ECSE 434 – Microelectronics Laboratory

Experiment 1
The Design of an AM Receiver

Group 1
Martin Au - 260266206
Matt Guttman - 260266252
Nov 14, 2011
The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

Table of Contents
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 4
1.1 Objective ....................................................................................................................................... 4
1.2 Description .................................................................................................................................... 4
2 Baseband Amplifier ............................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 Theory ........................................................................................................................................... 5
2.2 Experiment .................................................................................................................................... 6
2.3 Discussion...................................................................................................................................... 7
3 Demodulator ......................................................................................................................................... 7
3.1 Theory ........................................................................................................................................... 7
3.2 Experiment .................................................................................................................................... 8
3.3 Discussion...................................................................................................................................... 9
4 Class A Output Stage (Power Amplifier) ............................................................................................... 9
4.1 Theory ........................................................................................................................................... 9
4.2 Experiment .................................................................................................................................. 10
4.3 Discussion.................................................................................................................................... 10
5 Preamplifier......................................................................................................................................... 11
5.1 Theory ......................................................................................................................................... 11
5.2 Experiment .................................................................................................................................. 12
5.3 Discussion.................................................................................................................................... 12
6 AM Receiver ........................................................................................................................................ 12
6.1 Theory ......................................................................................................................................... 12
6.2 Experiment .................................................................................................................................. 13
6.3 Discussion.................................................................................................................................... 14
7 Wireless Radio Signals......................................................................................................................... 14
7.1 Theory ......................................................................................................................................... 14
7.2 Experiment .................................................................................................................................. 14
7.3 Discussion.................................................................................................................................... 15
8 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 15
9 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................. 16
9.1 Baseband Amplifier ..................................................................................................................... 16
9.2 Demodulator ............................................................................................................................... 16
9.3 Class A Output Stage (Power Amplifier) ..................................................................................... 18
9.4 Preamplifier................................................................................................................................. 19
9.5 AM Receiver ................................................................................................................................ 19

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

List of Figures
Figure 1: AM Receiver – Block Diagram View ............................................................................................... 4
Figure 2: Baseband Amplifier Circuit ............................................................................................................ 5
Figure 3: Simulated frequency response of the baseband amplifier ............................................................ 5
Figure 4: 3-db Cut-off frequency vs. In-band gain for the baseband amplifier based on SPICE simulation . 6
Figure 5: Actual frequency response of the baseband amplifier .................................................................. 6
Figure 6: Actual gain range of the baseband amplifier ................................................................................. 6
Figure 7: Voltage divider used to calculate input resistance ........................................................................ 7
Figure 8: A passive envelope detecting AM demodulator ............................................................................ 7
Figure 9: SPICE results for demodulator circuit Figure 10: Results using larger C, showing distortion..... 8
Figure 11: Actual input and output of demodulator circuit.......................................................................... 9
Figure 12: Transistor power disapation ...................................................................................................... 10
Figure 13: Power amplifier output (blue) beginning to show clipping ....................................................... 10
Figure 14: Preamplifier AC sweep ............................................................................................................... 12
Figure 15: Actual preamplifier waveform ................................................................................................... 12
Figure 16: Simulation of receiver showing input (green) and output (purple)........................................... 13
Figure 17: Magnification of input shown in previous figure on the same time scale ................................ 13
Figure 18: Table showing loading effects of each sub-system ................................................................... 13
Figure 19: Wired input to receiver (yellow) and output (blue) .................................................................. 14
Figure 20: Required tank capacitor value for the different AM radio stations in Montreal, while holding
the inductor value constant ........................................................................................................................ 14
Figure 21: FFT of received wireless signals ................................................................................................. 15
Figure 22: Baseband amplifier circuit ......................................................................................................... 16
Figure 23: Baseband amplifier frequqncy response for varrying Rpot ....................................................... 16
Figure 24: Frequency response values for varrying Rpot ........................................................................... 16
Figure 25: Demodulator circuit used for SPICE simulation ......................................................................... 17
Figure 26: Graph showing the demodulator gain vs. baseband frequency ................................................ 17
Figure 27: Graph showing the demodulator gain vs. carrier frequency ..................................................... 17
Figure 28: Output stage circuit ................................................................................................................... 18
Figure 29: Output stage waveform showing almost unity gain .................................................................. 18
Figure 30: Frequency response of the output stage given an input of 180 mV ......................................... 18
Figure 31: Frequency response of the output stage given an input of 6 V................................................. 19
Figure 32: Preamplifier circuit..................................................................................................................... 19
Figure 33: Entire AM receiver circuit .......................................................................................................... 19
Figure 34: Waveform showing output of each stage of receiver, colours correspond to markers in
previous figure ............................................................................................................................................ 20
Figure 35: Frequency response of receiver to carrier ................................................................................. 20
Figure 36: Frequency response of receiver to baseband............................................................................ 20

