The type of modulation in which the instantaneous frequency of the carrier is varied according to amplitude of modulating signal is called

frequency modulation.

Frequency modulation is widely used in VHF communication systems e.g. FM broadcasting, transmission of sound signal in TV, Satellite Communication etc.

Figure 1 Frequency Modulated wave

 Frequency modulated wave is shown in Fig.1. The

instantaneous frequency varies about the average frequency (carrier frequency) at the rate of modulating frequency. The amount by which the frequency varies away from the average frequency (carrier frequency) is called frequency deviation and is proportional to the amplitude of the modulating signal.

 Equation of a sine wave in the generalised form is

e = A sin . (1) Where e is instantaneous amplitude, A is peak amplitude and is total angular displacement at time t. A frequency modulated wave with sinusoidal modulation has its frequency varied according to the amplitude of the modulating signal. If f is the maximum deviation of frequency from average, then instantaneous frequency is

f or, Now

fc f cos m t c 2 f cos m t d dt

Integrating both sides

.dt
e

c t 2f sinm t m 2f sinm t ) m f sinm t ) fm

A sin( c t A sin( c t mf

Let

f fm e

A sin(c t m f sinm t )

(3 )

Where is called the Modulation Index of the FM wave. Thus for a given frequency deviation modulation index varies inversely as the modulating

frequency.

Sideband Power
In FM signal, the carrier power diminishes during

modulation and it is possible for one or more sidebands to contain more power than the carrier. The power withdrawn from the carrier during modulation is distributed among the various sidebands. The louder the modulating signal, the greater will be the energy that is taken away from the carrier. It is therefore, possible for the carrier, during one of these modulation sweeps, to contain no energy at all. This is quite logical because the FM signal does not vary in amplitude. The only way to satisfy this condition during modulation is to transfer part of the energy to the sidebands. The power transfer is a characteristic of frequency modulation.

 When the intensity of the audio signal is increased the

total number of sidebands also increases i.e. the energy of the FM wave is shifted away from the carrier with every sideband and the carrier affected. Thus, energy is taken by some and given up by others. The total energy under all conditions remains constant.
In FM, the greater the carrier swing, the greater the

number of sidebands obtained. In actual practice, it rarely happens that a 15 kHz note will have enough amplitude to spread the carrier to +75 kHz limits.

Bandwidth in FM
In FM, the BW is based on the number of significant

sidebands, which depends upon modulation index mf. In practice, the number of significant sidebands is determined by acceptable distortion. These contain about 98% of the radiated power. By way of best approximation, the Carsons Rule (rule of thumb) gives a simple formula for bandwidth as

BW

= =

2(1+mf )fm 2(f + fm)

Guard band

fc-100 kHz fc-90 kHz

fc

fc+90 kHz fc+100 kHz

Fig. 5 BW of FM signal

For modulation index of 5 and maximum modulating frequency of 15 kHz, we have:

BW

180 kHz

A guard band of 20 kHz (10 kHz on each side) is provided to prevent adjacent channel interference. Thus the maximum permissible BW in FM broadcasting is 200 kHz. For narrow band FM (mf<0.5), the BW is the same as in AM i.e. 2 fm. When the modulation index is very large (say>20), then the BW becomes 2f i.e. 150 kHz. For example, if fm = 100 Hz and f = 75 kHz.

In this case the BW will be 150 kHz, but for fm = 15 kHz, BW will be 180 kHz.

Advantages Of FM over AM
Amplitude and hence power of FM wave is constant and independent of depth of modulation. But in AM, modulation depth determines the transmitted power. Thus additional energy is not required as modulation is raised.
FM is more economical than AM due to following reasons :

(a) It is possible to have Low Level Modulation in FM as the intelligence is in the frequency variations only and the modulated signal can be passed through class C amplifiers. But since the AM signal contains information in amplitude variations, so only high level modulation is possible in an AM transmitter. (b) All the transmitted power in FM is useful whereas in AM most of it is in the carrier which contains no useful information. (c ) Antenna gain is possible in FM due to the reason that directive antennas are used in VHF range where the physical dimensions of the antenna are very easy to manage.

3. Better Noise Performance

Amplitude variations caused by noise are removed by having limiter in FM receiver. This makes FM reception lot more immune to noise than AM reception. Noise can further be reduced in FM by increasing the frequency deviation. This is not possible in AM as modulation cannot exceed 100 % without causing severe distortion . Less adjacent- channel interference due to better planning as the commercial FM broadcasts began in 1940s (much later than AM) ------ a guard band has been provided as per CCIR standard frequency allocations. FM broadcasts operate in the VHF and UHF ranges in which there happens to be less noise than in the MF and HF ranges occupied by AM bands. Due to the use of space wave propagation in which the range of operation is limited to slightly more than line of sight, it is possible to operate several independent transmitters with much less co-channel interference.

 Stereo transmission is possible with FM due to its

wider bandwidth
Additional information such as RDS, SCA can be sent

along with the stereo signal