Notes On Modulation

ELE444 Communication System Electronics
1
MODULATION
Necessity for modulation
The term modulation is generally defined as the alteration or modification of any electronic
parameter by another. In radio transmission and propagation, modulation is a process by which
certain characteristics of a carrier wave are modified, or modulated, in accordance with a
characteristic of another wave known as the modulating signal or message (signal).
There are two important reasons for using modulation in radio transmission & propagation:
Most electronic message signals (e.g. speech converted to electronic form by a microphone)
are outside the range of electromagnetic frequencies which propagate well and require
modulation onto a radio-frequency carrier before transmission.
Various parts of the radio frequency spectrum are designated for particular applications and
messages for transmission must be shifted in frequency (modulated) to the correct radio-
frequency band to avoid causing interference to other legitimate users, and to avoid
interference from other radio transmissions.
Certain types of modulation may sometimes be used to provide the modulated signal with a
degree of immunity to degradation over long distances by electrical noise (described later).
Basic principles of amplitude & frequency modulation
Amplitude modulation
The process of varying the instantaneous amplitude of a radio-frequency carrier signal by a
modulating signal is known as amplitude modulation (AM) and is illustrated in Figure 1.
Amplitude modulation is part of the family of analogue modulation systems, in which an
analogue property of the carrier signal (in this case, the amplitude) is modulated by the message
signal.
In order to simplify the analysis of amplitude modulation, the modulating signal, or message, is
considered to be a simple, single-frequency sinusoidal signal. If the modulating signal is
described by the equation:
v V t
m m m
= sin
The amplitude modulated carrier varies in amplitude according to the equation:
( ) v V V t t
c c m m c
= + sin sin
Thus, the amplitude of the modulated carrier varies between V
c
V
m
, as shown in the following
diagram.
ECS606U Communication Systems Electronics
2
Figure 1
Expanding out the right-hand side of the previous equation gives:
( ) ( )
[ ]
( ) ( )
v V t V t t
v V t mV t t
m
V
V
a b a b a b
v V t mV t mV t
c c c m m c
c c c c m c
m
c
c c c c c m c c m
= +
= +
=
= +
= + +
sin sin sin
sin sin sin
sin sin cos cos
sin cos cos

where is the modulation factor
remembering that:
1
2
1
2
1
2
This equation shows that the AM carrier signal consists of three frequency components:
the unmodulated carrierV
c
sin(
c
t)
a lower sidebandmV
c
cos((
c
-
m
)t)/2
an upper sidebandmV
c
cos((
c
+
m
)t)/2
t
t
V
V
V
c
V
c
+ V
m
V
c
- V
m
V
m
Modulating signal
Amplitude modulated carrier signal
3
Figure 2 shows this in the frequency domain. Note that f
c
=
c
/2, etc.
Figure 2
In the case of more complex modulating signals containing several different frequency
components, the lower and upper sidebands extend to the width of the original modulating signal
spectrum. This is illustrated in Figure 3.
Figure 3
It can be seen from Figure 3 that AM is inefficient in that the sidebands around the radio-
frequency carrier duplicate the original message information. Not only is this wasteful on
spectrum occupancy, but it is inefficient from a power point of view. Since signal power is
proportional to the square of the signal amplitude (voltage), the total power of an AM signal
(measured across a 1 resistor) is:
( ) ( )
V mV V m
c c c
2
1
2
2
2
1
2
2
2 1 + = +
And the ratio of sideband power to total power is:
( )
( )
2
1 2
1
2
2
2
1
2
2
2
2
mV
V m
m
m
c
c
+
=
+
frequency
amplitude
carrier
upper sideband lower sideband
f
c
f
c
- f
m
f
c
+ f
m
frequency
carrier
upper sideband lower sideband
amplitude
modulating signal
0 f
c
4
From which the transmission efficiency is defined as:
=
+

m
m
2
2
2
100%
It can be seen that:
The maximum transmission efficiency is only 33% when the modulation factor m has its
maximum value (m = 1.0).
Although the sideband power is proportional to m
2
, practical limitations usually limit m to less
than 0.8, considerably reducing the useful power transmitted.
The carrier and one sideband may be suppressed without any loss of information since the
original message information is present in each sideband - this will be described later.
A sinusoidal a.c. signal may be represented in phasor form and hence an AM signal can be
considered in terms of phasors as shown in Figure 4 below. The full phasor representation on the
left of Figure 4 can be simplified by applying a clockwise rotation at an angular frequency of
C
to the whole phasor diagram, having the effect of making the carrier appear stationery and, the
sidebands rotating at
m
relative to the carrier.
