Amplitude Modulation Reception

Receive antenna RF Section Bandpass Filter Mixer/converte r section Bandpass Filter IF Section Bandpass Filter

AM detector

Bandpass Filter

Audio Section Speaker

RF Section also called receiver front end used for detecting, bandlimiting & amplifying the received signals Mixer/converter down converts the received RF frequencies to Intermediate frequencies (IF) IF frequencies that fall somewhere between RF and information freq. IF section amplifies and select the signal AM Detector demodulates the AM wave and converts it to the original info. Signal Audio section amplifies the recovered information.

Receiver Parameters: 1. Selectivity measure the ability of the receiver to accept a given band of frequencies and reject all others - give the bandwidth of the receiver at the -3dB points or at two levels of attenuation such as -3 dB and -60 dB which ratio is known as shape factor shape factor - ratio between the -3dB and -60dB, measure the skirt steepness
shape factor ! f4  f3 f 2  f1

SF !

B60 dB B3 dB

Where SF
B60 dB B3 dB

shape factor (unitless) - bandwidth 60dB below max signal level - bandwidth 3dB below max signal level

1 ideal value of SF (if bandwidth at 03dB and -60dB points are equal Example 1: -3dB bandwidth = 10kHz -60dB bandwidth = 20 kHz
example 2: 60 dB bandwidth = 12 kHz; 6 dB bandwidth = 3 kHz

20kHz S ! !2 10kHz

12 shape factor ! !4 3

Note: to achieve ideal SF, use more expensive and sophisticated circuits
shape factor measure of skirt steepness or skirt selectivity the lower the shape factor, the better the skirt selectivity ideal shape actor = 1

- using tuned circuit, LC, determined by X Q! L R Bandwidth of a tuned circuit is measured by its selectivity
BW ! fr Q

with fr resonant frequency , C = 101.4 pF, find BW.

1 2T 10 x10

ex. L = 10 H, R = 20 Solution:
fr ! 1 2T LC

6

101.4 x10 
12

! 5MHz

X L 2TfL 2T 5 x10 6 10 x10 6 Q! ! ! ! 15.7 20 20 R

f r 5 x10 6 ! ! 318kHz BW ! 15.7 Q

upper and lower cut-off frequency = 318 kHz / 2 = 159 kHz upper fc = 5 + 0.159 = 5.159 MHz = f2 lower fc = 5 0.159 = 4.841 MHz = f1 BW = f2 f1 = 5.159 4.841 = 318 kHz To improve selectivity, let BW = 40 kHz
fr 5 x10 6 Q! ! ! 125 BW 40 x10 3

so with

Q!

XL R

R!

X L 314 ! ! 2.512; Q 125

to increase Q, lower coil resistance larger wire gauge

should be careful not to cut-off the sideband since they contain the information although we wanted to increase Q to increase selectivity

selectivity curve of a tuned circuit

ideal receiver selectivity curve

Practical

better selectivity can be achieved by: i.cascading tuned circuit ii.using crystal or mechanical ilters

2. Bandwidth Improvement: - increasing the bandwidth also increase thermal noise, so to improve the performance, decrease the bandwidth improve SNR difficult to construct narrow-band filter Bandwidth improvement,
BI ! BRF where B RF  RF bandwidth ( Hz ) BIF and B IF  IF bandwidth( Hz)

Noise Figure Improvement, NFimprovemen t ! 10 log BI Example: Determine the improvement in the noise figure for a receiver with an RF bandwidth equal to 200kHz and an IF bandwidth equal to 10kHz Solution:

BI !

200 kHz ! 20 and 10 kHz

NFimprovemen t ! 10 log 20 ! 13dB

3. Sensitivity minimum RF signal level that can be detected at the input to the receiver and still produce a usable demodulated information signal - also called receiver threshold Usable information signal is arbitrary, a. For AM broadcast-band receivers:

SNR u 10 dB with Poutput ! 0.5W ( 27 dB ) at audio section

b. For broadband microwave receivers:

SNR u 40 dB and Poutput ! 5mW (7 dBm ) signal power

Typical sensitivity: a. AM commercial broadcast: Sensitivit y ! 50 QV b. Two-way mobile radio receiver: Sensitivit y is between 0.1QV to 10 QV

