Program : B.

Tech
Subject Name: Analog Communication
Subject Code: EC-403
Semester: 4th
Downloaded from be.rgpvnotes.in

Unit -4

AM transmitter & receiver : Tuned radio receiver & super heterodyne, limitation of TRF, IF frequency, image signal
rejection, selectivity , sensitivity and fidelity , Noise in AM,FM.

Tuned Radio receiver (TRF)

A tuned radio frequency receiver (or TRF receiver) is a type of radio receiver that is composed of one or more tuned
radio frequency (RF) amplifier stages followed by a detector (demodulator) circuit to extract the audio signal and
usually an audio frequency amplifier. This type of receiver was popular in the 1920s.The TRF receiver was patented
in 1916 by Ernst Alexanderson. His concept was that each stage would amplify the desired signal while reducing the
interfering ones. Multiple stages of RF amplification would make the radio more sensitive to weak stations, and the
multiple tuned circuits would give it a narrower bandwidth and more selectivity than the single stage receiver’s
common at that time. All tuned stages of the radio must track and tune to the desired reception frequency.

This is in contrast to the modern superheterodyne receiver that must only tune the receiver's RF front end and local
oscillator to the desired frequencies; all the following stages work at a fixed frequency and do not depend on the
desired reception frequency.

The definition of the tuned radio frequency, TRF receiver is a receiver where the tuning, i.e. selectivity is provided by
the radio frequency stage .In essence the simplest tuned radio frequency receiver is a simple crystal set. Tuning is
provided by a tuned coil / capacitor combination, and then the signal is presented to a simple crystal or diode
detector where the amplitude modulated signal, in this case, is recovered. This is then passed straight to the
headphones. As vacuum tube / thermionic vale technology developed, these devices were added to provide more
gain.

Typically a TRF receiver would consist of three main sections:

 Tuned radio frequency stages: This consisted of one of more amplifying and tuning stages. Early sets often
had several stages, each proving some gain and selectivity.
 Signal detector: The detector enabled the audio from the amplitude modulation signal to be extracted. It
used a form of detection called envelope detection and used a diode to rectify the signal.
 Audio amplifier: Audio stages to provide audio amplification were normally, but not always included.

Tuned radio frequency receiver, TRF, block diagram

Page no: 1 Follow us on facebook to get real-time updates from RGPV

Downloaded from be.rgpvnotes.in

Superhetrodyne receiver

A superheterodyne receiver, often shortened to superhet, is a type of radio receiver that uses frequency mixing to
convert a received signal to a fixed intermediate frequency (IF) which can be more conveniently processed than the
original carrier frequency. It was invented by US engineer Edwin Armstrong in 1918 during World War I. Virtually all
modern radio receivers use the super heterodyne principle.

The diagram shows the block diagram of a typical single-conversion super heterodyne receiver. The diagram has
blocks that are common to super heterodyne receivers. The antenna collects the radio signal. The tuned RF stage
with optional RF amplifier provides some initial selectivity; it is necessary to suppress the image frequency (see
below), and may also serve to prevent strong out-of-pass band signals from saturating the initial amplifier. A local
oscillator provides the mixing frequency; it is usually a variable frequency oscillator which is used to tune the
receiver to different stations. The frequency mixer does the actual heterodyning that gives the super heterodyne its
name; it changes the incoming radio frequency signal to a higher or lower, fixed, intermediate frequency (IF). The
IF band-pass filter and amplifier supply most of the gain and the narrowband filtering for the radio. The demodulator
extracts the audio or other modulation from the IF radio frequency; the extracted signal is then amplified by the
audio amplifier.

Limitation of TRF

The TRF's disadvantages as "poor selectivity and low sensitivity in proportion to the number of tubes employed. They
are accordingly practically obsolete." Selectivity requires narrow bandwidth, and narrow bandwidth at a high radio
frequency implies high Q or many filter sections. In contrast a super heterodyne receiver can translate the incoming
high radio frequency to a lower intermediate frequency where selectivity is easier to achieve. An additional problem
for the TRF receiver is tuning different frequencies. All the tuned circuits need to track to keep the narrow
bandwidth tuning. Keeping several tuned circuits aligned is difficult. A super heterodyne receiver only needs to track
the RF and LO stages; the onerous selectivity requirements are confined to the IF amplifier which is fixed-tuned.

