FM GENERATION AND

DETECTION

The prime requirement of a FM system is a

variable output frequency, with the variation
proportional to the instantaneous amplitude of
the modulating voltage.
The subsidiary requirements are that the
unmodulated frequency should be constant and
the deviation independent of the modulating
frequency.

FM Generation
The FM Modulator circuits used for generating
FM signals can be grouped into two categories
The Parameter Variation Method / The
Variable Reactance Modulator.
(Direct Method)
The Armstrong Method (Indirect Method)

 In direct method, the baseband signal directly

modulates the carrier.
The carrier signal is generated with the help of an
oscillator circuit, which uses a parallel tuned LC
circuit.

Varactor Diode FM Modulator

 The varactor diode is a semiconductor diode whose junction

capacitance changes appreciably with d.c. bias voltage.
This diode is shunted with the tuned circuit (tank circuit) of
the carrier oscillator.
The capacitance C is kept much smaller than the diode
capacitance (Cd), in order to keep the radio frequency voltage
from oscillator across the diode small as compared to Vo.
Vo is the polarizing voltage to maintain a reverse bias across
the varactor diode.
Also, reactance of C at the highest modulating frequency is
kept large as compared to R, so that the shunting of the
modulating signal through the tank circuit is avoided.

Problems of the Variable Reactance

Modulator
The main problem of the variable reactance modulator
stems from the following two conflicting requirements:
1. The carrier frequency, fo, must be highly stable so FM
transmitter frequency does not drift away from its
proper frequency allocation.
2. The non linearity of varactor diode produces a
frequency variation due to harmonics of the
modulating signal.
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 In practice it is very difficult to construct

highly stable oscillators which can also be
voltage controlled.
Since frequency stability is of prime
importance for FM radio broadcasting, this
method of FM modulation is not used in FM
broadcast transmitters.

Indirect Method- Armstrongs Method

Direct FM is used in applications where
equipment cost is more important than frequency
stability, e.g. Radio control, mobile radio
transceivers etc.
If only Narrow Band FM (NBFM) is required,
with a high frequency stability, then the Indirect
FM modulation method is more suitable since a
fixed frequency oscillator, having a high
frequency stability, can be used.

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An indirect FM modulator involves two steps

a highly stable narrow band FM (NBFM), and
a frequency multiplier for frequency shifting and
bandwidth expanding.

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Block diagram of indirect method for FM generation

f(t)

x(t)

Narrowband
Freq. Modulator

Freq. Multiplier

NBFM

y(t)

Freq. Converter

nc n

WBFM signal

Frequency Multiplier
Nonlinear
Device

(t)

Frequency Converter
Bandpass
Filter

BPF

cos(ct)

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Interference Due To Channel Noise

The channel noise acts as interference in angle
modulated signal.
The most common form of noise are white noise,
which has constant power spectral density.
Such noise may be considered as a sum of sinusoids
of all frequencies in the band.
All components have same amplitudes, which means
that I is constant for all , and the amplitude
spectrum of the interference at the receiver is shown.
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Effect of interference on FM and PM

Interference

FM

PM

The interference amplitude spectrum is constant for PM and

increases linearly with for FM.

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Threshold Effect in FM system Performance

Threshold effect is the phenomenon that
occurs when the SNR at the detector input
decreases below a critical level.
Below this level, the resulting output signal
gets severely distorted by noise.
Angle modulation systems exhibit such
threshold behavior.
The threshold level for input SNR is roughly
10dB for angle modulation.
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Below the threshold level, there are occasions

when the randomly varying noise may have
instantaneous amplitude greater than that of
the signal.
Whenever this happens, the demodulator
output will undergo a sudden change in phase.
This phase changes manifest themselves as
clicks in audio transmission.
In video applications, the result is the random
appearance of short horizontal black and white
lines across the picture.
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The threshold effect is found to be more

serious in FM than in AM , because in FM the
input SNR at which threshold effect starts is
higher.
A system is considered to be better if the
threshold level is smaller.
The threshold improvement in FM refers to the
process of lowering the threshold level by
employing different techniques.
One of the methods is to employ pre-emphasis
and de-emphasis circuits.
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 In FM, the interference (noise) increases linearly with

frequency, and the noise power in the receiver output
is concentrated at higher frequencies.
The PSD of the audio signal, m(t) is concentrated at
lower frequencies below 2.1KHz.
Thus, the noise PSD is concentrated at higher
frequencies, where m(t) is the weakest
So at the transmitter the weaker high-frequency
components (beyond 2.1KHz) of the audio signal
m(t) are boosted before modulation by a
preemphasis filter.
At the reciever, the demodulator output is passed
through deemphasis filter.
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 The FM has smaller interference than PM at lower

frequencies, while the opposite is true at higher
frequencies.
If we can make our system behave like FM at lower
frequencies and like PM at higher frequencies, then it
is best.
This is accomplished by a system used in
broadcasting with the preemphasis (before
modulation) and deemphasis (after demodulation).
Both the circuits are filters which can be realised with
simple RC circuits.
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Pre-emphasis and De-emphasis

Pre-emphasis is a technique where high frequency
components are amplified before modulation.
De-emphasis network returns the baseband to its
original form.

