University of Technology

Department of Communication Engineering

Optical Communication Systems Engineering Branch

AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

Experiment No.6 in Communication Electronics Laboratory II
July 9, 2021

Mousa Saad Luaibi

Second Year
 Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

▪ Objective
To implement AM modulator and demodulator circuits and study the process of amplitude
modulation in transmitters and receivers.

▪ Equipment
1. Personal computer.
2. Multisim software.
3. Bread board.
4. Electrical components.

▪ Theory

Amplitude modulation is the process of transferring information signals to the amplitude of a high-
frequency continuous-wave carrier. The basic concept of standard AM modulator is shown in Figure
(1).

Figure (1) Basic concept of AM modulation.

The modulation process is a multiplication between the modulating and the carrier signals. The
modulated AM waveform can be described by the following:

The general trigonometric identity for the product of two sinusoidal functions is:

1
(sin 𝐴)(sin 𝐵 ) = [cos(𝐴 − 𝐵 ) − cos(𝐴 + 𝐵)]
2
Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

Applying this identity to the pervious formula for 𝑉1 𝑉2 :

𝑉1(𝑝)𝑉2(𝑝)
𝑉1 𝑉2 = [cos(2𝜋𝑓1 𝑡 − 2𝜋𝑓2 𝑡) − cos(2𝜋𝑓1 𝑡 + 2𝜋𝑓2 𝑡)]
2
𝑉1(𝑝) 𝑉2(𝑝)
𝑉1 𝑉2 = [cos 2𝜋(𝑓1 − 𝑓2)𝑡 − cos 2𝜋(𝑓1 + 𝑓2)𝑡]
2
𝑉1(𝑝)𝑉2(𝑝) 𝑉1(𝑝) 𝑉2(𝑝)
𝑉1 𝑉2 = cos 2𝜋(𝑓1 − 𝑓2 )𝑡 − cos 2𝜋(𝑓1 + 𝑓2)𝑡
2 2

The last equation is the product of two sinusoidal voltages 𝑉1 and 𝑉2 contains the difference
(𝑓1 − 𝑓2) and the sum (𝑓1 + 𝑓2 ). The product terms are cosine simply indicates a 90° phase
shift in the multiplication process. Figure (2-a) show circuits for producing AM. The first one is
called a square law circuit; this circuit produces AM with harmonics. The modification of the
circuit shown in Figure (2-b) is to remove harmonics double sideband AM or DSB-AM.

Figure (2-a) A square law circuit for producing AM.

Figure (2-b) The tuned circuit filters out the modulating signal and carrier harmonics, leaving
only the carrier and sidebands
 Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

➢ Diode Modulator

Consists of a resistive mixing network, a diode rectifier, and an LC tuned circuit as shown
in Figure (2-b).
• The carrier is applied to one input resistor and the modulating signal to another
input.
• A diode passes half cycles when forward biased.
• The coil and capacitor repeatedly exchange energy, causing an oscillation or ringing
at the resonant frequency.

➢ Transistor Modulator

Two signal generators are used in this circuit, one representing a high frequency RF
carrier, the other signal generator is used to inject a low frequency signal representing the
information signal. The two signals are mixed and amplified by the transistor and an
amplitude modulated signal appears at the collector of a transistor 2N2222A.

▪ Procedure
➢ Diode Modulator

1. I’ll use Multisim software to implement the circuit shown in Figure (4).

Figure (3) AM diode modulator.

2. I’ll set the values of the components as shown in the figure.

Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

3. I'll apply a sinusoidal signal of 2 𝑘𝐻𝑧 and amplitude of 2 𝑉𝑝 to the input 𝑉1 which
represents the carrier signal.
4. I’ll apply a sinusoidal signal of 300 𝐻𝑧 and amplitude of 0.8 𝑉𝑝 , voltage offset 1 𝑉 to the
input 𝑉2 which represents the information signal.
5. I’ll connect 𝑉1 and 𝑉2 to a 2-Channel oscilloscope and adjust the voltage and the time
scales appropriately.
6. I’ll use a second oscilloscope to monitor the modulated output from the probe mark
shown in the figure and record the output.
7. I’ll decrease the amplitude of the carrier signal to 1 𝑉𝑝 and record the output.
8. I’ll repeat step 7 with amplitude of 0.8 𝑉𝑝 and 0.5 𝑉𝑝 and record the output in each case.
9. I’ll use a spectrum analyzer to check the frequency components of the modulated
output.

➢ Demodulation

1. I’ll connect the circuit shown in Figure (4).

Figure (4) AM demodulation.

2. I’ll use values of components as shown in the figure.

3. I’ll use oscilloscope probe to check the output from the place marked in the figure.
4. I’ll record the output of the oscilloscope and compare with input to 𝑉2 .
5. I’ll check the effect of decreasing the amplitude of the carrier signal on the recovered
waveform from the output of the demodulator i.e. the output after the diode.
Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

➢ Transistor Modulator

1. I’ll set the values of the components as shown in Figure (5), I’ll set the 𝑉𝑐𝑐 to 12 𝑉.

Figure (5) AM transistor modulator.