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

1 Introduction
1.1 Objective
The objective of this lab is to understand, design, and build an AM receiver.

1.2 Description
An AM receiver is capable of receiving and interpreting electro-magnetic signals. These devices are used
in everyday life; most commonly they can be found in radios. As we build and design our AM receiver we
will be able to study and learn more on the transmitting and receiving of signals, which is a central part
of telecommunications.

As shown in Figure 1, we can divide the AM receiver into 4 individual parts: preamplifier, demodulator,
baseband amplifier, and output stage.

Figure 1: AM Receiver – Block Diagram View

To transmit a signal through a medium such as air at the low frequencies associated with the human
voice would be very impractical due to high power losses. It is therefore necessary to overlay the
baseband signal (the information to be transmitted) on a carrier signal. In general, the carrier frequency
is usually much higher allowing the signal to propagate to its destination much more effectively. This
process, of superimposing the baseband signal on the carrier, is called signal modulation.

Once received by the AM receiver, the baseband signal cannot be extracted immediately. It must be pre-
amplified, at which point the desired carrier frequency is extracted from the received signal and
amplified. The signal is then demodulated, whereby the baseband signal is extracted from the carrier.
The baseband signal is then amplified and passed through the output stage and the speaker.

This report discusses the analysis, difficulties, and results of designing and building an AM receiver.

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

2 Baseband Amplifier
2.1 Theory
The purpose of the Baseband Amplifier is to amplify the
demodulated and pre-amplified baseband signal. This signal
is too weak to be passed directly to the output stage, and
therefore must be amplified further.

The signal enters the circuit at Vin, where it immediately

Figure 2: Baseband Amplifier Circuit
passes through a capacitor, C1. The capacitor is used to
block the DC component of the signal. This is because C1
acts as an open circuit to DC voltages. This is important because we only want the AC component of the
signal to enter the op-amp and get amplified.

The resistor R1 is required to provide a path from the positive input of the op-amp to ground. Without
R1, the voltage of the positive input of the op-amp would be floating, making it hard to predict/design
the circuit.

Calculation of circuit Gain:

Neglecting C1 With C1
( )
( ) ( )

The inclusion of C1 affects the gain of the circuit by introducing a dependence on R1 and jwC. At very low
frequencies, this term acts a pole, and reduces gain. However, at in-band frequencies, this term tends to
1 and has little effect on the circuit gain.

In order to maintain flexibility as the design of the circuit progresses, it is optimal to have Rpot’s value be
roughly 5kΩ, which is the center of its range. Setting the simplified gain equation above to 150 V/V and
Rpot to 5 kΩ yields an R2 of 745 kΩ. The closest realisable value is 680 kΩ. Using this value, Rpot was
calculated to be 4.56 kΩ.

Neglecting C, and
since that is the output
resistance of an ideal op-amp.

Using SPICE to simulate the circuit, the

following frequency response was
generated:

As can be seen from the figure, Figure 3: Simulated frequency response of the baseband amplifier
the 3-dB bandwidth is

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

. This is a desirable result, as the baseband signal will range from 0-20 kHz, the range of the
human voice.

By using SPICE to vary the value of Rpot from 1

kΩ to 10 kΩ, the following plot relating the 3-dB Cut-off (kHz) vs. In-band Gain
upper 3-db Cut-off frequency to the In-band (dB)
gain was constructed: 60

3-dB Cut-off (kHz)

As can be seen from the graph, the upper cut- 40
off frequency decreases as the in-band gain 20
increases. The product of the 2 values
increases as gain decreases. 0
40 45 50 55 60 65
Given the fact that this circuit is a baseband In-band Gain (dB)
amplifier, it should have large input
impedance and low output impedance. These Figure 4: 3-db Cut-off frequency vs. In-band gain for the
characteristics are necessary in order to baseband amplifier based on SPICE simulation
ensure that the circuit does not load the
previous and following stages of the overall circuit. Finally it should have a bandwidth of 20 kHz,
corresponding to the bandwidth of the human voice. Our circuit conforms to these requirements.

