Amplitude Modulation

Basic AM
• Modulation
– Amplitude v (t )  (1  m  cos mt )  EC cos C t
– Spectrum
• Carrier
C
• Sideband C  m

– Modulation index
• 0<m<1
• How to measure?
– Modulated carrier vs baseband signal
• What happens when m>1?
 Waveforms
• Base Band and Modulation
– m = 100%

– m = 120%
• Math
• Real
 Spectrum
• Double Side Band Full Carrier
– Spectrum
• LSB, USB, Carrier
 Efficiency
• Efficiency in Using Bandwidth?
– Two side bands
• Efficiency in Using Power?
V 2 Ec2  (sin ct )2  Ec2
– Carrier Pc 
R

R

2R

m 2 Pc
– Side band Plsb  Pusb 
4

– Information in side band

– Carrier for synchronization
 Variations of AM
• Bandwidth Efficiency
– Single Side Band
– Vestigial Side Band
• Power Efficiency
– Reduced Carrier
– Suppressed Carrier
• Complication
– Circuits: generation, tuning, detection
– Filter, tone variation, carrier recovery
 AM Radio
• Source
– Audio, 20-20 kHz
• Carrier Frequency
– 525 – 1705 kHz
• Performance
– 5 kHz bandwidth
– 250-500 km range
– 50 µV sensitivity
AM Radio
 Commercial AM Radio
• Circuit Diagram
 Commercial Radio
• Circuit Board
Block Diagram
 Crucial Components
• RF Amplifier
– High dynamic range
• Autodyne Oscillator and Mixer
– Tuning
• Loop Antenna
– LC resonator
• Intermediate Frequency Amplifiers
– 455 kHz
– Tank circuit (double tuner) with flat center band
• Diode RF Rectifier
– Envelope detection
• Automatic Gain Control
– Strong vs weak stations
• Audio Amplifier
• Speaker
 Heterodyne
• Incoming RF vRF (t )  (1  m  cos mt )  EC cos C t

– RF amplifier
– Bandpass filter
• Local Oscillator vLO (t )  E LO cos(C  IF )t

• Mixer
– Nonlinear device or balanced mixer
– Bandpass filter v (t )  (1  m sin  t ) E E cos( )t
IF m C LO IF

– Signal proportional to local oscillator strength

• Intermediate Frequency (AM at 455 kHz)
– No further tuning
• EMI from Local Oscillator
 Detection
• Baseband Signal vRF (t )  m  A(t )

• Coherent Detection
– AM modulation vRF (t )  (1  m  A(t ))  EC cos C t
– Local oscillator vLO (t )  ELO cos C t
– Mixer vM (t )  (1  m  A(t ))  EC E LO cos C t  cos C t
– LP filter vLP (t )  (1  m  A(t ))  EC ELO / 2
– AC coupling vO (t )  m  A(t )  EC ELO / 2
– High sensitivity for low
S/N
 Envelope Detection
• Circuit
– RF rectifier
– Filter
– RC time constant
– Simple for high S/N
• Waveform
 Detection
• Square Law Detector
– Modulation vRF (t )  (1  m  A(t ))  EC cos C t
– Nonlinearity vsq (t )  (1  m  A(t )) 2  EC2 cos2 C t
– RF filter vRF  LF (t )  (1  m  A(t ))2  EC2 / 2
– Low pass and AC
coupling vLF (t )  m  A(t )  EC2
 Performance
• Sensitivity
• Fidelity or Bandwidth
• Dynamic Range
• Selectivity
– Adjacent channel
• Image Rejection
– IF
• Spurious Response
– Harmonics
• Squelch
• Noises
– Static noise from transmission media
– Motor boating noise from drift in frequency
 Lab and Projects
• Virtual Laboratory
– http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/load
Category.do
(Search: FM AM)
– Matlab project
• http://www.cse.ucsc.edu/classes/ee151/Winter01/
– Software Radio (http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/E-project/Available/E-
project-042805-113037/unrestricted/DASR_MQP_REPORT.pdf)

• Simple AM Projects
• Experiments
– Agilent 33120 AM modulation
– MC1496
http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/AN531-D.PDF
 AM Transmitter
• History
• Block Diagram

• Automatic Level Control

– m<1
 AM Modulator

• Balanced Mixer
• Other Circuit
– Base band signal modulates oscillator current
 Power Amplifier
Impedance Matching
• Maximize Power to the Load
• Impedance
– Z=V/I
• Change V – I Relation
– Transformer
• High current, low voltage
• Low current, high voltage
– RLC Networks
• Frequency dependent impedance
 Impedance Matching
• MIT Open Courseware
– http://ocw.mit.edu/NR/rdonlyres/Electrical-Engineering-and-Comp
uter-Science/6-776Spring-2005/025E9FB7-46C3-4718-98EA-CB
D23EEC9D98/0/lec4.pdf

• Berkeley RLC Pi and T LC Network

Calculator
– http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research/RF/projects/60GHz/matc
hing/ImpMatch.html

• Role of Antenna
– Impedance transformation between circuit and
free space
 Short Wave Radio
• Terrestrial Coverage, HAM
– http://n5xu.ece.utexas.edu/hamradio/

• Regenerative Receiver Project

– http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/receivers/regen-radio-receiver.htm
 HAM
• http://www.arrl.org/hamradio.html
• http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/
– Spectral analysis of audio signals
• http://www.ac6v.com/
– Antenna projects
• http://www.radio.org/linux/
– Linux HAM
 AM Stereo
• Two Channels
– L+R
– L-R
• Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
– Sin, Cos: orthogonal
– Increase Information Capacity Without
Increasing Bandwidth
• Motorola CQUAM System
– Details
– Chip
 Modern Application of AM
• Advanced Television Systems
Committee (ATSC)
• 8-VSB Digital Signaling
 AM Noise Analysis
• DSBFC Signal and Noise
e(t )  (1  m  A(t ))  EC cos C t  n C cos(C t ) n S sin(C t )

– Baseband signal power: SM  m 2 A2 EC2 / 2

– Carrier power: SC  EC2 / 2
– Noise spectral density: N 0 / 2
– Double sideband bandwidth: 2  2W
– Total noise power: N  2W  N 0  nc / 2  ns / 2
2 2

• Coherent Detection eD (t )  (1  m  A(t ))  EC ELO / 2  nC ELO / 2

– In phase noise only

– S/N S / N  m 2
 A2
 EC
2
/ 2WN 0
 AM Noise Analysis
• Envelope Detection

– Signal Dominant Regime

e(t )  [(1  m  A(t )) EC )  n C ]2  ns2  (1  m  A(t )) EC  n C

• Similar to coherent detection

– Noise Dominant Regime
• Noise large
• Signal small with random phase
e(t )  nC2  ns2  (1  m  A(t )) EC cos 

• Numerical Analysis
 AM Review
• AM Waveform
• Modulation Index Limit
• Double Sideband, Full Carrier
• Detection Circuits
– Coherent detection
– Envelope detection
• Variations
– SSB, RC or SC
– Vestigial sideband
• AM Transmitter
– Impedance matching
– Efficiency