-To improve sensitivity, reduce noise level through decreasing temperature or reduce the bandwidth of the receiver

4. Dynamic Range the difference between the minimum voltage and the maximum voltage level - input power range over which the receiver is useful

For a single frequency input signal, the high power input signal limit is 1-dB compression point 1-dB compression point output power when the RF amplifier response is 1 dB less than the ideal linear-gain response DR = 100 dB highest possible value -Low DR can cause a desensitizing of the RF amplifiers and result in severe intermodulation distortion of the weaker input signals

5. Fidelity measure of the ability of the communication system to produce, at the output of the receiver, an exact replica of the original source information distortion frequency, phase and amplitude variations from the original signal 3 forms of distortion: a. Amplitude amplitude vs frequencies characteristics of a signal at the output is different from those in the input b. phase not so much a problem in voice 2 kinds: i. absolute phase shift total phase shift of the signal - can be tolerated as long as all frequencies undergo the same amount of phase delay ii. Differential phase shift when different frequencies undergo different phase shift - detrimental in cases such as PSK c. frequency resulting from harmonics and intermodulation distortion 2nd order harmonic problem in broadband 3rd order harmonic caused by cross-product frequencies ex. 2 f1 s f 2 , f1 s 2 f 2 - can be reduced using square-law devices (can only produced 2nd order harmonics and can be filtered out)

6. Insertion Loss (IL) ratio of the power transferred to a load with a filter in the circuit to the power transferred to a load without the filter
ILdB ! 10 log Pout Pin

Where Pout Pin

Output power of the filter Input power for frequencies that fall within the filters passband

7. Noise Temperature and Equivalent Noise Temperature

T! N where T ! environmental temperature (kelvin) KB N ! noise power (watts) K ! Boltzmann's constant (1.38 x 10-23 J / K ) B ! bandwidth (hertz)

T Equivalent noise Temperature  e - indication of the reduction in the SNR as a signal propagates through a receiver. o T Typical values:  e ! 20 for cool receivers o Te ! 1000 for noisy receivers

! ( F  1) where Te ! equivalent noise temperature (kelvin)

T ! environmental temperature (kelvin)

! noise factor (unitless)

AM Receivers
1. Coherent 2 Types: also called synchronous - frequencies generated in the receiver and used for demodulation are synchronized to oscillator frequencies generated in the transmitter - also called asynchronous - either no frequencies are generated in the receiver or the frequencies used for demodulation are completely independent from the transmitters carrier frequency - envelope detector

2. Noncoherent

2 Kinds: 1. Tuned Radio-Frequency (TRF) - simple

-3 stage TRF receiver -The three RF amplifiers are used to filter and amplify the received signal, the detector converts RF signal to information, audio amplifiers amplify the information signals to a usable level Disadvantages: a. Inconsistent bandwidth unstable frequency selectivity is affected b. Instability cause oscillation can be corrected by stagger tuning, different frequencies for each amplifiers c. Nonuniform gain nonuniform L/C ratios of the transformer-coupled tank circuits

Example: For an AM commercial broadcast-band receiver (535kHz to 1605kHz) with an input filter Q-factor of 54, determine the bandwidth at the low and high ends of the RF spectrum. Solution: For low-end of AM, center frequency = 540kHz

B!

f 540kHz ! ! 10kHz Q 54

For high-end of AM, center frequency = 1600 kHz

B!

f 1600kHz ! ! 29,630 Hz Q 54

B! Q!

Note: the 10kHz bandwidth at low end is the desired value but the 29,630 Hz is not at the high-end since it will select 3 stations for an almost 30kHz bandwidth at high end. To find for the Q factor that can make the high-end selective, chose B=10kHz and solve for Q factor: f However at Q=160, the low-end bandwidth will be

Q f 1600k z ! ! 160 B 10k z

This is too selective which will block some info. signal

f 1600kHz B! ! ! 3,375 Hz Q 160

2. Superheterodyne receiver

- Above is a noncoherent superheterodyne receiver - has superior quality in terms of gain, selectivity and sensitivity

Heterodyne mixing of two frequencies in a linear device or to translate one frequency to another using nonlinear mixing