2.2 Experiment
After constructing the circuit, the following
plot showing the overall frequency response Gain (dB) vs. Frequency (Hz)
of the circuit was produced:
60
This figure shows that the in-band gain is
40
approximately 43 dB, or 141 V/V, within the Gain (dB)
specified tolerances. The 3-dB cut-off 20 Cutoff
frequencies are 100 Hz and 13500 Hz. The
gain-bandwidth product is 1.89 MHz. In order 0
to prevent the amplifier from saturating and 1 100 10000
producing a clipped output, the input voltage Figure 5: Actual frequency response of the baseband
had to be below 35 mV (since the op-amp amplifier
was supplied with ±5 V, and the gain is 141
V/V). However since the signal generator could not produce less than a 50 mV signal, a voltage divider
was used to lower the input to 30.8 mV.
Gain (V/V) vs Rpot (kΩ)
The following figure shows the gain range of 200
the baseband amplifier:
150
The amplifier covers a range of 162 V/V to
65 V/V as the potentiometer is varied from 100
its maximum 10.4 kΩ to 4 kΩ, at which point
the gain levels off, and becomes almost 50
constant.
0
In order to measure the input resistance of 0 2 4 6 8 10 12
the circuit without measuring current, a
Figure 6: Actual gain range of the baseband amplifier

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

voltage divider was employed. By feeding a known voltage into a

voltage divider consisting of a known resistance and the baseband
amplifier, the input resistance of the amplifier could be calculated
by measuring the voltage at the voltage divider’s intermediate
node.

After measuring the value of Rknown to be 153 kΩ and the value to

Vin to be 1 V, the voltage at the node indicate in the figure was Figure 7: Voltage divider used to
measured, and the voltage divider equation was used to calculate calculate input resistance
Rin:

2.3 Discussion
Our in band gain measured was 141 V/V, however we calculated a 150V/V gain, and simulated: 145.99
V/V. There is a discrepancy here because of the uncertainty of in the actual values of elements such as
resistors and capacitors. Moreover, we can also look at the imperfect op-amp that is used in the
measured circuit whereas in theory we assume a perfect op-amp is in the circuit. This is clearly not the
case.

3 Demodulator
3.1 Theory
An AM receiver requires a demodulator to separate the low
frequency baseband signal from the high frequency carrier. By
combining a diode, resistor, and capacitor as shown in the figure
below, a passive envelope detector can be built which will
effectively extract the baseband signal from an AM transmission.
The circuit produces an output which follows the “envelope” of the
modulated signal. Figure 8: A passive envelope
detecting AM demodulator
In this figure, Vin represents the pre-amplified input signal, and Vout
is the input to the baseband amplifier. As the input voltage to the circuit rises, the diode become
forward biased and begins conducting. As such, the capacitor begins to charge; when the input begins to
fall, the diode stops conducting, and the capacitor discharges through the resistor. This process repeats
for each cycle of the input.

The key to the proper operation of the circuit is the selection of R and C in order to obtain the proper
time constant ( ). If the time constant is chosen properly, the capacitor will discharge slowly enough
such that when the input falls, the output remains relatively stable over a single cycle. In this way, the
circuit removes the quickly varying carrier signal, and the output follows only the envelope. If the
constant is too small, the capacitor will discharge too quickly, and the output will have ripples similar to
the carrier. If the constant is too large, the output signal does not follow the envelope closely when the
envelope decreases.

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

In the case of AM transmission, the baseband signal frequency ranges from 0 Hz – 20 Hz, and the carrier
signal frequency ranges from 200 kHz – 1.2 MHz. When choosing RC values, 2 criteria must be enforced:

⁄ ⁄

Since the largest carrier signal period is 1/200 kHz = 5 µs and the smallest baseband signal period is 1/20
kHz = 50 µs, RC must be in between these 2 values. The intermediate value of 25 µs was chosen.
Keeping in mind that the resistance of the demodulator must be greater than the preamplifier output
resistance, and smaller than the baseband amplifier input resistance, an ideal R of 10kΩ was chosen,
corresponding to an ideal C of 2.5 nF. The closest realizable capacitor value was 2.2 nF, and as such a 12
kΩ resistor was used instead.

