FM and Noise

• The original reason for developing FM was to give

improved performance in the presence of noise, and
that is still one of its main advantage over AM.
• A way to approach the problem of FM and noise is to
think of the noise voltage as a phasor having random
amplitude and phase angle.
• The amplitude component of
noise is easily dealt with in a
well-designed FM system.
• FM signals don’t depend on an envelope
for detection, the receiver can employ
limiting to remove any amplitude
variations from the signal.
• As long as the signal amplitude is considerably
larger than the noise to begin with, the
amplitude component of the noise will not be a
problem.
Removal of amplitude
noise component by
limiting

• It is not possible for the receiver to ignore phase shifts. Phase

shifts and frequency shifts always occur together.
• Phase shift due to noise
𝐸𝑁
Φ𝑁 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛−1 ( )
𝐸𝑆

• Simplified
𝐸𝑁
Φ𝑁 = ( )
𝐸𝑆
Threshold and
Capture Effects
• An FM signal can produce a
better signal-to-noise ratio at the
output of the receiver than an
AM signal with a similar input
S/N, but it is not always the case.
• Greater bandwidth of the FM signal
requires a wider receiver noise
bandwidth.
• When the signal strength is above the threshold, the
noise performance of the FM can be more than 20dB
better than for AM. noise bandwidth.
Pre-emphasis and
De-emphasis
• Phase modulation due to noise
is interpreted as frequency
modulation by the receiver.
• Phase and frequency deviation
is related by this equation
𝛿
𝑚𝑓 =
𝑓𝑚
• Restated
𝛿 = (𝑚𝑓 )(𝑓𝑚 )
• Frequency deviation is
proportional to the modulation
frequency.

• To improve noise performance of an FM

system, the deviation can be increased.

• An improvement in S/N can be made by

boosting these high frequencies before
modulation, with a corresponding cut in the
receiver after demodulation.
• Pre-Emphasis and De-emphasis Circuits
• bandwidth.
• Frequency Response of Pre-Emphasis and De-
emphasis Circuits
• bandwidth.