Chapter 5

Amplitude Modulation

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 Analog Communication System

Information Signal Propagation Signal Information

Source Modulator Channel Demodulator Destination

• Analog signals may be transmitted directly via carrier modulation over

the propagation channel and to be carrier-demodulated at the receiver.

Transmitter Æ Modulator
Receiver Æ Demodulator

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Modulation: The process by which some characteristics of a carrier
signal (i.e. modulated signal) is varied in accordance with message
signal (i.e. modulating signal)

• f(t): message signal

A bandlimited signal whose frequency content is in the neighbourhood
of f=0 (DC) ? baseband signal

• c(t): the carrier signal, independent of f(t)

c(t)=Ac cos(2pfct+? c)
Ac : Carrier amplitude
fc : Carrier frequency wc=2pfc (radian frequency)
? c : Carrier phase

f(t) modulates c(t) in either amplitude, frequency or phase. In effect,

modulation converts f(t) to a bandpass form, in the neighborhood of the
center frequency fc.

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 Why is Modulation Required?

• To achieve easy radiation: If the communication channel consists of

free space, antennas are required to radiate and receive the signal.
Dimension of the antennas is limited by the corresponding wavelength.

Example: Voice signal bandwidth f=3kHz

c 3 ⋅108
λ= = = 105
m
f 3 ⋅103

? λ/4=25000m!!

If we modulate a carrier wave @ fc = 100MHz with the voice signal

c 3 ⋅108
λ= = =3 m
f 100 ⋅10 6

? λ/4=75cm

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 Why is Modulation Required? (Cont’d)

• To accommodate for simultaneous transmission of several signals

s1

f
fC1
s2

f
fC2

s3

f
fC3

Example: Radio/TV broadcasting

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 Why is Modulation Required? (Cont’d)

• To expand the bandwidth of the transmitted signal for better

transmission quality (to reduce noise and interference)

C = B ⋅ log 2 (1 + SNR )

Channel capacity Bandwidth Signal-to-noise ratio

Channel capacity: Maximum achievable information rate that can be

transmitted over the channel
C

SNR = 2 − 1
B

B The required SNR (for fixed noise level, corresponding signal

power) decreases
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 Amplitude Modulation (AM)
(Ch. 5 in Textbook)

Objectives:
• To study different amplitude modulation scheme
• To study generation and detection of AM signals
• To study application of AM

We will study
• Double Sideband Large Carrier (DSB-LC) Modulation: Commercial
broadcast stations use this type and it is commonly known as just
amplitude modulation (AM).
• Double Sideband Suppressed Carrier (DSB-SC) Modulation
• Single Sideband (SSB) Modulation
• Vestigial Sideband (VSB) Modulation

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 Double Side Band Large Carrier (DSB-LC)
(5.2 in Textbook)

f (t ) Modulator φ (t ) = ( f (t ) + Ac ) cosωc t
= f (t )cosωc t + Ac cosωc t
c(t ) = Ac cosωc t

F (ω ) = F { f (t )} Φ (ω ) = F {φ (t )}

Φ(ω ) = F [ Ac cos(ωc t ) + f (t ) cos(ωc t )]

cos ωc t = (
1 jωc t
e + e − j ωc t )
A A f (t ) jωct f (t ) − jωct  2
= F  c e jωct + c e − jωc t + e + e 
 2 2 2 2 
1 1
= πAcδ (ω − ωc ) + πAcδ (ω + ωc ) + F (ω − ωc ) + F (ω + ωc )
2 2

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 f(t) F(ω)= F [f(t)]
F(0) baseband

t ω
-2πB 2πB

f(t) cosωct
F [f(t) cosωct]
passband
F(0)/2

t ω
-ω c ωc
ω c-2πB ω c+2πB

Ac cosωct
F [Ac cosωct]
pA pA

t ω
-ω c ωc

Ac cosωct + f(t)cosωct envelope F [Ac cosωct + f(t)cosωct]

t ω
-ω c ωc

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 baseband F(ω)= F [f(t)] passband Φ(ω)= F [Ac cosωct + f(t)cosωct]