Ideally, the diode would begin conducting as soon as the input signal became positive. Since the diode
represents a drop of 0.7 V when it is conducting, the input voltage to the demodulator ideally has a DC
offset of +0.7 V.

The circuit was simulated using the schematic shown below. The input had an amplitude of 1 V, carrier
frequency of 800 kHz, and baseband signal of 500 Hz.

The simulation results showing the input AM signal in green, and demodulated output in red:

Figure 9: SPICE results for demodulator circuit Figure 10: Results using larger C, showing distortion

As can be seen from the above figure, the demodulator successfully extracted the baseband signal from
the AM input. Note that there is still some ripple which can be seen in the output. While this could have
been removed by increasing the value of the capacitor, such a change would have also resulted in signal
distortion, as can be seen from the figure, in which a capacitance of 22 nF was used.

It was decided that high frequency noise, which is inaudible, is desirable over distortion of the baseband
signal, which would be noticeable to a listener. As such, the capacitance was left at 2.2 nF.

3.2 Experiment
The following figure shows the input (yellow) and output (blue) of the demodulator circuit.

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

An input with a carrier of 200 kHz, baseband signal of 1

kHz, and peak-to-peak voltage of 100 mV was used. The
output has a peak-to-peak value of approximately 16
mV. While there are ripples present in the output, the
baseband signal does not show significant distortion. As
such, the RC value is acceptable (see discussion above).

As can be seen from the plots in the appendix, the

demodulator has constant frequency responses with
respect to both baseband and carrier signals. This is
desirable, as we want the demodulator to demodulate
all signals with equal gain. As well, the demodulator
should work regardless of the carrier frequency of the Figure 11: Actual input and output of
signal. demodulator circuit

3.3 Discussion
We notice the discrepancies in our results; again, this is because there are elements in the demodulator
that are not exactly the theoretical values. In the calculations before the experiment we assume that the
diode is perfect, whereas like in the baseband experiment we found that it is not. The important idea
here is that even though it is not a perfect match with your theoretical analysis it usually is very similar;
the theoretical/ideal case gives us a very good approximation to the real life implementations but many
times does not consider the imperfections of elements due to difficulty and time trade-offs.

4 Class A Output Stage (Power Amplifier)

4.1 Theory
The speaker used in this lab is a low impedance device (R≈8 Ω) which requires relatively high current. It
could not be connected directly to the baseband amplifier, as this device does not push high currents,
and its output resistance would cause significant loading when connected to a load of only 8 Ω. It is
therefore necessary to place a power amplifier between the 2 devices. The power amplifier, an emitter
follower biased at high current, has gain of roughly 1, so it does not modify the baseband signal. It has
large input impedance (Rin≈βRE) so it does not load the baseband amplifier, small output impedance
(Rout≈Rsource/β) so that it is not loaded by the speaker, and high current gain (AI≈β) so that it can drive the
speaker.

Given that the circuit should provide a 1 Vp-p signal to the 8 Ω load, R10 and R11 were chosen to bias Q7
accordingly. To accommodate maximum swing given a 1 Vp-p signal, the emitter of Q7 should be biased
at 0.5 V, and therefore the base of Q7 should be 0.7 V higher, or 1.2 V. Using the voltage divider law and
given that Vcc and Vee are ±5 V, the ratio of R10/R11 must be approximately 0.613. Choosing R11 to be 1 k
Ω, this gives an R10 value of 613 Ω. In the experiment, a value of 600 Ω was used, as this was the closest
available resistor value.

The disadvantage and main limitation of this topology is that is constantly draws current, even when
there is no input. As such, it has an efficiency of approximately 25%. However, for the purposes of this
lab, efficient power usage is not a concern.

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

4.2 Experiment
In order to handle the high currents drawn by this circuit, some of the transistors were doubled-up in
parallel. Using SPICE, the maximum voltage and current of each transistor was measured to find its
maximum power usage:

Transistor Max ΔV (V) Max I (mA) Max P (mW)

Q5 0.7 114 80
Q6 5 120 600
Q7 5 119 595
Figure 12: Transistor power disapation

Given that the maximum rated power of these transistors is 625 mW, transistors Q6 and Q7 were
doubled-up in the circuit to provide a sufficient safety factor.

The figures in the appendix show the frequency response of the circuit to both small and large input
signals. Note that both responses are nearly identical, indicating that the circuit is operating properly
and can drive the speaker given all manner of inputs. The
small signal in-band gain is roughly -2 dB. The 3-dB cut-
off frequency is roughly 700 Hz. The large signal in-band
gain is roughly -1 dB. The 3-dB cut-off frequency is
roughly 800 Hz.