2. I’ll apply a sinusoidal signal of 100 𝑘𝐻𝑧 and amplitude of 10 𝑉𝑝 to the input 𝑉1 which
represents the carrier signal.
3. I’ll apply a sinusoidal signal of 5 𝑘𝐻𝑧 and amplitude of 5 𝑉𝑝 to the input 𝑉2 which
represents the information signal (audio).
4. I’ll connect 𝑉1 and 𝑉2 to a 2-Channel oscilloscope and adjust the voltage and the time
scales appropriately.
5. I’ll use a second oscilloscope to monitor the modulated output from the probe marked
as 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 , and record the output.
6. I’ll decrease the amplitude of the carrier signal to 5 𝑉𝑝 , 3 𝑉𝑝 and record the output.
7. I’ll use a spectrum analyzer to check the frequency components of the modulated
output.
8. I’ll compare the modulated output with that obtained from diode modulator.
 Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

➢ Demodulation

1. I’ll connect the circuit shown in Figure (6).

Figure (6) AM demodulation.

2. I’ll use values of components as shown in the figure, I’ll connect the output voltage
from the previous circuit to the input of this circuit.
3. I’ll use oscilloscope probe to check the output from the place marked in the figure.
4. I’ll record the output of the oscilloscope and compare with input to 𝑉2 .
5. I’ll check the effect of decreasing the amplitude of the carrier signal on the recovered
waveform from the output of the demodulator.

▪ Discussion

1. I'll discuss the effect of decreasing the amplitude of the carrier on the modulated
output.

➢ Amplitude modulation is a change in the amplitude of the carrier signal according

to the amplitude of the information signal, and as a result, the amplitude of the
carrier signal is directly proportional to the output of the modulated signal, so at
decreasing the amplitude of the carrier signal, the amplitude of the output signal
(AM signal) will decrease.

2. I'll calculate the modulation index in each case.

➢ Diode modulator
𝐴𝑚
• 𝐴𝑐 = 2 𝑉𝑝 , 𝐴𝑚 = 0.8 𝑉𝑝 , m = = 0.4
𝐴𝑐
𝐴𝑚
• 𝐴𝑐 = 1 𝑉𝑝 , 𝐴𝑚 = 0.8 𝑉𝑝 , m = = 0.8
𝐴𝑐
𝐴𝑚
• 𝐴𝑐 = 0.8 𝑉𝑝 , 𝐴𝑚 = 0.8 𝑉𝑝 , m = =1
𝐴𝑐
Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits
𝐴𝑚
• 𝐴𝑐 = 0.5 𝑉𝑝 , 𝐴𝑚 = 0.8 𝑉𝑝 , m = = 1.6
𝐴𝑐

➢ Transistor modulator
𝐴𝑚
• 𝐴𝑐 = 10 𝑉𝑝 , 𝐴𝑚 = 5 𝑉𝑝 , m = = 0.5
𝐴𝑐
𝐴𝑚
• 𝐴𝑐 = 5 𝑉𝑝 , 𝐴𝑚 = 5 𝑉𝑝 , m = =1
𝐴𝑐
𝐴𝑚
• 𝐴𝑐 = 3 𝑉𝑝 , 𝐴𝑚 = 5 𝑉𝑝 , m = = 1.667
𝐴𝑐

3. I'll discuss the difference between the information input and the recovered output
from the diode demodulator.

➢ Significant decrease in the amplitude of output signal.

➢ Loss of the half negative cycle of the information signal.

4. I'll comment on the frequency components of the output from the modulator.

➢ Carrier frequency (𝑤𝑐 ).

➢ Amplitude of the carrier (𝐴𝑐 ).
➢ Lower sideband (𝑤𝑐 - 𝑤𝑚 ).
➢ Upper sideband (𝑤𝑐 + 𝑤𝑚 ).

5. I'll discuss how I can produce one sideband only? I’ll suggest a method to obtain
SSB.

➢ By using lattice modulator which consists of an two input and output

transformers and four diodes connected as bridge circuit, the carrier signal is
applied to the center taps of the input and output transformers, the output will
be DSB-SC and then pass it through filter to eliminate one of the sidebands, and
then the output will be SSB signal.

Filter SSB signal

Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

6. I'll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using amplitude modulation.

Advantages Disadvantages
The modulation & demodulation is The efficiency is very low
simple and cheap It consumes a lot of power
It uses to transmit to far distances The noise is high
The bandwidth is high

7. I'll discuss the applications of AM.

➢ Radar and military communications.

➢ Quadrature amplitude modulation.
➢ Frequency division multiplexing.
➢ Airband radio.
➢ Radio & TV broadcasting.

▪ Circuits used

➢ Diode Modulator
Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

➢ Diode Demodulator

➢ Transistor Modulator
 Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

➢ Transistor Demodulator

▪ Graph Papers

➢ Diode Modulator
Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

➢ Diode Demodulator

➢ Transistor Modulator
Communication Electronics Laboratory II Exp.No.6: AM Modulation and Demodulation Circuits

➢ Transistor Demodulator