Figure 4
As previously mentioned, the transmission efficiency of AM can be improved by removing some
of the unnecessary frequency components. This results in Double Sideband Suppressed Carrier
AM (DSBSC-AM) when the carrier component
C
is removed at the transmitter, and in Single
V
c
c
-
m
c
+
m
c
V
c
m
LSB USB
USB LSB
Rotating carrier Stationery carrier
5
Sideband Suppressed Carrier AM (SSBSC) when both the carrier and one sideband are
removed. These techniques will be discussed more fully in a later section which describes
modulators and demodulators.
Frequency modulation
The process of varying the instantaneous frequency of a radio-frequency carrier signal by a
modulating signal is known as frequency modulation (FM) and is illustrated in Figure 5.
Figure 5
The mathematical expression for a modulated FM carrier is derived separately see Notes on the
Spectrum of an FM Carrier with Sinusoidal Tone Modulation.
It can be seen that a unit amplitude fm signal can be described by:
( ) t t v
m c fm
sin cos + =
where is the Modulation Index and is the ratio of frequency deviation to modulating frequency.
Note that although the modulating signal is of the form cos
m
t, the modulation-dependent phase
term in the equation for v
fm
is of the form sin
m
t. This will be referred to again later.
The spectrum of an FM signal is also derived separately and is of the form:
( ) ( ) ( ) [ ]
m c m c n fm
nf f f nf f f J f V + + =

+

2
1
) (
The expression for V
fm
(f) shows that the frequency spectrum of a modulated FM signal consists
of a carrier at frequency f = f
c
and an infinite series of sidebands at frequencies:
f = f
c
f
m
, f
c
2f
m
, f
c
3f
m
, f
c
4f
m
, etc.
t
t
amplitude
amplitude
Modulating signal
Frequency modulated carrier signal
6
with diminishing amplitudes proportional to J
1
(), J
2
(), J
3
(), J
4
(), etc. The carrier term
amplitude is proportional to J
0
(), and is therefore dependent on the modulation index . This
can be explained by noting that the amplitude of the modulated carrier in the time domain
remains constant, and hence its power also remains constant. As increases and more sidebands
become significant, their power comes from the carrier which must, therefore, decrease in power
in the frequency-domain representation. Note that as in the AM case, a mirror-image spectrum
of sidebands exists below the carrier frequency f
c
and is given by the (f + f
c
- nf
m
) terms above.
Some Bessel functions are plotted below in Figure 6 from which it can be seen that for 2.4,
5.25, 8.65 etc., J
0
() = 0 and the carrier component disappears from the spectrum. For other
values of the carrier component amplitude varies considerably. Note that the negative values
of the Bessel functions of Figure 7 denote a 180 phase shift of the corresponding term in the
time domain, but in the frequency domain the existence of components at particular frequencies
is more important than their phase; thus sideband spectrum plots generally ignore phase, showing
all components with a positive amplitude.
The extent of significant sidebands is given by Carson's Rule which states that the sidebands of
significant amplitude lie within a bandwidth of 2f
m
(1 + ) Hz, located centrally about the carrier
frequency f
c
. This rule somewhat underestimates the bandwidth requirements of FM signals and
the expression 2f
m
(2 + ) Hz is more accurate.
Figure 6 illustrates some sideband spectrum plots for a few values of Modulation Index .
Figure 6
Bessel functions of order n
-
-
-
0.000
0.200
0.400
0.600
0.800
1.000
1.200
0 0. 1. 2. 3. 4. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 8. 9. 10.4 11.2 12.0 12.8 13.6 14.4
Modulation Index
Amplitud
J
0
J
1
J
2
J
3
7
Figure 7
From Figure 7 it can be seen that for > 1 the spectrum of an FM modulated carrier is generally
much wider than that of an AM modulated carrier and this may appear as a disadvantage.
However, the Hartley-Shannon Law in information theory shows that it is possible to obtain an
improved signal-to-noise ratio by using a greater bandwidth, and FM is an example of a
modulation system with good noise immunity.
Figure 8 shows a simple phasor diagram for a modulated FM carrier includng only frequency
deviations from the unmodulated carrier frequency
c
and, in the absence of modulation, the
carrier is assumed to be at rest as shown in the central position. The application of a modulating
signal causes the position of the carrier phasor to oscillate at a frequency
m
between the limits
shown. Note that the peak angular velocity (and hence frequency) will occur as the phasor passes
through the central position, and as it momentarily pauses at the two extremes its frequency will
be
c
. It may help to think of the motion of the phasor as similar to that of an inverted pendulum.

