AM Rx Characteristics:

1. Selectivity
2. Bandwidth improvement
3. Sensitivity
4. Dynamic range
5. Fidelity
6. Insertion loss
Selectivity: it is the ability of a Rx to accept a given band
of frequencies and reject all other.

Eg: For commercial AM broadcast band, each section of Tx

is allocated to 10Khz bandwidth.

Bandwidth improvement:
Thermal noise is directly proportional to B.W.
if B.W decreases, S/N ratio increases., then overall
system performance is increases.
reducing the B.W equivalent to reducing the noise
figure of Rx.
Sensitivity: is the minimum RF signal level that can be
detected at the i/p of the Rx and still produce a
demodulated information signal.

Dynamic range: is the i/p power range over which the

receiver is useful. The minimum receive level is a function of
front-end noise, noise figure and desired signal ability.

Fidelity: is the measure of the ability of a communication

system to produce at the o/p of the Rx, an exact replica of
the original source information.
Here any frequency, phase or amplitude variations
the are present in the demodulated waveform, the were not
in the original information signal are considered distortion
Fidelity is effected by 3-forms of distortion., amplitude,
frequency and phase.

Insertion loss: it is the ratio of power transmitted to the

load with a filter in the c.k.t to the power transmitted to a
load without the filter.
simply it is the ratio of the o/p power of a filter to
the i/p power for frequencies that fall within the filters
pass band.
filter insertion losses are between a few tenths of a
decibel to several decibels.
I.L=10log(Pout/Pin)
GENERATION OF F.M:
•Prime requirement of FM: Variable o/p frequency with the
variation proportion to the instantaneous amplitude of the
modulating voltage.

•subsidiary requirement of FM: Unmodulated frequency

should be constant, and the deviation is independent of the
modulating frequency.
Direct methods of generation of FM:
1.Basic reactance modulator(using FET)
2.Transistor reactance modulator
3.Varactor diode modulator
4.Stabilized reactance modulator
Indirect generation of FM:
•Of the various methods of providing a voltage-variable
reactance which can be connected across the tank circuit of
an oscillator, the most common are the:
1.Reactance modulator
2.Varacter-diode modulator

Reactance Modulator:
It provides some simple conditions are met:

• Impedance ,z is almost entirely reactive.

• It is a FET reactance modulator, which behaves as a three-
terminal reactance., that may be connected across the tank
circuit of the oscillator to be frequency modulated.
• It can be made inductive (or) capacitive by a simple
component change.
• The value of this reactance is proportional to the trans-
conductance of the device, which can be made to depend
on the gate bias and its variations.
Theory:
• In order to determine z, a voltage ‘v’ is applied to the
terminals A-A b/w which the impedance is to be measured
and the resulting current ‘i’ is calculated.

• The applied voltage is then divided by this current, giving

the impedance seen when looking into the terminals.

• In order for this impedance to be pure reactance(it is

capacitive here), the requirements must be fulfilled:
1. The bias network current ‘ib’ must be negligible
compared to the drain current. Since the impedance of
the bias network must be large enough to be ignored.
2. The drain-to-gate impedance(Xc here) must be
greater than the gate-to-source impedance(R in this
case), proffered by more than 5:1.
Types of reactance modulators:
Varactor diode modulator:
•A varactor diode is a semiconductor diode whose
junction capacitance varies linearly with the applied
voltage when the diode is reverse biased. So it may
also be used to produce frequency modulation.

•Here the diode has been back-biased to provide the

junction capacitance effect, and since this bias is
varied by the modulating voltage which is in series
with it, the junction capacitance will also vary, causing
the oscillator frequency to change accordingly.
Disadvantage: Because of using the two-terminal device
here, its applications are somewhat limited.

Applications: It is used for automatic frequency control

and remote tuning.
Stabilized Reactance Modulator:
Indirect Method of generation of F.M:
PREEMPHASIS & DEEMPHASIS:

• Noise(single-frequency interference & thermal noise) at

the higher-modulating-signal frequencies is inherently
greater in amplitude than noise at lower-modulating-signal
freq’s.

• So the higher-modulating-signal frequencies have a lower

signal-to-noise ratio than a lower-modulating-signal freq’s.