The maximum possible output voltage amplitude at the

input of this circuit is approximately 3.8 V (7.6 Vp-p).
Beyond this level, the output of the circuit becomes
“clipped” due to insufficient current biasing. This level
was determined by increasing the input signal until the
output began to appear distorted.

4.3 Discussion Figure 13: Power amplifier output (blue)

Even after doubling up transistors Q6 and Q7 as beginning to show clipping
described above, the circuit still was not stable. After a
few seconds of being powered on, one of the transistors would begin to overheat, and thermal run-
away would begin. In this process, a transistor begins to draw excess current, which causes it to heat up.
This causes the leakage current to increase and further increase the temperature. This process
continues in a positive-feedback manner causing runaway. It was eventually determined that the 2
transistors which were in parallel did not have similar β values (one had β=234, one had β=1340). As
such, the transistor with lower β would initially draw more current, and the runaway would begin. In
order to fix this problem, the transistor with extremely high β was switched for one of β=220. Because
the 2 transistors is parallel had similar β values, they each “shared” the total current draw, and runaway
did not occur.

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

5 Preamplifier
5.1 Theory
After propagating through air the radio signals that reach our AM receiver are generally weak. With that
said, we must amplify the signal before interpretation (demodulation) as to avoid confusing noise with
the baseband signal.

Our pre-amplifier (figure 6) is made up of 4 transistors biased by resistors and an LC tank. Our tank LT
and CT values must be chosen carefully as their ratio will determine our resonant frequency and
bandwidth. We want to design these values so that we achieve a resonant frequency of 200 kHz and
band pass characteristics with bandwidth less than a 100 kHz.

We know that at low frequencies, the inductor reactance is low. At high frequencies, the capacitor
reactance is low. The resonant frequency is when the circuit is at its maximum, this occurs when the
effects of reactance, from the capacitor, and inductance, from the inductor, cancel each other out.

Being group 1 we were assigned a frequency of 200 kHz and using equation 2: we found
√
that the desired product between the capacitor and inductor values should be 6.33x10-13. Choosing our
inductor to be 180 µH, it then follows that our capacitor needs to be 3.9nF. Modelling these parameters
in spice and changing the ratio between capacitor and inductor while keeping the desired product we
noticed that as we changed the values it lead to changes in the gain of the circuit. This can be explained
by the simple fact that the equation 2 used above does not take into account the effect the internal
resistance of the inductor will have on the resonant frequency. Instead if we use the equation:

Furthermore, given that our gain is calculated by:

We also see that L and C also contribute to the value of the gain.

To ensure for proper amplification at T1 and T2 we must biased the transistors so that they are working
in their optimal range. To bias these transistors properly we use R4, R5, R6, and R7. We can make the
assumption that there is 2V at both Vce1 and Vce2 as to reduce current from the tank since large current
would facilitate a lot of gain loss. This current coming down from the tank can be set at something we
know will work like 5 mA. We can say that the voltage drop between the LC tank is 0.5 V. This means
that our gives us a Re of 100 Ω. We also note that in this set up the purpose of the emitter
resistance is widen or compress the region of operation (bandwidth). Moreover, by lowering the value
of Re we can increase our gain which means when we increase it we will notice a decrease in gain. The
capacitors in the circuit (excluding capacitor in the LC tank) are used to block out any DC component of
the signal.

Assuming Vbe = 0.7 V we get VB1 and VB2 to be 1.2 and 3.2 V, respectively. Then, using voltage divider, we
first establish ratios for our resistors:

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

Let us try with R4, R5, R6, and R7 equal to 15, 4.7, 10, and 18 kΩ.

The R9 value is important as loading is an important part of the combination of all the stages. Therefore,
if we assume that the LC tank has a 0.5 V drop Ve4 = 3.1 V, meaning R9 is 620Ω (IE4 = 5 mA).

The maximum voltage swing is about 4.5 V and the minimum is around 0 V. Any values above or below
these maximum and minimum will result in clipping.

We want to have a relatively narrow bandwidth. A wider bandwidth will generate too much noise and
make it hard for our circuit to demodulate the signal. This is not to say that the narrowest bandwidth is
the solution because to tune them would be very difficult. The goal here is to find a happy medium so
that you do not have to sacrifice either too much.

