CE Notes Unit 02
CE Notes Unit 02
Communication Engineering
UNIT II - Notes
2.1 Selectivity
2.2 Fidelity
2.3 Sensitivity
3. Types of AM Receivers
RF Amplifier
Mixer
Local Oscillator
IF Amplifier
Diode Detector
Automatic Gain Control (AGC)
4. Introduction to Noise
5. Noise Calculation
1] AM Receiver: AM Receiver is a device used with an antenna to receive transmitted radio signals
and to convert these signals to a form that permits use of the transmitted information.
Functions of AM Receiver:
The principle functions of an AM receiver are frequency selection, amplification and detection
1. Frequency Selection is the discrimination of the part of the radio-frequency spectrum that contains
the desired information from the entire spectrum of electromagnetic oscillations.
2. Amplification is the process of strengthening the signals. It magnifies the energy of the received
oscillations, which are usually very weak, to a usable level.
3. Detection is the conversion of modulated radio-frequency oscillations to electric oscillations
corresponding to the modulation envelope that directly convey the transmitted information.
2] Receiver Characteristics:
These are the parameters which are required to evaluate the ability of a receiver to successfully
demodulate the received radio signals. Few important receiver characteristics are mentioned here:
2.1 Selectivity:
The selectivity is defined as an ability of AM receiver to accept (or select) the desired band of
frequency and reject all other unwanted frequencies which can be interfering signals.
The signal bandwidth should be narrow for better selectivity.
Graphically selectivity can be represented as a curve shown, which shows the attenuation
that the receiver offers to signal at frequencies near to the tuned frequency.
The selectivity determines the adjacent channel rejection of a receiver.
2.2 Fidelity:
Fidelity of a receiver is a measure of the ability of receiver to reproduce an exact replica of the
original transmitted signals at the receiver output.
For better fidelity, the amplifier must pass high bandwidth signals to amplify the frequencies
of the outermost sidebands, while for better selectivity the signal should have narrow
bandwidth. Thus, a trade-off is made between selectivity and fidelity.
UNIT II : NOTES Page 2
Communication Engineering [AGM]
2.3 Sensitivity:
Sensitivity of a receiver is its ability to identify and amplify weak signals at the receiver output. It is
often defined in terms of voltage that must be applied to the input terminals of the receiver to
produce a standard output power which is measured at the output terminals.
The higher value of receiver gain ensures smaller input signal necessary to produce the
desired output power. Thus, a receiver with good sensitivity will detect minimum RF signal at
the input and still produce utilizable demodulated signal.
Sensitivity is also known as receiver threshold. It is expressed in microvolts (µV) or decibels.
It can be improved by reducing the noise level and bandwidth of the receiver.
Sensitivity can be graphically represented as a curve shown in figure, which depicts that
sensitivity varies over the tuning band.
3] Types of AM Receivers:
Of the various forms of receivers, only two have any practical or commercial significance. There are:
1. Tuned Radio-Frequency (TRF) Receiver
2. Superhetrodyne Receiver.
Of these superhetrodyne receiver is used to a large extent today. The best way of justifying the
existence and overwhelming popularity of superhetrodyne receiver is by showing the shortcomings
of TRF type. Hence, TRF receiver is explained in the next section.
The Tuned Radio-Frequency receiver was among the first designs available in the early days when
means of amplification by valves became available. The basic principle was that all radio frequency
stages simultaneously tuned to the received frequency before detection and subsequent
amplification of the audio signal.
The TRF receiver block diagram is shown in figure above. It consists of a receiving antenna, three RF
amplifiers, detector, audio amplifier and power amplifier blocks.
WORKING:
The receiver antenna will receive RF signal which is transmitted by the transmitting antenna. Then
this signal acts as input signal to an assembly of RF amplifiers. Three RF amplifiers are used here. All
these amplifiers are tuned together in order to select and amplify the incoming frequency and
simultaneously to reject all others. After the signal was amplified to a suitable level, it is given to next
block i.e., detector. The detector block demodulates the signal in order to get original transmitted
signal at the output. This detected signal is now given to audio amplifier. Audio amplifier strengthen
the transmitted signal and then fed to the power amplifier. The signal at the output of Power
amplifier then drives the loudspeaker section.