Sections: 1. RF section has a preselector and amplifier preselector broad-tuned BPF with an adjustable center frequency tuned to the desired carrier frequency - block image frequency, an unwanted frequency from entering the receiver - reduces noise bandwidth - determines the sensitivity and noise figure of the receiver amplifier has several advantages: a. greater gain, thus better sensitivity b. improved image-frequency rejection c. better signal-to-noise ratio d. better selectivity 2. Mixer/converter section includes RF oscillator (local oscillator) and mixer/ converter (first detector) mixer nonlinear device that convert RF to IF, performs heterodyning most common IF (intermediate frequency) = 455 kHz 3. IF section consists of IF amplifiers and BPF called IF strip IF < RF to attain high-gain stable amplifiers 4. Detector section - convert IF to original information signal (such as AF) - also called audio detector or second detector - can be a single diode or a PLL or a balanced demodulator 5. Audio amplifier section amplifies the AF signal

Receiver Operation Conversion of RF to IF to AF RF in AM commercial broadcast: between 535 kHz to 1605 kHz IF in AM broadcast band: 450 kHz and 460 kHz IF in FM broadcast band: 10.7 MHz Frequency conversion RF signals are combined with LO frequency in a nonlinear device harmonics & cross-product frequencies sum & difference frequencies IF filters tuned to the difference frequencies Preselector & LO frequencies adjustment are gang tuned two adjustments are mechanically tied together so that a single adjustment will change the center frequency of the preselector at the same time change the LO frequency For high-side injection (LO freq. above RF): f LO ! f RF  f IF For low-side injection (LO freq. below RF): f LO ! f RF  f IF
where
f LO ! LO freq. (Hz) f IF ! IF ( Hz )

! RF ( Hz )

Using high-side injection tuning the preselector to channel 2 (550kHz carrier frequency), with 30-kHz passband allows chan 1, 2 & 3 (each with 10-kHz BW) and mixed it with LO freq=1005kHz to produce 455kHz IF * although 3 channels are preselected, but since the bandwidth of the IF filter is only from 450 kHz to 460 kHz, only chan 2 can pass through IF filters Example: For an AM superheterodyne receiver that uses high-side injection and has a local osc. frequency of 1355 kHz, determine the IF carrier, upper side freq. & lower freq. for an RF wave that is made up of a carrier and upper and lower side freq. of 900 kHz, 905 kHz & 895 kHz, respectively.

Referring to the figure below:

Solution:

f IF ! f LO  f RF ! 1335kHz  900 kHz ! 455kHz f IF (usf ) ! f LO  f RF ( lsf ) ! 1355kHz  895kHz ! 460 kHz f IF (lsf ) ! f LO  f RF ( usf ) ! 1355kHz  905kHz ! 450kHz

*sideband inversion - RF upper side frequency translated to IF lower freq. and RF lower side freq. translated to IF upper freq.

Local Oscillator Tracking the ability of the LO to oscillate either above or below the selected radio frequency carrier by an amount equal to the IF throughout the entire RF band

Image Frequency any frequency other than the selected radio frequency carrier that, if allowed to enter a receiver and mix with LO, will produce a cross-product frequency that is equal to the IF - equivalent to a second RF that will produce an IF that will interfere with the IF from the desired RF
f i ! f LO  f IF f i ! f RF  2 f IF

2fIF
f IF f IF

frequency Image

IF

RF

LO

Image-Frequency Rejection Ratio (IFRR) numerical measure of the ability of the receiver to reject image frequency

IFRR ! (1  Q 2 V 2 ) where V ! f im f RF   f RF f im

Example: For an AM broadcast-band superheterodyne receiver with IF, RF and LO frequencies o 455kHz, 600kHz and 1055 kHz, respectively, determine a. Image frequency b. IFRR for a preselector Q of 100
Mixer/converter RF=600kHz Image=1510kHz LO-RF=IF Image-LO=IF 1055-600=455 kHz 1510-1055=455 kHz

Local Oscillator 1055 kHz

Solution: a. f im ! 1055 kHz  455 kHz ! 1510 kHz or

f im ! 600 kHz  2 ( 455 kHz ) ! 1510 kHz

b.

V!