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Pre-emphasis circuits

Xc = 1/jC ; 1 = 1/R1C ;
2 = 1/R2C

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De-emphasis circuits

Xc = 1/jC ; 1 = 1/RC ;
2 = 1/ RC

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Pre-emphasis and De-emphasis

To increase SNR
Message

Preemphasis
Filter

f1 f2
Demodulated
output

FM
transmitter
f :Boost high frequency

Deemphasis
Filter

f1

FM
Receiver
f

:Attenuate high frequency

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Pre/de-emphasis response

17dB

Deemphasis circuit
Is between the detector
preemphasis
And the audio amplifier

+3dB

-3dB

deemphasis
-17dB
500 Hz

2120 Hz

15KHz

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 The preemphasizer acts as a differentiator at

intermediate frequencies (2.1 to 15KHz), which
effectively makes the scheme PM over these
frequencies.
This means that FM is FM over the modulating-signal
frequency range of 0 to 2.1KHz and is nearly PM
over the range of 2.1 to 15KHz as desired.

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FM Demodulation
The process of extracting a modulating signal from a frequency
modulated carrier is known as demodulation. Electronic circuits
that perform the demodulation process are called FM detectors.
The FM detector performs the extraction in two steps:
1) It converts the frequency modulated (FM) signal into a
corresponding amplitude modulated (AM) signal by using
frequency dependent circuits i.e. circuits whose output
voltage depends on input frequency. Such circuits are called
as frequency discriminators.
2) The original modulating signal f(t) is recovered from this AM
signal by using a linear diode envelope detector.

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The FM demodulator must satisfy the following

requirements:
1.
2.
3.
4.

It must convert frequency variations into amplitude

variations.
This conversion must be linear and efficient.
The demodulator circuit should be insensitive to amplitude
changes. It should respond only to the frequency changes.
It should not be too critical in its adjustment and operation.

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Block diagram of the detection circuit

v FM t

d
dt

vFM(t)

Envelope
detector

v FM t

vFM(t)
t

y(t)

y(t)
t

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Mathematical analysis :
FM equation :
t

vFM (t ) Ec cos( c t k f vm (t )dt )

0

Differentiation yields :
dvFM t

Ec c k f vm t sin c t k f vm t dt
dt

From the above equation it can be seen that the amplitude of the
signal contains the information signal.
The amplitude of the signal is an envelope of the signal and the
equation is given by :

Ec [ c k f vm (t )]
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FM Discriminators
FM discriminators can be divided as
1. Slope Detectors
Single tuned discriminator circuit, or simple slope
detector.
Stagger tuned discriminator circuit, or balanced
slope detector.
2. Phase difference Discriminators
Foster Seeley discriminator
Ratio Detector
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Single Tuned Discriminator Circuit, or Simple

Slope Detector

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The slope detector is essentially a tank circuit which is

tuned to a frequency either slightly above or below the
FM carrier frequency. It is not widely used because of
the characteristics of LC tuned circuit which is
nonlinear especially for FM signal with large f .

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33

 Figure shows a plot of voltage versus frequency for a tank

circuit. The resonant frequency of the tank is the frequency at
point 4. Components are selected so that the resonant
frequency is higher than the frequency of the FM carrier signal
at point 2.
The entire frequency deviation for the FM signal falls on the
lower slope of the bandpass curve between points 1 and 3. As
the FM signal is applied to the tank circuit, the output
amplitude of the signal varies as its frequency swings closer
to, or further from, the resonant frequency of the tank.

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Demerits of Simple Slope Detector

Although the circuit is simple and inexpensive, it suffers
from the following demerits:
1)

2)

The circuits non-linear characteristics causes a harmonic

distortion. The non-linearity is obvious from the fact that the
slope is not same at every point.
It does not eliminate the amplitude variations and the output
is sensitive to any amplitude variations in the input FM
signal, which is not a desirable feature. A good discriminator
circuit should respond only to frequency variations, and not
to amplitude variations.
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The first limitation (NON LINEARITY)

is removed by using Stagger tuned
discriminator circuit or Balanced Slope
Detector.