3.2.1 RF Amplifier: In the superheterodyne receiver, the incoming signal through the antenna is
filtered to reject the image frequency and then amplified by the RF amplifier. RF amplifier can be
tuned to select and amplify a particular carrier frequency within the AM broadcast range. Only the
selected frequency and it two sidebands are allowed to pass through the amplifier.
3.2.2 Local Oscillator: The carrier of the received signal is called radio frequency carrier and its
frequency is radio frequency fRF and the local oscillator signal operates at fLO . The amplified RF
frequency is then mixed with the local oscillator frequency.
3.2.3 Mixer: The combining of these two signals is done at the mixer which produces sum and
difference frequency signals of the incoming carrier signal and local oscillator signal. Thus, two
outputs of mixer are (fLO + fRF ) and (fLO − fRF ). The sum frequency (fLO + fRF ) is rejected by the
filter and the remaining difference frequency (fLO − fRF ) signal which is a down converted frequency
signal is called as intermediate frequency (IF) carrier (fIF = fLO − fRF ).
The frequency of local oscillator is not same as the frequency to which RF amplifier is tuned. Local
oscillator is tuned to a frequency that may be either higher or lower than the incoming frequency by
an amount equal to the IF frequency. Thus, idea of the superheterodyne receiver is to reduce the
high frequency radio components of the incoming carrier to a fairly low, fixed value such as to be
processed at the different stages of the receiver. It also provides good stability, gain and proper
selectivity and fidelity. The modulation of the IF carrier signal is same as that of the original carrier
signal and it has a fixed frequency of 455 kHz which is amplified by one or more stages of
amplification.
3.2.4 IF Amplifier: The IF signal is amplified with the help of IF amplifier which raises its level for the
information extraction process. Also, the IF amplifier fulfils most of the gain and bandwidth
requirements of the receiver. IF amplifier operations are independent to the frequency at which
receiver is tuned, maintaining the selectivity and sensitivity of the superheterodyne receiver
considerably constant throughout the tuning range of the receiver. This amplified IF signal is applied
to the detector to detect the information signal component from 455 kHz IF, to reproduce the
original information data, which is generally in the form of audio signal.
3.2.5 Detector:
Envelope detector is used to detect (demodulate) AM wave. This envelope detector consists of a
diode and low pass filter. Here, the diode is the main detecting element. Hence, the envelope
detector is also called as the diode detector. The low pass filter contains a parallel combination of
the resistor and the capacitor. The AM wave s(t) is applied as an input to this detector.
In the positive half cycle of AM wave, diode conducts and the capacitor charges to the peak value of
AM wave. When the value of AM wave is less than this value, the diode will be reverse biased. Thus,
the capacitor will discharge through resistor R till the next positive half cycle of AM wave. When the
value of AM wave is greater than the capacitor voltage, the diode conducts and the process will be
repeated. The component values should be selected in such a way that the capacitor charges very
quickly and discharges very slowly. As a result, we will get the capacitor voltage waveform same as
that of the envelope of AM wave, which is almost similar to the modulating signal.
3.2.6 Audio Amplifier: The generated audio signal is then applied to the AF amplifier to increase the
audio frequency level of the signal and to provide enough gain to drive the speaker or headphones.
A speaker is connected to the AF amplifier to play the audio information signal.
An important part of superheterodyne receiver is Automatic gain control (AGC) which is given to the
RF, IF and mixer stages in order to generate constant output irrespective of the varying input signal.
It is a mechanism wherein the overall gain of the radio receiver is automatically varied according to
the changing strength of the received signal. This is done to maintain the output at a constant level.