5.2 Experiment
Using SPICE we performed an AC sweep simulation:

The graph shows that our gain is highest near our resonant
frequency of 200 kHz, at about 217 kHz. We get a gain of 36
dB and a bandwidth of 28 kHz. This bandwidth is not too big
that it will pick up too much noise and not small enough that
it will be hard to tune.

The transient analysis is shown below:

We mentioned in the theory that we used an inductor of 180

µH and a capacitor of 3.9nF with a 15Ω internal tank resistor,
instead we used a 540 µH inductor and an 88 pF capacitor to Figure 14: Preamplifier AC sweep
help get our gain of 31 V/V. Note that in the figure, the input
is actually 10 times less than that measured due to the use of
a voltage divider between the signal generator and the circuit.

A buffer would be useful as it would increase our gain but the

trade-off is that we will sacrifice some bandwidth, making it
narrower.

5.3 Discussion
Since we had a very low frequency, 200 kHz, we couldn’t get
good gain/behaviour from our circuit with an input of 50 mV –
the minimum input voltage in the lab. Therefore, we voltage Figure 15: Actual preamplifier waveform
divided this input minimum so that we only put in about 10
mV peek to peek.

Doing it this way we were able get strong gain of 31 V/V and a good bandwidth of less than 100 kHz.

6 AM Receiver
6.1 Theory
By combining the 4 previously designed stages, the final AM receiver was constructed in SPICE.

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

Figure 16: Simulation of receiver showing input Figure 17: Magnification of input shown in
(green) and output (purple) previous figure on the same time scale

As can be seen from the above figures, the circuit correctly receives, amplifies, and demodulates the
incoming AM signal, which is this case was a 200 kHz carrier modulated by a 1 kHz baseband. The signal
had a max peak to peak amplitude of 5 mV. The output signal showed a frequency of 1 kHz and peak to
peak amplitude of 2 V. There was some high frequency noise in the output, due to incomplete
demodulation. However, as discussed in section 3, a higher RC value in the demodulator (which is
required to eliminate noise) would have resulted in a distorted audio signal.

In order to prevent loading, the output resistance of each sub-system must be significantly larger than
the input resistance of the following sub-system. This is necessary to ensure that the majority of the
voltage produced by a sub-system is transferred to the following sub-system, and not dissipated across
the previous sub-system’s output impedance. The exception to this is the power amplifier, for which the
output impedance must be as small as possible, so that the majority of the output current flows through
the speaker. The following table summarizes the input and output impedance of each sub-system:

Sub-system Rin Rout

Preamplifier N/A (R9 || re4) << 10 kΩ
Demodulator Rdem = 10 kΩ Rdem << 150 kΩ
Baseband Amplifier R1 = 150 kΩ 0Ω
Power Amplifier R10||R11||(β+1)re7 >> 0 Ω re7||ro6 >> 8 Ω
Figure 18: Table showing loading effects of each sub-system

6.2 Experiment
After connecting the entire circuit to the signal generator, it was possible to listen to different tones
being carried on a 200 kHz carrier. In order to prevent the circuit components from being overloaded,
the input was scaled down from the generator’s minimum of 50 mV to 5 mV using a voltage divider. The
tones could also be heard when they were received wirelessly from the signal generator, although the
amplitude of the generator’s output was increased to 2 V, and the voltage divider at the input of the
circuit was removed.

The following figure shows the input and output of the circuit. Note that the input was measured before
the voltage divider, and the actual input to the circuit is 10 times less.

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

It can be seen that the input is roughly 10 mV peak to

peak, and the output is roughly 3.5 V peak to peak.

6.3 Discussion
When the entire circuit was combined, it initially did not
function properly. While the output tones could be
heard, they were incredibly faint- an indication that the
circuit’s overall gain was not adequate. After analyzing
the circuit stage by stage, it was found that the
preamplifier’s gain changed significantly when it was
connected to the demodulator. This led to the Figure 19: Wired input to receiver (yellow)
realization that the demodulator was loading the and output (blue)
preamplifier, and robbing it of gain. After redesigning
the demodulator with a larger R value, the problem was fixed, and the circuit behaved as expected.