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Stagger tuned discriminator circuit or

Balanced Slope Detector

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38

39

Response of Stagger tuned

discriminator circuit

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The two tuned circuits are in stagger-tuned mode, i.e one above
the carrier frequency and other tuned below the carrier
frequency.
Disadvantages:
1. The linear characteristic is limited to a small frequency
deviation. If the frequency deviation is more than the
defined value, distortion will occur due to non-linearity.
Thus the operation of this detector is limited to small
deviation only.
2. The discriminator characteristics depend critically on the
resonant circuits.
3. The tuned circuit output is not purely bandlimited and
hence, the low pass RC filter of the envelope detector
introduces distortion.
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Foster Seeley (Center Tuned)

Discriminator

dia

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 It uses double tuned circuit in which both the primary

and the secondary tuned to the same frequency
namely intermediate frequency are inductively
coupled.
Further the centre of the secondary is connected to the
collector end of the primary tuned circuit through the
coupling capacitor Cc. This coupling capacitor serves
another function of blocking the d.c. collector voltage
from the secondary system.
The R.F. choke L3 provides the return path for the d.c.
component of the rectified currents of diodes D1 and
D2.
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 Inductance of this choke L3 comes in shunt with the

inductance L1 of the primary and is kept relatively
much larger than L1. The RF voltage Vl developed
across the choke L3 is very slightly less than the
primary circuit voltage Vi because of the voltage drop
in the coupling capacitor Cc.
But since the reactance of capacitor Cc is very small
in comparison with the reactance of choke L3 voltage
Vl may be put approximately equal to Vi.
Since point C is the true electrical centre of the
secondary, the R.F voltages V1C and V2C are equal in
magnitude and opposite in phase.
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 The RF voltage V10 applied to diode D1 is equal to

Vl+V1C ~Vi+V1C.
Similarly RF voltage V20 applied to diode D2 is equal
to Vl -V2C ~Vi -V2C.
Voltages V1C and V2C are not in phase with Vi and
hence these have to be added vectorically to Vi to
produce voltages V10 and V20, as shown in fig (a).
Thus for applied frequency f equal to the frequency f0
of the tuned circuits, the voltages V1C and V2C are in
phase quadrature with the voltage Vi.
The voltages V10 and V20 are then equal in magnitude.
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 If, however the applied frequency differs from the

resonant frequency of the tuned circuits, the phase
angles of the voltages V1C and V2C relative to the
voltage Vi differ from 90.
Thus if he input frequency f is higher than the
resonant frequency fo, than the phase angle of voltage
V2C relative to voltage Vi is say 90- and the phase
angle of voltage V1C relative to Vi is 90+ .
Accordingly the resultant voltage V10 is greater than
the voltage V20 in magnitude.
If, on the other hand, the input frequency is below the
resonant frequency f0, the resultant voltage V10 is
smaller than the voltage V20.
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VA

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48

49

Design requirements of centre tuned discriminator

The discriminator must be carefully designed. Some of
the significant factors are discussed below:
1) Centre Tap: The centre tap on the secondary must
be situated at the true electrical centre of the circuit.
If the secondary is in the form of a single
continuous winding, this electrical centre may be at
an appreciable distance from the physical centre. To
overcome this difficulty, the secondary must be
wound in two equal sections, one placed at the top
of other.
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2) Balancing of Loads:
The loads of the diodes must be accurately balanced
under dynamic as well as static conditions.
This balanced load condition requires that R3 and R4
be equal and so the capacitors C3 and C4.
But in shunt with these capacitors, come stray
capacitances which are, in general unequal.
Coupling capacitance Cc is also another source of
capacitive unbalance.
To restore dynamic balance of the two low
impedances, additional capacitances should be placed
across the upper diode D1.
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3) Distortion due to de-emphasis circuit:

The de-emphasis if placed directly across the load
circuit of the discriminator may cause distortion.
To avoid this distortion, the de-emphasis circuit or
any other circuit placed across the discriminator
output must have impedance large as compared with
the diode load.

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Disadvantage of Foster Seeley

Discriminator
Any variation in amplitude of the input FM
signal due to noise modifies the discriminator
characteristics. The undesired frequency
components corresponding to amplitude
variations are produced in the detected output
and the output gets distorted. The distortion is
reduced using a LIMITER circuit in the FM
receiver.
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Ratio Detector
1. It gives an excellent noise free output.
2. Unlike center tuned discriminator, it requires
no limiter.
3. Since no limiter is required, small signal AM
rejection is considerably improved and hence
the input requires in ratio detector for noise
free operation is considerably smaller than
that in center tuned discriminator.
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Ratio Detector
The circuit is similar to the circuit of Foster
Seeley discriminator, except the following:
1. The polarity of diode D2 has been reversed.
2. The output V0 is taken from the center tap of
a resistor R that shunts the load impedance of
the two diodes.