Need of AGC:
In majority of cases the signal voltage arriving at the input of the receiver changes appreciably. This is
due to the difference in power of the transmitters and the difference in their distance from the
location of the receiver, the fading of diffused signals, abrupt change of distance and reception
conditions between a transmitter and a receiver mounted on moving objects, such as airplanes and
automobiles. These changes lead to unacceptable oscillations or distortions of signals in the receiver.
The automatic gain control is designed to significantly reduce variations in the output signal voltage
of the receiver with respect to the input signal voltage. If the gain is not varied as per the input
signal, consider a stronger input signal, then the signal might probably be distorted with some of the
amplifiers reaching saturation level. AGC is applied to the RF, IF and mixer stages, which also helps in
improving the dynamic range of the receiver antenna by adjusting the gain of the various stages in
the radio receiver. AGC facilitates tuning to varying signal strength stations providing a constant
output. AGC smoothens the amplitude variations of the input signal and the gain control does not
have to be recalibrated every time the receiver is tuned from station to station. An AGC which is not
designed correctly can lead to considerable distortion to a smooth signal.
1. Simple AGC:
In simple AGC, the gain control mechanism is active for
high as well as low value of carrier voltage. Hence, low
AGC voltage decreases overall gain and reduce the
sensitivity of the receiver. Figure shows AGC
characteristics. By observing the difference between
simple AGC and no AGC, it can be concluded that at low
input signals, the output of receiver is low as compared to
that would have been with no AGC.
2. Delayed AGC: In delayed AGC, AGC bias is not applied to the amplifiers until signal strength
reaches a predetermined level. When the output signal tries to exceed this level, the AGC bias is
applied and gain is reduced so that voltage remained at predetermined level. Hence, this type of AGC
is called as delayed AGC. From figure it can be observed that the characteristic of delayed AGC is very
close to that of ideal AGC. Almost all the receivers use delayed AGC
Concept of Image frequency (𝐟𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞 ) & Image frequency Rejection Ratio (IRR):
In a standard broadcast receiver the local oscillator frequency is made higher than the incoming
signal frequency. It is made equal at all times to the signal frequency plus the intermediate
frequency. Thus,
fLO = fRF + fIF
No matter what the signal frequency may be when fLO and fRF are mixed, the difference frequency is
equal to fIF = fLO − fRF . As such, it is the only one passed and amplified by the IF stage.
If a frequency fimage manages to reach the mixer, such that
Then this frequency will also produce fIF when mixed with fLO . Unfortunately, this spurious
intermediate-frequency signal will also be amplified by the IF stage and will therefore provide
interference. This has the effect of two stations being received simultaneously and is naturally
undesirable. The term fimage is called image frequency and it is defined as the signal frequency plus
twice the intermediate frequency. i.e., fimage = fRF + 2fIF .
The rejection of an image frequency by a single tuned circuit, i.e., the ratio of the gain at the signal
frequency to the gain at the image frequency, is given by
fimage fRF
where, ρ = − and Q = Quality Factor of tuned circuit
fRF fimage
If the receiver has two RF stage, then there are two tuned circuits, both tuned to fRF . The rejection
of each will be calculated by the same formula and the total rejection will be product of the two.
Whatever applies to gain calculations applies also to those involving rejection. Image rejection
depends on the front-end selectivity of the receiver and must be achieved before the IF stage.
4. Introduction to Noise:
In any communication system, during the transmission of the signal or while receiving the signal,
some unwanted signal gets introduced into the communication, making it unpleasant for the
receiver, and questioning the quality of the communication. Such a disturbance is called as Noise.
Noise is an unwanted signal, which interferes with the original message signal and corrupts the
parameters of the message signal. This alteration in the communication process, leads to the
message getting altered. It most likely enters at the channel or the receiver.
Types of Noise:
The classification of noise is done depending on the type of the source, the effect it shows or the
relation it has with the receiver, etc. There are two main ways in which noise is produced. One is
through some external source while the other is created by an internal source, within the receiver
section.