position of unmodulated
phasor
limits of maximum
deviation
=
c
/
m
=
Figure 8
f
c
= 1
= 3
= 5
f
c
f
c
8
Narrowband FM
If the modulation index < 1 the sideband spectrum becomes similar to that of AM and the
modulation is known as narrowband FM. Although narrowband FM requires a much lower
bandwidth than conventional FM, it does not exhibit such good noise immunity, and it can be
shown that the signal-to-noise improvement gained from FM increases with increasing frequency
deviation.
Phase Modulation (PM)
In the analysis of FM, it was evident that the modulation of the frequency of the carrier was
achieved by modulating its phase by the integral of the modulating signal; FM and PM are thus
very closely related and this relationship is illustrated in the block diagrams of Figure 9.
Figure 9
I
Phase Modulator
v
m
(t)
Frequency Modulator
d
dt
v
m
(t)
FM
PM
Frequency modulation using a phase modulator
Phase modulation using a frequency modulator
9
Modulators & demodulators for amplitude & frequency modulation
Double sideband amplitude modulators
Linear modulators
Probably the most frequently used method of generating DSBAM in radio transmitters is to use
an anode-modulated, or a collector-modulated, Class-C tuned radio-frequency amplifier. The
anode or collector current of a Class C amplifier is directly proportional to the anode or collector
supply voltage, and hence if the grid or base is driven by a signal at the carrier frequency
c
, and
the anode or collector supply is varied by the modulating signal v
m
, a DSBAM signal is produced
across the tuned anode or collector load.
Non-linear modulators
DSBAM signals can be generated by applying the unmodulated carrier signal v
c
and the
modulating, or message, signal v
m
to the input of a non-linear amplifier. In the notes on
Regulatory Aspects, the problem of intermodulation distortion was considered, and it was shown
that the application of two, simultaneous, sinusoidal signals at frequencies
1
and
2
produced
outputs at frequencies of (
1

2
) in addition to the components at frequencies
1
and
2
.
These sum and difference components are of a similar form to the two sidebands of a DSBAM
signal. Thus, if a carrier-frequency signal and the modulating signal are simultaneously applied to
a non-linear amplifier with a tuned load acting as band-pass filter, the output will be a DSBAM
signal. The principle is illustrated in Figure 10.
Figure 10
+V
CC
DSBAM
output
Modulating
signal input
Carrier signal
input
0V
10
Balanced modulators & Double Sideband Suppressed Carrier (DSBSC) AM
Since the carrier component of a DSBAM signal has no information content, it can theoretically
be removed at the transmitter with a considerable saving of power, resulting in a DSBSC system.
The disadvantage of this is that it complicates receiver design, as the receiver has to re-insert a
carrier before the signal can be demodulated, and there are stringent phase requirements on the
re-inserted carrier at the receiver. One way around this problem is to insert a low-level carrier
into the DSBSC signal which can be used by the receiver to regenerate the correct carrier
component prior to demodulation. Modulators producing DSBSC signals are known as balanced
modulators since the symmetry of the two parts of the modulator circuit results in cancellation of
the carrier component. The block diagram of Figure 11 illustrates the basic arrangement of a
balanced modulator which again uses non-linear transfer characteristics to produce the sum and
difference frequencies.
Figure 11
DSBSCAM can also be produced by balanced modulators of the switching type. These employ
diodes which are driven into and out of conduction by a switching wave at the carrier frequency,
either 'chopping' (Cowan modulator) or reversing (Ring modulator) the modulating or message
signal at the carrier rate, leading to a pulsed message waveform containing the usual sum and
difference frequencies. A band-pass filter is required at the output to pass the required DSBSC
components and to suppress all other components, of which there are many. Figure 12 illustrates
the Ring or Diode balanced modulator and its waveforms are shown in Figure 13; the Cowan
modulator is described in a many of the radio textbooks.
Non-
linear
device
Non-
linear
device
c
DSBSC
output
11
Figure 12
Figure 13
Single sideband amplitude modulators
Single sideband AM can be achieved in several ways, the simplest of which is to insert a
bandpass filter at the output of a DSBSC modulator so that the filter passes only one sideband,
thus producing a SSBSC signal. Another method involves phase-shifting both the modulating
and carrier signals by 90 before applying the unshifted signals to one balanced modulator, and
the phase-shifted signals to a second balanced modulator; finally the two balanced modulator
outputs are combined to produce a SSBSC signal. In practice, it is difficult to design suitable 90
phase shift networks which will operate over the bandwidth of the modulating signal. Yet
another method (the Third method or Weaver method) uses two pairs of double balanced
c
DSBSC
output
t
V
m
Modulating (message) signal
t
V
o
Modulator output signal
Carrier-frequency switching signal
V
c
12
modulators with one modulator of each pair driven by cos
c
t, and the other by sin
c
t. Many of
the radio textbooks explain these in block diagram form.