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Demerits of Ratio Detector

The ratio detector may not tolerate the long
period variation in signal strength. This
requires an AGC signal. The dc voltage across
the stabilizing capacitor C may be used as an
AGC control voltage.

56

Phase Locked Loop

A PLL is a negative feedback system where an
oscillator-generated signal is phase and frequency
locked to a reference signal.
VCO adjusts its frequency and phase in order to
minimise the difference between its phase and the
phase of the input signal.
Provided that the input signal doesnt change too fast
the VCO stayed locked to the input. Thus PLL acts
like a narrowband tracking filter.
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 The operation of PLL is similar to any other feedback

system.
In any feedback system, the feedback signal tends to
follow the input signal.
If the signal fedback is not equal to the input signal,
the error signal will change the value of the fedback
signal until it is equal to the input signal.
The difference signal is called as an error signal.

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It can demodulate FM signals.

PLL are available in the form of IC chips.
The PLL system has two main components:
1.
2.

Phase comparator
VCO

The comparator comprises a voltage multiplier and a

LPF.
The filter is designed in such a way that it selects only
the difference frequency components , and rejects
the sum frequency components produced by the
multiplier.
dia

59

VCO

VCO is an electronic sine wave oscillator.

Its frequency is controlled by an externally applied voltage.
Thus VCO is a kind of frequency modulator.
A VCO can be adjusted to generate a sine wave of frequency
c in the absence of any external control voltage.

Now when an external control voltage is applied, the

frequency of VCO departs from c.
The amount of frequency change per unit input voltage is
defined as the sensitivity of the VCO and is denoted by Go, i.e

di
Go
rad / V
dv
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Where di is the change in the instantaneous frequency for a

small change dv in the external input voltage.
Therefore the frequency change for an external control voltage
vo(t) will be Govo(t) and the instantaneous frequency of VCO
output becomes

i c Go vo (t )

The corresponding phase angle of the VCO output voltage is

(t ) i dt c (t ) Go vo (t )dt
Hence the VCO output is given as

VVCO C cos c (t ) Go vo (t )dt

Where C is the amplitude of VCO output voltage.

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PLL states
Free-running
If the input and VCO frequency are too far apart,
PLL free-runs.

Capture
Once VCO closes in on the input frequency, PLL
is said to be in the capture mode.

Locked or tracking
Can stay locked over a wider range that was
necessary for capture.
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Phase-Locked Loop (PLL)

Indirect Method
vin(t)

ve(t)

Low pass
filter

vo(t)

vvco(t)

Voltage-Controlled
vvco (t ) Eo sin[ c t o (t )] Oscillator (VCO)

Above is a block diagram of FM detector using Phase-Locked Loop (PLL).

The input is FM signal:

vin (t ) Ec cos[ c t c (t )]
t

Ec cos( c t k f vm (t )dt )
0

Phase-Locked Loop

VCO output:

vvco (t ) Eo sin[ c t o (t )] where

o (t ) ko vo (t )dt
0

Multiplier in the circuit will function as a phase variation detector

ve (t ) vin (t )vvco (t )
Ec Eo cos[ c t in (t )] sin[ c t o (t )]

Ec Eo
EE
sin[ 2 c t in (t ) o (t )] c o sin[in (t ) o (t )]
2
2

LPF will pass only the difference frequency components and filter all the other
frequency components:

Ec Eo
vo (t )
sin[in (t ) o (t )]
2
Ec Eo
Ec Eo

sin e (t )
e (t )
2
2

[in (t ) o (t )] e (t )
If e (t ) 1
Then sin[e (t )] e (t )

Frequency generated at the VCO output is proportional to the input voltage of the
VCO.

o (t ) ko vo (t )

Therefore

o (t ) o (t )dt ko vo (t )dt

Output of the PLL is given by:

1 do (t )
vo (t )
ko dt

Given:

e (t ) in (t ) o (t ) 1
in (t ) o (t )

Hence:

1 do (t ) 1 din (t ) k f
vo (t )

vm (t ) kvm (t )
k o dt
ko dt
ko

Advantages of PLL
If there is a carrier center frequency or LO
frequency drift, conventional detectors will be
untuned.
PLL, on the other hand, can correct itself.
PLLs need no tuned circuits.

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