1] External Source:
This noise is produced by the external sources, which may occur in the medium or channel of
communication usually. This noise cannot be completely eliminated. The best way is to avoid the
noise from affecting the signal. Most common examples of this type of noise are
Atmospheric noise (due to irregularities in the atmosphere),
Extra-terrestrial noise, such as solar noise and cosmic noise and
Industrial noise.
2] Internal Source:
This noise is produced by the receiver components while functioning. The components in the circuits,
due to continuous functioning, may produce few types of noise. This noise is quantifiable. A proper
receiver design may lower the effect of this internal noise. Most common examples of this type of
noise are
Thermal noise (Johnson noise or Electrical noise),
Shot noise (due to the random movement of electrons and holes),
Transit-time noise (during transition),
Effects of Noise:
Noise affects the system performance.
It limits the operating range of the systems
Noise affects the sensitivity of receivers
Important Definitions:
1. Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR): It is the ratio of signal power to the noise power. Higher the value of
SNR, greater will be the quality of received output.
2. Figure of Merit (FoM): It is defined as the ratio of output SNR to the input SNR. It describes the
performance of a device.
Output SNR (SNR)o
FoM = =
Input SNR (SNR)i
For a receiver, channel is input and hence, figure of merit is given by:
5. Noise Calculation:
Ac 2 Ac K a m(t) 2 Ac 2 Ac 2 K a 2 P Ac 2 (1 + K a 2 P)
PAM = ( ) + ( ) = + =
√2 √2 2 2 2
Am 2
where, P = = message signal power
2
Average power of noise in the message bandwidth (W) is
Pnoise = WN0
Thus, input SNR for AM receiver is nothing but channel SNR and it is given by
PAM Ac 2 (1 + K a 2 P)
(SNR)c = = − − − (1)
Pnoise 2WN0
Assume the band pass noise is mixed with AM wave in the channel as shown in the above figure. This
combination is applied at the input of AM demodulator. Hence, the input of AM demodulator is
v(t) = Ac cos 2πfc t + Ac K a m(t) cos 2πfc t + [nI (t) cos 2πfc t − nQ (t) sin 2πfc t]
where, nI (t) and nQ (t) are in phase and quadrature phase components of noise.
The output of AM demodulator is nothing but the envelope of the above signal.
Ac 2 K a 2 P
Therefore, output SNR is (SNR)o = − − − (2)
2WN0
Ac 2 Ka 2 P
(SNR)o 2WN0
FoM = = ⁄A 2
(1+Ka 2 P)
− − − from (1) and (2)
(SNR)c c
2WN0
K a2P μ2 Am 2
FoM = = − − − since, P = and K a Am = μ
1 + K a 2 P 2 + μ2 2
Maximum value of Figure of Merit for AM receiver can be obtained at 𝛍 = 𝟏 FoM= 1/3 i.e., 33.33%
DSB-SC modulated wave is given by the expression, s(t) = Ac m(t) cos 2πfc t
Ac m(t) 2 Ac 2 P
PDSB−SC =( ) =
√2 2
Am 2
where, P = = message signal power
2
Average power of noise in the message bandwidth (W) is
Pnoise = WN0
Thus, input SNR for AM receiver is nothing but channel SNR and it is given by
PDSB−SC Ac 2 P
(SNR)c = = − − − (1)
Pnoise 2WN0
Assume the band pass noise is mixed with DSB-SC wave in the channel as shown in the above figure.
This combination is applied as one of the input of product modulator. Hence, the input of product
modulator is
𝑣1 (t) = s(t) + n(t)
𝑣1 (t) = Ac m(t) cos 2πfc t + [nI (t) cos 2πfc t − nQ (t) sin 2πfc t]
where, nI (t) and nQ (t) are in phase and quadrature phase components of noise.
Local oscillator generates the carrier signal c(t)=cos(2πfct). This signal is applied as another input to
the product modulator. Therefore, the product modulator produces an output, which is the product
of v1(t) and c(t).