Vestigial (VSB) sideband modulators
To overcome the unnecessarily wide bandwidth required by DSB AM systems a modified form
of DSB is sometimes used in which a vestige of one sideband is transmitted together with the
whole of the other sideband; modulation of this form is known as vestigial sideband (VSB) AM.
The best known example of this is in television broadcasting where a 12MHz bandwidth
requirement for DSB modulation is reduced to 8MHz with VSB transmission. Modulator design
is generally based on conventional DSB modulators with an appropriate filter to eliminate part of
one sideband, forming the vestigial sideband.
AM demodulators (detectors)
The techniques used to demodulate, or detect, a DSBAM signal consist of three main types:
non-coherent or envelope detection
coherent or synchronous detection
non-linear detection
Envelope detection
As its name implies, envelope detection recovers the envelope or amplitude variations of
DSBAM signals. Figure 1 shows that both the positive and negative envelopes of a DSBAM
signal are of exactly the same form as the original modulating signal. Thus demodulation simply
consists of rectifying the DSBAM signal to remove the negative-going part, and then filtering to
remove the remains of the carrier component. Figure 15 illustrates the processes involved in
envelope detection and Figure 14 shows the basic envelope detection circuit.
Figure 14
DSBAM input
detected
(demodulated)
output
rectification dc block low-pass filter
13
Figure 15
Synchronous detection
The process of synchronous detection is somewhat similar to the original modulation process in
that the received DSBAM signal and an unmodulated carrier of the correct frequency and phase
are multiplied together in a non-linear device. The required demodulated signal is extracted from
the other products present at the output by a low pass-filter. The equations below illustrate the
process where v
r
is the received DSBAM signal and v
l
is the local oscillator signal at the original
carrier frequency.
( )
( )
( ) ( )
( )
v V m t t
v V t
v v V m t t
v v V m t t
v v V m t m t t
m t
r c m c
l c c
r l c m c
r l c m c
r l c m m c
m
= +
=
= +
= +
= + +
1
1
1 1 2
1 2
2 2
2
1
2
1
2
2
sin sin
sin
sin sin
sin cos
sin sin cos
sin

then
from which the component can be recovered by filtering.
As noted previously, the provision of the correct carrier frequency signal at the receiver is
difficult, adding to the complexity and cost of the receiver. For these reasons, synchronous
detection is usually confined to SSBSC systems, where envelope detection cannot be used.
Non-linear (square-law) detection
If a DSBAM signal is applied to a non-linear device such as a diode, having a square-law
characteristic, the v
2
term of the transfer characteristic will produce a component at the original
modulating or message frequency. Assuming a DSBAM signal v
r
as above:
t
V
0
negative-going portion
of DSBAM waveform
removed by rectification
carrier frequency
componets removed
by filtering
original modulation
(message) at
detector output
14
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
[ ] ( )
v V m t t
v V m t t
v V m t m t t
v V t m t t m t t
v V t m t t m t t
v V t m t t m t m
r c m c
r c m c
r c m m c
r c c m c m c
r c c m c m c
r c c m c m
= +
= +
= + +
= + +
= + +
= + +
1
1
1 2
2
2 1 2
2
2 2
2
2
2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2 2 2 2
1
2
2 2 2 2 2 2
sin sin
sin sin
sin sin sin
sin sin sin sin sin
sin sin sin sin cos
sin sin sin sin sin

( )

m c
m
t t
m t
cos
sin
2
from which the trem can be recovered by filtering.
As can be seen from the above analysis, there are many unwanted terms present and the sin
2
m
t
term is particularly troublesome since, on expansion, it gives second-harmonic distortion and the
possibility of intermodulation distortion too. Non-linear detection of this type is best suited to
very low-level DSBAM signals, where the unwanted demodulation products will be small and
less troublesome, or to systems such as radar where linearity is not particularly important, and
detection of very weak signals is the primary objective. In radar system which are essentially
working with pulse signals rather than speech etc., other non-linear processing techniques can
then be used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
Frequency modulators
Frequency modulators are of two main types:
direct frequency modulation in which the modulating signal directly varies the frequency of an
oscillator, usually by varying the reactance of part of a resonant circuit.
indirect frequency modulation in which the phase of an oscillator is varied by the modulating
signal (see Figure 9).