F(0) pA F(0)/2 Lower pA Upper

sideband sideband
ω ω
-2πB 2πB -ω c ω c-2πB ω ω c+2πB
c

Bandwidth=B [Hz] Bandwidth=2B

Observations:
• Modulation shifts the content of F(ω) to the neighbourhood of ωc .
• F(ω) for ω∈[-2πB, 0] is shifted to Φ(ω) for ω∈[ωc-2πB, ωc] and called as
lower sideband.
• F(ω) for ω∈[0, 2πB] is shifted to Φ(ω) for ω∈[ωc, ωc+2πB] and called as
upper sideband.
• Let B denote the highest frequency component of f(t).
Assume fc >> B ? φ(t) is defined as a narrowband signal (i.e. its spectral
content is located in the immediate vicinity of some high center frequency)

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 F(ω)= F [f(t)] Φ(ω)= F [Ac cosωct + f(t)cosωct]

F(0) pA F(0)/2 Lower pA Upper

sideband sideband
ω ω
-2πB 2πB -ω c ω c-2πB ω ω c+2πB
c

Bandwidth=B [Hz] Bandwidth=2B

Observations (cont’d)

• The bandwidth of message signal is B. The transmission bandwidth

βT=2B (i.e. DSB-LC is wasteful of bandwidth)
• The carrier term does not carry any information and hence the carrier
power is wasted.

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 Envelope has the
same shape of f(t)

Envelope distortion
Zero crossings

Observations (cont’d)

• If Ac+f(t)>0 for all t, the envelope of φ(t) of has essentially the same shape
as the f(t).
• If Ac+f(t)<0 for any t, the carrier wave becomes over-modulated, resulting
in carrier phase reversal whenever Ac+f(t) crosses zero.
? φ(t) has envelope distortion 12
13
 overmodulated
? envelope dist.

Effects of varying modulation indexes 14

 Carrier and Sideband Power in DSB-LC

φ (t ) = Ac cos(ωc t ) + f (t ) cos(ωc t )

φ 2 (t ) = Ac2 cos 2 (ω c t ) + f 2 (t ) cos 2 (ωc t ) + 2 Ac f (t ) cos 2 (ω c t )

Assume f (t ) = 0 and f(t) varies slowly with respect to cos (ω c t )

φ 2 (t ) = Ac2 cos 2 (ω c t ) + f 2 (t ) cos 2 (ωc t )

φ 2 (t ) = Ac2 2 + f 2 (t ) 2

1 +T / 2 2 1 +T / 2 1
cos (ωc t ) = lim
2
∫ cos ωc t dt = lim ∫ (1 + cos 2ωc t )dt
T →∞ T −T / 2 T →∞ T − T / 2 2

T /2
1 t 1 1 +T / 2 1
= lim + lim ∫ (1 + cos 2ω c t )dt =
2 T →∞ T −T / 2 2 T →∞ T −T / 2 2
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=0
 φ 2 (t ) = Ac2 2 + f 2 (t ) 2

Carrier Power Sideband Power

(carries information)

Modulation (Power) useful power

µ=
Efficiency total power

f 2 (t ) 2
= 2
Ac 2 + f 2 (t ) 2

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Example (Cont’d)

mAc mAc
φ (t ) = Ac cos(ωc t ) + cos[(ωc + ωm )t ] + cos[(ωc − ωm )t ]
2 2

Upper sideband  mA 2 2 m 2 Ac2

power  c
 cos [(ωc + ωm )t ] =
 2  8
2
Lower sideband  mAc  m 2 Ac2
 cos [(ωc − ωm )t ] =
2
power 
 2  8

total useful power m 2 Ac2 4 m2

µ= = 2 =
total power Ac 2 + m Ac 4 2 + m 2
2 2

For m= 1 ? µ= 33%. Under the best condition, i.e. m=1, 67% of

the total power is used in the carrier and represents wasted power.
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