high power transmission
 Audio voltage is placed in series with plate supply
voltage whose plate current is varied in accordance
with modulating signal.
 Such amplifiers are called final or PA amplifiers.
 The previous circuit is transformed to
practical circuit by including modulating
transformer.
 First waveform shows the total plate voltage

applied to class C amplifier and second

resulting plate current. When these are
applied to tank circuit the modulated wave
results as in (c).
 Waveform d shows total voltage appearing

between plate and cathode.

 AM Demodulator

 The Demodulator also called the Detector, is part of

the receiver that recovers the original signal, Vm from
the modulated signal, Vam.

40
 AM Demodulator
 Two basic types of radio receivers

1. Coherent – locally generated carrier is synchronized to the

transmitter’s carrier frequency (rarely used in practice)

2. Non-Coherent - carrier is not locally generated at the

receiver i.e the frequencies used for demodulation are
completely independent from the transmitter’s carrier
frequencies

 Two non-coherent methods of AM demodulation are

1. Rectifier detection
2. Envelope detection

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Rectifier Detection
 This detector is simply rectify the incoming signal to
remove half of the envelope and then use a low pass filter
to remove the high freq components of the signal.

Low-pass
Filter

42
Rectifier Detection

◦ At point A, the modulated waveform at the detector input.

◦ At point B, demonstrates the use of the diode rectifier in

removing half the envelope.

◦ At point C, shows the combined effects of the rectifier and

low-pass filter – this is the baseband signal with a dc offset.

◦ The offset can be removed with a series capacitor, producing

the output shown at point D.

43
Envelope Detection (Diode Detector)

44
Envelope Detection (Diode Detector)
 In the design of an envelope detector, the RC time constant of
the LPF is a critical parameter
 Too small a value of RC time constant results to too much ripple
 Too large a RC make it unable to follow fast fall in modulating
signal envelope

RC time constant,   RC
1
f 
RC

RC f RC f

45
Envelope Detection (Diode Detector)

46
Envelope Detection (Diode Detector)

47
Envelope Detection (Diode Detector)

 The result is an output containing 3 components:

 The wanted information signal
 Some ripple at the IF frequency
 A positive DC voltage level
48
Distortions in diode detector
 Negative peak clipping: modulation index in
demodulated wave is higher than it was in
the modulated wave applied to detector. i.e.
it is possible for over-modulation to exist in
output of detector, despite the modulation
index is less than 1.
Distortion in detector:
Diagonal clipping
 When positive peaks are decreasing in
amplitude, it is important that the capacitor
discharge between successive peaks to a
value less than next peak(a short RC time
constant is necessary).
 If the RC time constant is too short the

output resembles a half wave rectified

signal(rectifier distortion).
 If the RC time constant is too long slope of

waveform cannot follow trailing slope of the

envelope.(diagonal clipping).