Direct frequency modulators
Direct frequency modulators are normally of the reactance modulator type, or the varactor diode
type. In the reactance modulator the output of a transistor with a suitable R-C feedback network
can be made to appear as a variable capacitance whose capacity is directly proportional to the
mutual conductance (g
m
) of the transistor; this in turn can be controlled by the input to the
transistor. The transistor output is connected across the resonant circuit which determines the
carrier frequency of the modulator, and hence the frequency can be directly varied by applying
the modulating signal to the input of the transistor-controlled reactance.
A varactor (voltage-variable) diode can be used instead of a transistor-controlled reactance to
alter the capacitance across the modulator resonant circuit, and thus directly modulate the
frequency. Direct frequency modulation of this type is particularly simple, but care has to be
taken to restrict operation to a relatively small frequency deviation in order to avoid non-
linearities cause by the varactor diode characteristics. Sometimes it is necessary to modulate at a
sub-multiple of the carrier frequency, and then multiply up the FM signal in order to obtain
sufficient deviation with adequate linearity.
15
Carrier frequency stability is a particular problem in direct frequency modulation since the need
for frequency stability of the unmodulated carrier and the need to be able to vary the carrier
frequency over a wide range by modulation, impose conflicting requirements on the design. It is
possible to incorporate very high Q-factor quartz crystals in the design of some varactor diode
direct modulators to improve the carrier frequency stability, but stability and wide deviation
('pullability') are very much opposites, and a compromise still has to be achieved. Automatic
frequency control (AFC), through a low-bandwidth feedback control loop, can be employed to
significantly improve the frequency stability of the carrier frequency, but this adds considerably
to the complexity and cost of direct frequency modulators. For these reasons, indirect modulation
is often used.
Indirect frequency modulators
Indirect frequency modulation uses the principle of Figure 9, by which FM can be obtained by
integrating the modulating signal and then applying the integrated modulating signal to a phase
modulator. A PM signal can be generated in two basic ways:
using an AM balanced modulator and adding the balanced modulator output to a 90 phase-
shifted carrier (the Armstrong modulator).
using a varactor diode, or any other suitable controlled reactance, in a phase-shifting circuit
added to the output of a crystal oscillator.
The Armstrong modulator.
Figure 16
Figure 17 shows the essential blocks of an Armstrong phase modulator used as an FM modulator.
The crystal oscillator gives frequency stability and the 90 phase shift network has to operate
only at the fixed frequency of the oscillator and thus design is relative easy. The operation of the
phase modulation part is summarized in the following.
Assume the balanced modulator output to be
( ) ( ) t t mV v
m c c bm
sin cos =
Adding the phase-shifted carrier gives the overall output as
( ) ( ) ( ) t t mV t V v
c m c c c
cos sin sin
0
+ =
Substituting
( ) ( ) sin tan t m
m
=
into the above gives
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) tan cos sin
0
t t V v
c c c
+ =
Balanced modulator Adder
Crystal oscillator 90 phase shift
I
Modulating
signal
FM
output
16
Next, multiply by
( ) ( ) cos / cos
to give
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) cos / sin cos cos sin
0
t t V v
c c c
+ =
Using the identity
( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) y x y x y x sin cos cos sin sin =
gives
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
( ) ( ) t m t V
t V
t V
t V v
m c c
c c
c c
c c

2 2
2
0
sin 1 sin
tan 1 sin
sec sin
cos / sin
+ + =
+ + =
+ =
+ =
where the last three lines are included to show a number of representations are possible.
If m is small, will be small also, so that cos( ) 1 and sin( ) 0. Thus,
( ) v V t m t
c c m 0
+ sin sin
, indicating phase modulation by sin(
m
t); however, if sin(
m
t) is the
output of the modulation signal integrator, the overall effect is that of frequency modulation. In
other words, the modulating or message signal at the integrator input must be cos(
m
t).
FM demodulators (detectors)
The demodulation of an FM signal requires detection of the changes in frequency of the received
signal, and these frequency changes have to be converted to the corresponding amplitude changes
of the original modulating signal. Circuits used for FM demodulation are often referred to as
discriminators and most rely on the amplitude/frequency dependence of R-C circuits. The most
popular such discriminators are the Foster-Seeley Discriminator and the Ratio detector. The
former must be preceded by an amplitude limiter as it is sensitive to both amplitude and
frequency changes, but amplitude limitation is essential in FM receivers to take advantage of the
inherent noise immunity of FM, and to prevent noise on the received signal from affecting the
frequency discrimination process. The Ratio Detector is somewhat less linear than the Foster-
Seeley Discriminator, but has inherent amplitude limiting properties and is often used in low-
quality domestic receivers and other FM systems where good linearity is not essential.