7 Wireless Radio Signals

7.1 Theory
We will now combine the four AM receiver stages; theoretically this combined circuit should be able to
receive AM radio signals broadcasted daily. Since there aren’t any radio stations in Montreal
broadcasting at the low 200 kHz frequency we need to raise our resonant frequency between 620 kHz –
1650 kHz, we will adjust our tank (pre-amp stage) accordingly:

AM radio stations, Montreal Capacitor value with a 540 µH inductor

620kHz 122 pF
730kHz 88 pF
800kHz 73.3 pF
940kHz 53.1 pF
1280kHz 28.6 pF
1450kHz 22.3 pF
1610kHz 18.1 pF
1650kHz 17.2 pF
Figure 20: Required tank capacitor value for the different AM radio stations in Montreal, while holding
the inductor value constant

7.2 Experiment
First, we connected a stripped wire (the antenna) to the oscilloscope and plotted the FFT.

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

The FFT shows us what frequencies that are the

strongest (providing the most gain).This will help
us choose a starting point before we start
adjusting to find the best signal received and
outputted. Looking at the graph, if each square
(divided by 5 ticks) is 125 kHz, from our starting
line (cursor 1) of 200 kHz we see that there are
peaks around 700 kHz (4 boxes away). This is
where we will start.

We noticed that we picked up a 730 kHz signal the

best using 540 µH inductor and 88 pF capacitor. At
Figure 21: FFT of received wireless signals this frequency we were able to listen to the station
through our speaker.

7.3 Discussion
By removing the input signal used for testing and replacing it with our antenna while using a tank
composed of a 540 µH inductor and 88 pF capacitor we were able to listen to a radio station playing at
730 kHz.

8 Conclusion
Through the course of this lab we have successfully designed and built all four stages of an AM receiver:
pre-amplifier, demodulator, voltage gain amplifier, and Class A output. After analyzing and solving our
issues with loading and overheating we used the circuit to listen to a local Montreal radio station.

The behaviour of each stage largely mirrored what we calculated using circuit theory and the SPICE
simulator. We were able to receive and listen to a signal at 730 kHz carrier frequency.

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

9 Appendix
9.1 Baseband Amplifier

Figure 22: Baseband amplifier circuit

Figure 23: Baseband amplifier frequency response for varying Rpot

Rpot (Ω) In-band Gain 3-dB Cut-

(dB) off (kHz)
1000 62.64 4.41
2000 56.64 8.8
3000 53.13 13.17
4000 50.64 17.56
5000 48.71 21.96
6000 47.14 26.44
7000 45.8 30.82
8000 44.65 35.26
9000 43.64 39.81
10000 42.73 44.1
Figure 24: Frequency response values for varying Rpot

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

9.2 Demodulator

Figure 25: Demodulator circuit used for SPICE simulation

Gain (dB) vs. Baseband Frequency (Hz)

-10
50 500 5000 50000
Gain (dB)

-15

-20
Baseband frequency (Hz)

Figure 26: Graph showing the demodulator gain vs. baseband frequency

Gain (dB) vs. Carrier Frequency (Hz)

-10
100000 1000000
-12
Gain (dB)

-14

-16

-18

-20
Carrier frequency (Hz)

Figure 27: Graph showing the demodulator gain vs. carrier frequency

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

9.3 Class A Output Stage (Power Amplifier)

Figure 28: Output stage circuit

Figure 29: Output stage waveform showing almost unity gain

Small Signal Frequency

Response
0
10 100 1000 10000 100000 100000010000000
-5
Gain (dB)

-10

-15

-20
Frequency (dB)

Figure 30: Frequency response of the output stage given an input of 180 mV

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

Large Signal Frequency

Response
0
10 100 1000 10000 100000 100000010000000
-5
Gain (dB)

-10

-15

-20
Frequency (Hz)

Figure 31: Frequency response of the output stage given an input of 6 V

9.4 Preamplifier

Figure 32: Preamplifier circuit

9.5 AM Receiver

Figure 33: Entire AM receiver circuit

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The Design of an AM Receiver ECSE 434

Figure 34: Waveform showing output of each stage of receiver, colours correspond to markers in
previous figure

Gain (dB) vs. Carrier Frequency

(Hz)
50
40
Gain (dB)

30
20
10
0
1000 10000 100000 1000000
Carrier Frequency (Hz)

Figure 35: Frequency response of receiver to carrier

Gain (dB) vs. Baseband

Frequency (Hz)
60
Gain (dB)

40

20

0
100 1000 10000
Baseband Frequency (Hz)

Figure 36: Frequency response of receiver to baseband

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