Lecture 1

Radio Systems: an Overview

Sections: parts from 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 3.10

Acknowledgement: Most diagrams and plots are from M. Steer’s book “Microwave
and RF Design”
 Why Do We Need Microwave Engineers?
rapid development of wireless services in the GHz range
• cellular/mobile voice and data (from 800 MHz to 2.7 GHz)
• WLAN and bluetooth (around 2.4 GHz)
• Wi-Fi (around 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), range ~ 10s m
• long-range Wi-Fi (around 2.4 GHz, 3.5 GHz, 4 GHz, and 5
GHz), range in open space ~ 1 km
• GPS (at about 1.5 GHz and 1.2 GHz)
• WiMAX (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) –
wireless alternative to cable and DSL, mobile broadband
connectivity (2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 3.5 GHz), range ~ 100s m
• LMDS (local multipoint distribution service), 27.5 GHz to
28.35 GHz; 29.1 to 29.25 GHz; internet+TV+phone+fax
• automotive: anti-collision radar (24 GHz & 79 GHz); automatic
cruise control (77 GHz)
Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 2
 Basic Principles of Radio Communication
 DC (or low-frequency signals) cannot be radiated – antennas are
commensurate with the wavelength or larger (for high gain)

 the lower the frequency, the larger the antenna size (min ~ 0.1λ)
http://www.broadcast-transradio.com/html/antenna.html
horizontal cross-dipole antenna for AM broadcasting (λ ~
100 m) in Mainflingen (Germany), by Bernd Waniewski

d  10 cm
relatively LARGE electrically
relatively SMALL electrically
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 Basic Principles of Radio Communication – 2
 DC (static) signals do not propagate: 1/r2 dependence on distance
 the lowest-frequency wireless links operate at VLF (3 kHz to 30
kHz) – special applications only
 AC signals can be radiated and they have the so called “far-zone”
component: 1/r dependence on distance
2
D 1 D
field strength   , power    (D – largest antenna dimension)
 r  r 
 the typical radio link goes through the following basic steps in
order to operate at reasonable frequencies
• modulation
• up-conversion and transmission (radiation)
• reception and down-conversion
• demodulation
Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 4
 Radio Communication System: Block Diagram
transmitter
radio channel

front end
superheterodyne receiver

microwave engineers design equipment for the front end (the RF

portion of the system)
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 Radio Receiver Evolution: Crystal Sets

BPF rectifier
[Hagen, RF Electronics]
several mW’s needed

• self-powered RF receivers
• AM signals

• cannot power loudspeakers 

• needs good antenna and strong station amplifiers needed otherwise
(RF and/or audio amplifiers)

Using sketches of the input and output signal waveforms, explain

briefly how a diode rectifier can be used as an AM demodulator.
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 Radio Receiver Evolution: TRF Sets

[Hagen, RF Electronics]

vacuum tube
tunable BPF detector

• TRF – tuned radio frequency

• consists of cascaded tunable BPFs and RF amps
• tuning all the BPFs simultaneously while preserving their
bandwidth (~ 10 kHz for AM) is not easy

Note: FM broadcast radio usually has about 200 kHz spacing between channels
(typical FM channel bandwidth is about 150 kHz)
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Radio Receiver Evolution: Superheterodyne Receivers, Principles
• hetero-dyne (from Greek) – “different power”
• heterodyne refers to a beat or “difference” frequency (IF) produced
when two or more RF signals are fed to a nonlinear device (mixer)
• a single-tone signal (from LO) is mixed with the received RF signal
to produce a lower-frequency version of the signal (the IF)
• inventors: Reginald Fessenden (1901), Edwin Armstrong (1917)
• key advantage: use fixed filters while tuning the LO
• main problem: image interference
LO

DC IF RF
RF MIXER IF

fIF f f FREQUENCY
LO RF LO

(a) (b)
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 Superheterodyne Receivers: AM Double-Conversion Set

front-end

TRF back-end receiver

[Hagen, RF Electronics]

• consists of a frequency converting front end + an IF back-end

receiver which is in effect a fixed-frequency TRF
• AM radios use an IF frequency of 455 kHz

Note: FM radio receivers use an IF frequency of 10.7 MHz.

Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 9

 Modern Double-Conversion Superhet

Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 10

 Mixing and Trigonometry
• the mixer can be viewed as a multiplier
• the mixer contains: (a) nonlinear device (e.g., diode, FET), (b)
biasing circuits, and may be (c) filter
• the signal multiplication is described by trigonometric identities

• the mixer output in general contains both sum and difference terms
• to retain the down-converted signal only and maintain low
conversion loss, a double-mixer circuit is used

Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 11

 Down-conversion Double-mixer Circuit

 sin(RFt ) cos ( RF  LO )t   cos  (RF  LO )t  / 2

cos(RFt )  sin ( RF  LO )t   sin  (RF  LO )t  / 2

sin(RFt ) sin  (RF  LO )t   sin(IFt )

cos ( RF  LO )t   cos  (RF  LO )t  / 2
LO sin ( RF  LO )t   sin  (RF  LO )t  / 2

RF  LO
• up-converted terms cancel upon summation IF  LO
Explain briefly how the double-mixer circuit can be used as an
FM demodulator.
Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 12
 Heterodyne Frequency Conversion: Image Channel
• the image of the desired RF signal (above LO frequency) is an
RF signal below the LO frequency and equidistant from it
RF PRESELECT
FILTER
MAIN
IMAGE PUMP CHANNEL