More complex FM demodulators are based on tracking loop systems such as the Phase-locked
loop (PLL) and Frequency-locked loop (FLL) in which an oscillator within a feedback loop is
'locked' onto the received FM signal and follows the phase and/or frequency changes of the
received signal; the oscillator phase/frequency control voltage within the loop then follows the
modulation of the FM signal and can be used to provide a demodulated output. Such
demodulators are very complex and expensive and are only used where the performance and
additional costs can be justified.
The simplest and most linear of all FM demodulators is the pulse counting demodulator. This
recognises that the information content of an FM signal is contained within the zero-crossings of
the modulated carrier, since these define the beginning and end of each cycle and hence enable
the instantaneous frequency to be determined. In the pulse counting demodulator the received
FM signal is amplitude-limited or 'clipped' to remove noise effects before the resulting FM
square wave is applied to a zero-crossing detector. Each positive-going zero-crossing is used to
trigger a rectangular pulse generator which produces a fixed width, constant energy pulse for
every zero-crossing. Thus the spacing between adjacent pulses varies as the frequency of the
received FM signal varies, and the frequency can be recovered by simply applying these pulses to
a suitable low-pass filter. The pulse counting demodulator needs a much larger frequency
17
deviation than that normally used in FM systems for good noise performance, and down-
conversion of the received carrier to a much lower rate is normally used with this type of
demodulation.
The Foster-Seeley Discriminator
Figure 17
Figure 17 shows the general arrangement of a Foster-Seeley Discriminator. The primary voltage
V
p
of the transformer in the transistor collector is fed via a capacitor the centre-tap of the
secondary where the voltages V
1
and V
2
are in antiphase. The current in the primary is in phase
with V
p
at resonance which must coincide with the unmodulated frequency of the FM carrier.
The induced secondary voltages V
1
and V
2
are in quadrature with V
p
since V
1
= -jMI
p
where I
p
is
the primary current and M is the mutual inductance between the windings of the transformer.
The phasor diagrams of Figure 18 illustrate the operation of the discriminator.
Figure 18
V
p
V
1
V
2
D
1
D
2
RF choke
V
3
V
4
R
1
R
2
C
1
C
2
V
O
V
p
V
p
V
p
V
1
V
2
V
1
V
1
V
2
V
2
Below resonance At resonance Above resonance
18
The voltages (V
p
+ V
1
) and (V
p
+ V
2
) are applied to the diodes D
1
and D
2
respectively. These two
diodes and the R-C circuits R
1
C
1
and R
2
C
2
behave in a similar way to the AM envelope detector,
rectifying the a.c voltages (V
p
+ V
1
) and (V
p
+ V
2
) to produce their d.c values across R
1
and R
2
.
The radio-frequency choke prevents any carrier signal components appearing at the demodulated
output. At resonance (i.e. at the unmodulated FM carrier frequency) the a.c voltages (V
p
+ V
1
)
and (V
p
+ V
2
) are equal and opposite making V
o
is zero. Below resonance the primary circuit is
capacitative and the primary current leads V
p
by a small angle: V
4
will then be greater than V
3
,
resulting in a negative V
o
. Similarly above resonance the primary circuit is inductive and the
primary current lags V
p
by a small angle, making V
4
less than V
3
, and V
o
positive.
Therefore as the FM carrier frequency varies with the applied modulation, V
o
will vary to follow
the instantaneous frequency of the FM signal, thus reproducing the original modulating signal.
The overall discriminator characteristic has an "S" shape as shown in Figure 19, and can be made
virtually linear over the centre region.
Figure 19
The actual demodulation process within the Foster-Seeley Discriminator is simultaneous
envelope detection of two derived a.c signals whose amplitudes are proportional to the
instantaneous frequency of the received FM signal. It is thus essential that the received FM
signal is of constant amplitude to prevent amplitude variations and noise from appearing at the
demodulated output, and for this reason the Foster-Seeley Discriminator must be preceded by an
amplitude limiter.
Pre-emphasis and de-emphasis
The noise immunity of FM is frequency-dependent in such a way that most noise is received at
the upper end of the message frequency band. To further improve the noise performance of FM a
pre-emphasis circuit is often used before modulation to boost the high frequency components of
the modulating signal, and a de-emphasis circuit is used after demodulation to remove the high-
frequency boost. This process can improve the noise performance of FM by up to 5dB, giving
FM some 20+dB signal-to-noise better performance than AM for similar applications. The pre-
emphasis and de-emphasis circuits normally consist of simple R-C sections and are described in
most textbooks on radio.