IF Frequency

When the receiver demodulates the incoming desired signal at fRF, fRF, unfortunately it demodulates down to IF
also an unwanted signal at fRF+2fIF.This frequency is called image frequency

Page no: 2 Follow us on facebook to get real-time updates from RGPV

Downloaded from be.rgpvnotes.in

To reduce the design complexity of the receivers the IF frequency is chosen in such a way that the signal
at fRF+2fIF can be rejected by a simple tunable RF band pass filter such as a tank circuit with a variable capacitor.

Image Signal Rejection

Image rejection is the principal technical challenge in low-IF receivers. The choice of the IF, at low frequency,
prevents any image rejection filtering from taking place at RF. In most cases, the polyphase filter is designed to
minimize adjacent and alternate channel interference, thus making the filter design more complex and inadvertently
more power consuming. Proper choice of the IF frequency, however, can place the image in the adjacent channel.
Moreover, in order to discriminate between the IQ signals, the I and Q outputs have to be processed as a complex
pair. Having said that, the utility of the polyphase filter is limited by the balance accuracy between the IQ signals.
Unlike direct conversion, the ADCs in low-IF architecture have to operate at IF, thus implying stricter requirements
on the converters. Finally, second order distortion can result in serious in-band channel interference. In most
practical implementations, the low-IF architecture has been limited to somewhat narrowband applications for the
reasons cited above.

Selectivity

Selectivity is a measure of the performance of a radio receiver to respond only to the radio signal it is tuned to (such
as a radio station) and reject other signals nearby in frequency, such as another broadcast on an adjacent channel.
Selectivity is usually measured as a ratio in decibels (dBs), comparing the signal strength received against that of a
similar signal on another frequency. LC circuits are often used as filters; the Q ("Quality" factor) determines
the bandwidth of each LC tuned circuit in the radio. The L/C ratio, in turn, determines their Q and so their selectivity,

There are practical limits to the increase in selectivity with changing L/C ratio:

 tuning capacitors of large values can be difficult to construct

 stray capacitance, and capacitance within the transistors or valves of associated circuitry, may become
significant (and vary with time)
 the series resistance internal to the wire in the coil, may be significant (for parallel tuned circuits especially)
 large inductances imply physically large (and expensive coils) and/or thinner wire (hence worse internal
resistance).

Sensitivity and fidelity

Sensitivity of a receiver is defined as the ability of the receiver to amplify weak signals received by the receiver. It is
the voltage that must be applied at the input terminals of the receiver to achieve a minimum standard output at the
output of the receiver. The factors that determine the sensitivity of super heterodyne receiver are gain of the IF
amplifier, Noise figure of the receiver and gain of RF amplifier

The fidelity of a receiver is its ability to accurately reproduce, in its output, the signal that appears at its input. The
broader the band passed by frequency selection circuits, the greater your fidelity. Good selectivity requires that a
receiver pass a narrow frequency band. Good fidelity requires that the receiver pass a broader band to amplify the
outermost frequencies of the sidebands. Receivers you find in general use are a compromise between good
selectivity and high fidelity.

Noise in FM and AM

The signal to noise ratio, SNR or S/N ratio is one of the most straightforward methods of measuring radio receiver
sensitivity. It defines the difference in level between the signal and the noise for a given signal level. The lower the
noise generated by the receiver, the better the signal to noise ratio.

As with any sensitivity measurement, the performance of the overall radio receiver is determined by the
performance of the front end RF amplifier stage. Any noise introduced by the first RF amplifier will be added to the
signal and amplified by subsequent amplifiers in the receiver. As the noise introduced by the first RF amplifier will be
amplified the most, this RF amplifier becomes the most critical in terms of radio receiver sensitivity performance.
Thus the first amplifier of any radio receiver should be a low noise amplifier.

Page no: 3 Follow us on facebook to get real-time updates from RGPV

Downloaded from be.rgpvnotes.in

Signal to noise ratio formula

The signal to noise ratio is the ratio between the wanted signal and the unwanted background noise. It can be
expressed in its most basic form using the S/N ratio formula below:

SNR=Psignal/Pnoise

It is more usual to see a signal to noise ratio expressed in a logarithmic basis using decibels with the formula below:

SNR(dB)=10log10(Psignal/Pnoise)

If all levels are expressed in decibels, then the formula can be simplified to the equation below:

SNR dB =Psignal dB −Pnoise dB

The power levels may be expressed in levels such as dBm (decibels relative to a milliwatt, or to some other standard
by which the levels can be compared.

Page no: 4 Follow us on facebook to get real-time updates from RGPV

 We hope you find these notes useful.
You can get previous year question papers at
https://qp.rgpvnotes.in .

If you have any queries or you want to submit your

study notes please write us at
[email protected]