𝑣2 (t) = 𝑣1 (t) 𝑐(𝑡)
𝑣2 (t) = {[Ac m(t) + nI (t)] cos 2πfc t − nQ (t) sin 2πfc t} cos 2πfc t
𝑣2 (t) = [Ac m(t) + nI (t)] cos 2 2πfc t − nQ (t) sin 2πfc t . cos 2πfc t
When the above signal is applied as an input to low pass filter, we will get the output of LPF as:
Ac m(t) + nI (t)
d(t) =
2
Ac 2 P
(SNR)o 2WN0
FoM = = ⁄A 2P = 1 − − − from (1) and (2)
(SNR)c c
2WN0
Am Ac cos 2π(fc − fm )t
SSB − SC modulated wave is given by the expression s(t) =
2
Average power of SSB-SC modulated wave is PSSB−SC
2
Am Ac A𝑚 2 Ac 2
PSSB−SC = ( ) =
2√2 8
Thus, input SNR for AM receiver is nothing but channel SNR and it is given by
PSSB−SC A𝑚 2 Ac 2
(SNR)c = = − − − (1)
Pnoise 8WN0
Assume the band pass noise is mixed with SSB-SC wave in the channel as shown in the above figure.
This combination is applied as one of the input of product modulator. Hence, the input of product
modulator is
𝑣1 (t) = s(t) + n(t)
Am Ac cos 2π(fc − fm )t
𝑣1 (t) = + [nI (t) cos 2πfc t − nQ (t) sin 2πfc t]
2
where, nI (t) and nQ (t) are in phase and quadrature phase components of noise.
Local oscillator generates the carrier signal c(t)=cos(2πfct). This signal is applied as another input to
the product modulator. Therefore, the product modulator produces an output, which is the product
of v1(t) and c(t).
𝑣2 (t) = 𝑣1 (t) 𝑐(𝑡)
Am Ac cos 2π(fc − fm )t
𝑣2 (t) = { + [nI (t) cos 2πfc t − nQ (t) sin 2πfc t]} cos 2πfc t
2
Am Ac
𝑣2 (t) = [cos 2π(fc − fm )t cos 2πfc t] + nI (t) cos 2πfc t cos 2πfc t − nQ (t) sin 2πfc t cos 2πfc t
2
When the above signal is applied as an input to low pass filter, high frequency components will be
eliminated and hence, the output of LPF can be written as:
Am Ac nI (t)
d(t) = cos 2πfm t +
4 2
2
Average power of the demodulated signal is (Am Ac ⁄4√2) = Am 2 Ac 2 /32
Am 2 Ac 2 /32 A𝑚 2 Ac 2
Therefore, output SNR is (SNR)o = = − − − (2)
WN0 /4 8WN0
A𝑚 2 Ac 2
(SNR)o 8WN0
FoM = = =1 − − − from (1) and (2)
(SNR)c A𝑚 2 Ac 2
8WN0
[ Following questions were asked in previous university exams : W2017, S2018, W2018, S2019 & W2019]
Q1. What are the functions of AM receiver? Explain the working of Tuned Radio-Frequency (TRF)
receiver with suitable block diagram.
Q2. Define and explain following characteristics of Radio Receiver with suitable curves.
i) Selectivity ii) Fidelity iii) Sensitivity
Q3. Derive an expression for Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) in DSB-SC.
Q4. Justify proper choice of intermediate frequency value in an AM radio receiver
Q5. Draw and explain the block diagram of super heterodyne AM receiver.
Q6. Explain the concept of AGC. Draw response of receiver with various AGC circuits.
Q7. List and define any three performance parameters (characteristics) of radio receiver.
Q8. Explain with neat circuit diagram operation of AM diode detector. Draw related waveforms.
Also state its drawback.
Q9. Explain RF amplifier in Superheterodyne receiver.
Q10. Explain the communication receiver with the help of block diagram.
Numericals
1] A superheterodyne receiver is tuned to 555 KHz. Its local oscillator frequency is 1010 KHz. Calculate
IRR when antenna of this receiver is connected to a mixer through a tuned circuit whose quality
factor is 50.