0
+
0
-
19
The Ratio detector
The Ratio detector is similar in many respects to the Foster-Seeley Discriminator, but uses a
tertiary winding on the input transformer to couple the FM reference signal into the detector
network. It also has an inherent amplitude-limiting characteristic making it attractive for
domestic receivers since a separate limiter is not required, saving on component count and
manufacturing cost. It is also possible to derive a d.c. signal proportional to the received carrier
amplitude, and this can be used for automatic gain control (AGC) purposes without the need for
a separate AGC detector. The linearity of the Ratio detector is, however, not as good as that of
the Foster-Seeley Discriminator but is often adequate for mobile receivers where quality is not of
the utmost importance.
PM demodulators
Phase demodulation may be achieved by the use of an FM demodulator followed by an
integrating network (the inverse of the process illustrated in Figure 10). Other types of PM
demodulation require the use of a phase-sensitive detector, frequently found in control systems
etc.
Figure 20
Figure 20 shows a simplified phase-sensitive detector. The operation of this circuit is very
similar to that of the Foster-Seeley Discriminator and will not be described in detail. If the local
oscillator is extremely stable, the phase sensitive detector output voltage V
o
follows the changes
in phase of the phase-modulated input signal, and thus demodulates the PM signal.
The most important use of the phase sensitive detector is as part of a phase-locked-loop (PLL),
extensively used in modern communication circuits. The PLL is capable of locking on to both
the phase and frequency of an incoming signal, and can be used as a sophisticated FM and PM
demodulator. The PLL is also often used in carrier signal generation as it can produce an
extremely stable and noise-free carrier, and can easily be incorporated into a frequency
synthesiser where switchable frequency carriers are required. The basic principles of the PLL are
shown in Figure 21.
D
1
D
2
V
3
V
4
R
1
R
2
C
1
C
2
V
O
~ ~
PM input
signal
Local
oscillator
20
Figure 21
The operation of a PLL is very much determined by the loop filter characteristics. The phase-
sensitive detector compares the phases of the input signal and the local signal form the VCO.
The difference, after filtering, is amplified and fed back to the control input of the VCO. Once
the PLL has locked onto the input signal it tracks both the frequency and phase of the input
signal, but there will always be a small phase difference (phase error) between the input signal
phase and the phase of the VCO; this can be made very small if the amplification (and loop gain)
is large.
If the input signal is an FM signal and the loop bandwidth is greater than the modulating signal
bandwidth, the VCO control voltage will follow the frequency modulation on the input signal
and act as a demodulator. Similarly, the phase-sensitive detector output will yield the message
content of a phase-modulated input signal. The detailed operation of PLLs is very complex and
beyond the scope of the course, but many simplified treatments can be found in most modern
textbooks on radio systems.
Multiplexing
Multiplexing is the term used to describe the simultaneous transmission of several signals in a
single channel or path without loss of identity of an individual signal.
Figure 22
Phase-sensitive
detector
Loop filter Amplifier
Voltage-controlled
oscillator (VCO)
Output Input
Multiplexer (MUX)
Demultiplexer
(DEMUX)
single communication
channel (cable or
radio)
Multiple
input signals
Original input
signals
21
Figure 22 illustrates the basic principle of multiplexing of which there are two basic types,
frequency division multiplexing (FDM) and time division multiplexing (TDM). FDM systems are
best suited to analogue information signals, but require a high degree of linearity to prevent
cross-talk between individual channels due to inter-modulation distortion. TDM systems are
basically digital, and are ideally suited to digital information sources, but analogue-to-digital
conversion is now so widely used in electronic communication systems that TDM has superseded
FDM in many applications.
FDM consists essentially of modulating each input signal onto a different frequency carrier and
combining all the modulated carriers in an adder. The modulation may be AM or FM, but FM is
generally preferred because of its superior signal-to-noise properties. The FDM DEMUX has a
parallel bank of band-pass filters, one for each signal channel, and after separation each signal is
demodulated in the appropriate way.
TDM requires the individual input channels to be available in digital format so that they can be
time-interleaved or time-division-multiplexed as shown in Figure 23.
Figure 23
If the individual input signals to the MUX are already in digital form, the TDM operation is
easily implemented with digital logic circuits, and the DEMUX process is equally simple. When
the input signals are in analogue format, some form of analogue-to digital conversion (ADC) is
required to yield digitally-modulated signals suitable for time-division multiplexing.