1510 kHz 600 kHz  ! 2 .113 600 kHz 1510 kHz

IFRR ! 1  100 2 2.113 2 ! 211 .3

Note: the closer the RF is to the IF, the closer the RF is to the image frequency

Example: For a citizens band receiver using high-side injection with an RF carrier of 27MHz and an IF center frequency of 455 kHz, determine: a. LO frequency b. image frequency c. IFRR for a preselector Q of 100 d. preselector Q required to achieve the same IFRR as that of the previous example for RF carrier of 600 kHz Solution: a. f LO ! 27 MHz  455kHz ! 27.455 MHz

b. f im ! 27.455 MHz  455kHz ! 27.91MHz 27.91MHz 27 MHz  ! 1.0337  0.9673 ! 0.0663 c. V ! 27 MHz 27.91MHz I d. Q ! ! 1  Q 2 V 2 ! 1  100 2 0.0663 2 ! 6.77

1

V2

! 6.77

0.0663 2

  1 ! 3167

Note:  for the two example, it is more difficult to prevent image frequencies for high RF than low IF  For higher IFRR, this will require high Q difficult to achieve use high IF Double Spotting when receiver picks up the same station at two nearby points on the receiver tuning dial

AM Receiver Circuits RF Amplifiers Circuit Characteristics of good RF: Low thermal noise Low noise figure Moderate to high gain Low intermodulation and harmonic distortion (i.e. linear operation) Moderate selectivity High IFRR
VN ! 4 RKTB where
 noise voltage

a. b. c. d. e. f.

- load resistance - oltzmann s constant ! 1.38x10 -23 joules / o K T - absolute temp. ! 290 o K - bandwidth (Hz)

Comparing the three kinds of RF amplifier configurations: 1. Bipolar transistor more nonlinear distortion 2. DEMOS-FET square law device which offers only second-order harmonic - less nonlinear distortion 3. Cascoded - high gain and less noise Low-Noise Amplifiers (LNA) generally includes 2 stages with impedance matching networks 1st stage moderate gain and minimum noise 2nd stage high gain and moderate noise Silicon BJT or FET Up to 2 GHz GaAs FETs more than 2 GHz uses MESFET (Mesa Semiconductor FET), a metal-semiconductor junction at the gate called Schottky barrier Example of LNA IC RF Amplifier NE/SA5200

Mixer/Converter Circuits

From RF amplifier: sin( 2Tf RF t ) From the LO: sin(2Tf LO t )

? Vout ! ?sin( 2Tf RF t ) Asin 2Tf LO t A!

Output of the mixer:

1 1 cos ?2T  f RF  f LO t A cos ?2T  f RF  f LO t A 2 2

Uses FET Conversion loss IF output signal amplitude lower than RF input signal
Kinds: 1. Self excited 2. Separately excited mixer 3. Single-diode mixer 4. Balanced diode mixer 5. IC mixer/oscillator NE/SA602A

IF Amplifier circuit - operate at lower frequency - advantage: easy to design stable circuit Inductive Coupling - coupling IF amplifiers

Es ! [MI p

Where E s - voltage magnitude induced in the secondary windings (volts)

[ - angular velocity of the primary voltage wave (radians per se

M - mutual inductance (henrys) I p - primary current (amperes)

2 kinds of transformers: 1. single-tuned transformers 2. Double-tuned transformers

Single - tuned

Double-tuned

Gain for single-tuned = 0.707 two-tuned = (0.707 x 0.707) = 0.5 three tuned = (0.707 x 0.707 x 0.707) = 0.353

Bandwidth reduction Over-all bandwidth of n single-tuned stages

1n Bn ! B1 2  1

Where Bn - bandwidth of n single-tuned stages (Hz) B1 - bandwidth of one single-tuned stage (Hz) n - number of stages (any positive integer)

Bandwidth of n double-tuned stages

Bndt

! B1dt 2

 1

Where Bndt - bandwidth of n double-tuned stages (Hz) B1dt - bandwidth of one double-tuned stage (Hz n - number of stages (any positive integer)