DC FREQUENCY

• the image signal is a problem because its IF is the same as that

of the desired signal

Image-frequency Definition:
image  f  2 f IF , if f LO  f
f image  
 f  2 f IF , if f LO  f
IF LO RF

Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 13

 Heterodyne Frequency Conversion: Image Interference
RF PRESELECT
FILTER
MAIN
IMAG E PUMP CHANNEL

DC FREQUENCY
(a)
IF
FILTER
DOWN-CONVERTED
IMAGE MAIN CHANNEL

Let A  RF t , I  image t , B  LO t

DC +IF FREQUENCY

cos A  cos B   cos( A  B )  cos( A  B ) / 2

–IF
(b)

MAIN
CHANNEL cos I  cos B   cos( B  A)  cos( I  B ) / 2
WITH IMAGE

sin A  cos B  sin( I  B )  sin( A  B ) / 2

DC +IF FREQUENCY sin I  cos B  sin( I  B )  sin( B  A) / 2
(c)

down-converted terms
Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 14
 Image Rejection Using Filtering
• RF preselect filter can suppress the image before mixing
• IF must be large enough to avoid very strict narrowband
requirements for the preselect filter
RF PRESELECT
FILTER
MAIN
IMAGE PUMP CHANNEL

DC f IF FREQUENC Y

(a)

RF PRESELECT
FILTER
MAIN
IMAGE PUMP CHANNEL

DC FREQUENC Y

(b)
Nikolova 2012 15
 Image Rejection Using Filtering – 2
• preselect filtering with BPFs is usually applied at each down-
conversion stage

Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 16

 Image Rejection with Quadrature Mixing
• quadrature-mixing down-conversion with Hartley’s circuit

I channel

Q channel

opposite signs!
Nikolova 2012
 Image Rejection with Quadrature Mixing – 2
Hartley’s circuit: math detail for the RF down-conversion
a cos  (RF  LO )t   cos  (RF  LO )t  / 2 here: RF  LO
b sin  (RF  LO )t   sin  (RF  LO )t  / 2
0.5a cos(IFt )
0.5b sin(IFt )
I

a cos(RFt ) cos(LOt ) a cos(IFt )

b sin(RFt ) b sin(IFt )
 sin(LOt ) 0.5a cos(IFt )
Q 0.5b sin(IFt )

0.5a sin(IFt )
a  sin  (RF  LO )t   sin  (LO  RF )t  / 2 0.5b cos(IFt )
b Nikolova
cos 2012 t R cos
(RF LLO )01:
ECTURE S  (: A O 
ADIO YSTEMS
RF
N
LO )t  / 2
VERVIEW 18
 Image Rejection with Quadrature Mixing – 3
Hartley’s circuit: math detail for the image down-conversion
a cos  (I  LO )t   cos  (I  LO )t  / 2 here: I  LO
b sin  (I  LO )t   sin  (I  LO )t  / 2
0.5a cos(IFt )
0.5b sin(IFt )
I

a cos(It ) cos(LOt ) 0
b sin(It ) 0
 sin(LOt ) 0.5a cos(IFt )
Q 0.5b sin(IFt )

0.5a sin(IFt )
a  sin  (I  LO )t   sin  (LO  I )t  / 2 0.5b cos(IFt )
b Nikolova (I LLO )01:t R cos
 cos2012 ECTURE S  (
ADIO YSTEMS O
:A 
I
N
LO )t  / 2
VERVIEW 19
 Homodyne or Direct-Conversion (zero-IF) Receivers
• LO frequency is the same as the carrier and is synchronized in phase
with it (note: in AM, the carrier is transmitted and is thus available)
• mixing results in an IF signal centered around zero frequency
• avoids image issues
• for AM signals, simple rectifier can be used to demodulate

in AM, all information is

contained in the upped band
rectifier
Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 20
 Homodyne Mixing with I/Q
• for frequency and phase modulated signals, I and Q signals (at
DC) are extracted and processed digitally

21
 Transmitter Architectures

main goals:
• spectral efficiency →
suppressed carrier single-side
band (SCSS) modulation
• power efficiency

I/Q up-conversion circuit

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 Transmitter Architectures: Quadrature Modulation
the quadrature modulator output is described by the signal s(t)
decomposed as per the generalized quadrature modulation equation

a (t ) b(t )
consider narrow-band signal
i (t )  cos(mt )
q (t )   sin(mt )

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 Quadrature Modulation: Math Details

• this circuit can be used for: (i) frequency up-conversion

(trace red) and (b) for frequency modulation of a career

Explain briefly how the circuit above can be used as an FM

modulator.
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 Summary
 wireless links operate at high frequencies to achieve efficient power
transmission with antennas of reasonable size
 the front end of a transceiver includes: antenna, transmission lines,
low-noise amplifiers, filters, mixers, oscillators, switches, etc.
 RF/microwave engineers design the front end of the communication
systems (antenna design is a separate highly specialized field)
 RF/microwave electronics is very different from low-frequency
analog or digital electronics
• passive devices (e.g. filters) often require the application of
Maxwell’s theory without any approximations
• semiconductor devices are often very specific (tunnel and
Schottky diodes, Gunn diodes, etc.)
• high-power generators/amplifiers employ vacuum technology
Nikolova 2012 LECTURE 01: RADIO SYSTEMS: AN OVERVIEW 25