Digital modulation
The simplest form of ADC involves using the analogue signal to modulate a property (e.g.
amplitude, width, position etc.) of a repetitive pulse train. Providing the repetition rate of the
pulse train is greater than twice the highest frequency component present in the analogue signal
(Nyquist rate), all the information of the analogue signal is retained in this sampling process.
The modulated pulse trains are then easily assembled in TDM format. Figure 24 illustrates the
basic pulse modulation processes.
Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)
From Figure 24 it can be seen that the amplitude of each pulse in the modulated pulse train
directly represent the modulating signal amplitude at the regular sampling instants of which there
must be at least two per cycle of the modulating signal. There are in fact two types of PAM. In
analogue PAM, the top of each pulse follows the modulating signal amplitude exactly for the
duration of the pulse. This is the simplest form of PAM since it simply requires an analogue
'gate' to sample the modulating signal at regular intervals. The type of PAM illustrated in Figure
24 is a flat-top waveform and requires a sample-and-hold operation prior to pulse modulation.
Several such streams of PAM signals can readily be combined in TDM form if the sampling
intervals of each channel are offset in time from each other.
Channel
1
Channel
2
Channel
3
Channel
N
Channel
1
Channel
2
Channel
3
Channel
N
Channel
1
Channel
2
Channel
3
Channel
N
22
Pulse Position Modulation (PPM)
This is also illustrated in Figure 24, where each pulse is displaced from its regular unmodulated
position to a new position dependent on the modulating signal amplitude at the sampling
instants. Note that all pulses are of fixed amplitude and duration in PPM.
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
PWM is also illustrated in Figure 24 and can be seen to be closely related to PPM above. In
PWM the leading edge of each pulse is fixed in position at the sampling instants but the trailing
edge is modulated such that the width of each pulse is proportional to the modulating signal
amplitude at each sampling point.
Figure 24
23
Demodulation of PAM, PPM and PWM requires only a low-pass filter to extract message-
frequency components, and to eliminate the pulse carrier frequency and its associated sidebands;
these are similar in form to those of a DSB AM signal.
Pulse Time Modulation (PTM)
PPM and PWM are both examples of the more general class of Pulse Time Modulation (PTM) in
which some time-related property of the pulse carrier waveform is modulated by the message
information. Many variants of PTM exist, including other versions of PPM and PWM, and
techniques such as Pulse Frequency Modulation (PFM), Pulse Interval Modulation (PIM), Pulse
Rate Modulation (PRM) etc.
The pulse modulation techniques described above were first invented in the 1930s but saw little
use, except in military applications, due to the circuit complexity required. The advent of
semiconductors and integrated circuits has changed this, and pulse modulation is widely used on
short optical-fibre and other point-to-point systems where the inherent non-linearities of the
transmission system have negligible effect on the performance of modulated pulse carriers. PTM
is also closely related to the asynchronous form of Delta Modulation (or more correctly Sigma-
Delta Modulation) which forms the basis of many modern ADCs, especially in bandwidth
compression schemes.
Pulse Code Modulation (PCM)
PCM can be considered as an extension of PAM. In PCM each PAM pulse is quantized in
amplitude: in other words the amplitude of each PAM pulse is compared with a 'ruler' (normally
graduated in a binary scale) and the nearest graduation on the 'ruler' is recorded as the quantized
pulse amplitude. The quantized amplitude of each pulse is converted into a block of binary digits
(byte) representing its measurement against the 'ruler'. For example, a simple PCM speech
system may quantize message signals into 256 (= 2
8
) separate amplitude levels. Each sample
would then require an 8 binary digit (8 bit) representation. If necessary, each such 8-bit byte can
be assembled with similar bytes from other message signals to form a TDM signal. Once the
messages have been converted into digital form the TDM MUX and DEMUX operations become
simple, digital logic operations. The basic process of converting an analogue message signal into
a series of digital bytes is known as Pulse Code Modulation (PCM). PCM is often used in TDM
systems, but can be used on its own where noise immunity, reproducibility and general
'ruggedness' are needed. PCM is now widely used in both the public and private communications
networks, and forms an essential part of modern secure communications systems where further
digital coding ('scrambling') and encryption of the basic PCM bytes is easily achieved with
modern VLSI (very large scale integration) processors. Perhaps one of the most frequently used
applications of PCM techniques is in CD systems for audio reproduction etc.
Other digital modulation techniques.
Many other 'digital' modulation techniques exist, especially for data transmission. The word
'digital' is used here more generally as many of the so-called digital modulation techniques are
based on digital modulation of analogue carrier syetems, e.g Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying
(QPSK). These are too numerous to mention here and are well-described in many modern
textbooks on data transmission and digital communications.

Notes On Modulation

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