• Therefore, for information signals with a uniform signal

level, a non uniform signal-to-noise ratio is produced.

• It can be seen that the S/N ratio is lower at high-frequency

ends of the triangle shown in the figure below.
• To compensate for this, the high-frequency modulating
signals are emphasized (or) boosted in amplitude in the Tx
prior to performing modulation.

• To compensate for this boost, the high-frequency signals are

attenuated or deemphasized in the Rx after demodulation has
been performed.

• A de-emphasis N/W restores original amplitude-verses-freq’

characteristics to the information signal.

• Since the pre-emphasis N/W allows the high-frequency

modulating signals to modulate the carrier at a higher level
and, thus, cause more frequency deviation than their original
amplitudes would have produced.
FM Receivers:
• The envelope (peak) detector common to AM receiver is
replaced in FM receivers by “ a limiter, freq’ discriminator
and de-emphasis network.

• The frequency discriminator extracts the information from

the modulated wave, while the limiter circuit and de-
emphasis N/W contribute to an improvement in the signal-
to-noise ratio that is achieved in the audio-demodulator
stage of FM receivers.

• For broadcast-band FM Rx’s, the first IF is a relatively high

frequency (often 10.7MHz) for good image-frequency
rejection, and the second IF is a relatively low frequency
(very often 455KHz) that allows IF amplifier to have a
relatively high gain and still not be susceptible to oscillating.
FM DEMODULATORS:
• FM demodulators are frequency dependent circuits
designed to produce an output voltage that is proportional
to the instantaneous frequency at its input.

• The most common circuits used for demodulation of FM

signals are: 1. Slope detector
2. Foster-Seeley discriminator
3. Ratio detector
4. PLL demodulator
5. Quadrature detector

• Among these five circuits first 3-circuits are forms of

“Tuned-circuit Frequency Discriminators.”
Tuned-Circuit Frequency Discriminators:
• So tuned-circuit frequency discriminators convert FM to AM
and then demodulate the AM envelope with conventional
peak detectors.

• Also, most frequency discriminators require a 1800 phase

inverter, an adder circuit, and one or more frequency-
dependent circuits.
Slope Detector:
• The tuned circuit (La and Ca) produces an o/p voltage that is
proportional to the i/p frequency.

• The maximum o/p voltage occurs at the resonant frequency

of the tank circuit (f0), and its o/p decreases proportionately
as the i/p frequency deviates above or below f0 .

• The circuit is designed so that the IF center frequency (fc)

falls in the center of the most linear portion of the voltage-
versus-frequency curve, as shown in the figure above.

• When IF deviates above fc, the o/p voltage increases. When

the IF deviates below fc, the o/p voltage decreases. Thus the
tuned circuit converts frequency variations to amplitude
• Di, Ci and Ri make up a simple peak detector that converts
the amplitude variations to an o/p voltage that varies at a
rate equal to that of the i/p frequency changes and whose
amplitude is proportional to the magnitude of freq’ changes.
Balanced Slope Detector:
• A balanced slope detector is simply two single-ended slope
detectors connected in parallel and fed 1800 out of phase.
The phase inversion is accomplished by center tapping the
tuned secondary windings of transformer.

• The top tuned circuit (La and Ca) is tuned to a frequency (fa)
that is above the IF center frequency (f0) by approximately
1.33*∆f (for the FM broadcast band, this is approximately
1.33*75KHz=100KHz).

• The lower tuned circuit (Lb and Cb) is tuned to a frequency

(fb) that is below the IF center freq’ by an equal amount.
CIRCUIT OPERATION:
• The o/p voltage from each tuned circuit is proportional to
the i/p frequency, and each o/p is rectified by its respective
peak detector.

• Therefore, the closer the i/p frequency is to the tank-circuit

resonant frequency, the greater the tank-circuit o/p voltage.

• The IF center frequency falls exactly halfway between the

resonant frequencies of the two tuned circuits.

•So, at the IF center frequency, the o/p voltages from the

two tuned circuits are equal in amplitude but opposite in
polarity.
• Consequently, the rectified o/p voltage across R1 and R2,
when added, produce a differential o/p voltage Vout =0V.

• When the IF deviates above resonance, the top tuned

circuit produce a higher o/p voltage than the lower tank
circuit, and Vout goes positive.