Amplitude Modulation

Signals
 AM Basics
• Peak amplitude of modulated signal is
varied according to the instantaneous
amplitude of the information (modulating,
baseband) signal
• Modulating signal controls the level of the
transmitted signal: they are not simply
added together
Full-Carrier AM
 AM in Time Domain
Assume sine wave modulating signal.

v(t )  ( Ec  Em sin  mt ) sin  c t

Carrier has peak voltage Ec and frequency c
Modulating signal has peak voltage Em and frequency m
 Modulation Index

Em
m
Ec
v(t )  Ec (1  m sin  mt ) sin  c t
Full-Carrier AM
 Overmodulation
• m must be between 0 and 1
• Distortion results for m larger than 1
• Exact type of distortion depends on
modulator circuit
Full-Carrier AM
Multiple modulating frequencies
• When there is more than one modulation
frequency, m can be found from:

2 2
mT  m1  m2  
Measuring m

Emax  Emin
m
Emax  Emin
Full-Carrier AM
 AM in Frequency Domain
• Modulation leaves carrier unchanged
• Two sidebands are created, above and
below the carrier frequency
• The sidebands are separated from the carrier
by the modulating frequency
• The total bandwidth is 2fm
 Sideband Voltages
• Each sideband has voltage equal to

m
Esb  Ec
2
 Power in Sidebands
• Each sideband has power equal to
2
m
P1sb  Pc
4
•Total Sideband power is twice this or
2
m
Psb  Pc
2
 Signal Power
• Total power in AM signal is carrier power
plus power in both sidebands

 m 2

Pt  Pc 1  
 2 
Suppressed-Carrier AM
 Suppressed-Carrier Formats
• Double-sideband suppressed-carrier AM
– DSBSC
– Has two sidebands as for normal AM but
carrier is eliminated
• Single-sideband suppressed-carrier AM
– SSBSC or SSB
– Carrier and one sideband are removed
 Efficiency Improvement
• Removing carrier allows all power to be in
sidebands
• Gives an efficiency improvement of at least
a factor of 3 ( 4.77 dB) because at least 2/3
of power in an AM signal is in the carrier
Suppressed-Carrier AM
 Bandwidth Reduction
• The 2 AM sidebands contain the same
information
• Removing one sideband halves the
bandwidth
• If receiver bandwidth is reduced to match
this gives a S/N improvement of 2 (3 dB)
• This also uses spectrum more efficiently
Suppressed-Carrier AM
Suppressed-Carrier AM