AM DETECTOR CIRCUITS AM Detector:  demodulate the AM signal recover or reproduce the frequencies of original signal relative amplitude  also called second detector mixer/converter 1st detector Kinds of Detector: 1. Peak Detector - noncoherent RC filter output difference frequencies of LSF, Carrier and USF Ex.Vout = 300 298 kHz = 2kHz

Difference between AM modulator & AM demodulator: - AM modulator output is tuned to the sum frequencies (up-converter) - AM demodulator output is tuned to the difference freq. (down-converter)

Percent of Modulation: a. no modulation peak detector is a filtered halfwave rectifier output voltage = peak input voltage 0.3A b. With modulation increase in the variations in the output voltage follows the shape of the AM envelope Detector Distortion: based on the RC value a. Rectifier distortion short RC b. Diagonal clipping long RC short RC time constant is needed

fm(max) !

1m 1 
2

2TRC

For 70% modulation:

fm(max) ! 1 2TRC

Automatic Gain Control Circuits adjusts the voltage gain of received signal to increase weak signals and decrease strong RF signal that may overdrive the receiver Types of AGC: 1. Simple AGC monitors the received signal level and sends a signal back to the RF and IF amplifiers to adjust their gain automatically

2. Delayed AGC prevents the AGC feedback voltage from reaching the RF and IF amplifiers until the RF level exceeds a predetermined magnitude

3. Forward AGC receive signal is monitored closer to the front end of the receiver and correction voltage is fed forward to the IF amplifiers

Squelch Circuit to quiet a receiver in the absence of a received signal - keeps the audio section of the receiver turned off or muted RF signal the absence of a received signal disadvantage weak RF signals will not produce an audio output.

Noise Limiters & Blankers Noise limiters - use diode limiters or clippers in the audio section - limiting or clipping threshold level is normally established just above the max. peak level of the audio signal. Blanking ckt - detects the occurrence of a high-amplitude, short duration noise spike, then mutes the receiver by shutting off a portion of the receiver for the duration of the pulse

Alternate Signal to Noise Measurements To measure sensitivity, measure the A. Signal Plus Noise-to-noise reading (S+N)/N Steps: 1. An RF carrier modulated 30% by a 1-kHz tone is applied to the input of the receiv 2. Measure the total audio power at the receivers output S+N 3. Remove the modulation from the RF signal 4. Measure the total audio power again N 5. Get the (S+N)/N value B. Signal-to-notched noise ratio Steps: 1. An RF carrier modulated 30% by a 1-kHz tone is applied to the input of the receiv 2. Measure the total audio power at the receivers output S+N 3. Insert 1-kHz notch filter between receiver output and the power meter 4. Measure power (with noise) meaningful only if the notch filter has extremely narrow bandwidth and introduce 40 dB or more of attenuation to the signal

Linear IC AM receivers: a. LM 1820 b. LM 386 LIC audio amplifier Double-Conversion AM Receivers - for good image-frequency rejection - use two IF to solve the problem use high IF leads to unstable IF

First IF relatively high frequency for good image-frequency rejection second IF low frequency for easy amplification

First IF = 10.625 MHz - pushes the image-freq. 21.25 MHz away from the desired RF Second IF = 455 kHz

Net Receiver Gain ratio between the modulated signal level at the output of the receiver (audio) to the RF signal level at the input of the receiver - difference between the audio signal level in dBm and the RF signal level in dBm
G dB ! gains
dB

 losses

dB

Where gains = RF amplifier gain + IF amplifier gain + audio amplifier gain losses = preselector loss + mixer loss + detector loss Example: For an AM receiver with a -8dBm RF input signal level and the following gains and losses, determine the net receiver gain and the audio signal level Gains: RF amplifier=33 dB, IF amplifier = 47 dB, audio amplifier =25 dB Losses: preselector loss =3 dB, mixer loss = 6 dB, detector loss=8 dB Solution: the sum of the gains is = 33 + 47 + 25 = 105 dB the sum of the losses is = 3 + 6 + 8 = 17 dB net receiver gain, G = 105 17 = 88 dB audio signal level = -80 dBm + 88 dB = 8 dBm Net receiver gain = includes only the components within the receiver System gain = includes all the gains and losses incurred by a signal as it propagates from the transmitter output stage to the output of the detector in the receiver and includes antenna gains, transmission line and propagation losses