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Linear Modulation
Mohammad Fathi Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran mfathi@ieee.org March 2011

Introduction
Modulation is the systematic alteration of one waveform, called carrier, according to the characteristics of another waveform, the modulating signal. Continuous wave modulation:
The carrier is a sinusoidal wave modulated by an analog signal. Linear modulation: Amplitude modulation: direct frequency translation of the signal spectrum Nonlinear modulation: Frequency modulation

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Outline
Bandpass signals and systems Double side band amplitude modulation
Standard amplitude modulation (AM) suppressed-carrier double side band modulation (DSB)

Modulators and transmitters Suppressed sideband amplitude modulation

Single side band modulation (SSB) Vestigial sideband modulation (VSB)

Demodulation

Bandpass signals and systems

Most transmission systems have a bandpass frequency response.

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Bandpass signal
Consider a real energy signal vbp(t) with spectrum Vbp(f). This spectrum exhibits hermitian property, i.e. Vbp* (-f). W and fc are arbitrary as long as W< fc

This signal is defined as bandpass if

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Band pass signal: Envelope-Phase description

The corresponding bandpass signal looks like a sinusoid at frequency fc with slowly changing amplitude and phase angle.

A(t): envelope : phase

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Band pass signal: Quadrature-carrier description

Another way of writing vbp(t). Let

vi(t): In-phase element

vq(t): Quadrature element

Frequency analysis
In frequency domain, the quadrature-carrier description is usually used: Where

In order to satisfy the bandpass condition, vi(t) and vq(t) should be low pass signals, i.e.

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Lowpass equivalent spectrum

The lowpass equivalent spectrum of Vbp(f) is defined as

Vlp(f) Simply equals the positive frequency portion of Vbp(f) translated down to the origin. Lowpass equivalent signal:
Complex signal
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Lowpass to bandpass
Time domain:

Frequency domain:

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Bandpass transmission

It is usually easier to work with low pass equivalent transfer function.

After finding the low pass response, perform lowpass to bandpass transformation

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Amplitude modulation (AM)

The envelope of the modulated carrier has the same shape as the message. Ac : unmodulated carrier amplitude x(t): message signal : modulation index

The envelope clearly reproduce the shpae of x(t) if Otherwise, an envelope can not be visualized.
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AM spectrum

AM requires twice the bandwidth needed to transmits the message at baseband without modulation.
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AM transmission power
Average transmitted power

If Putting in the form Pc: unmodulated carrier power Psb: power per sideband Since

At lest 50 percent of the total transmission power resides in a carrier term that is independent of the message.
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Double sideband suppressed-carreier modulation (DSB)

The wasted carrier power in AM can be eliminated by setting 1 and suppressing the carrier frequency. The DSB-SC spectrum looks likes AM spectrum without the carrier impulse.

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DSB
Full recovery of the message requires knowledge of the phase reversal and could not be accomplished by a envelope detector. DSB-SC makes better use of the transmission power
Practical transmitters impose a limit on the peak envelope power: with Amax=Ac for DSB and Amax=2Ac for AM, we have

With fixed envelope power, if other factors are equal, a DSB-SC transmitter produces four times the sideband power of an AM transmitter. This is a tradeoff between transmission power and demodulation methods.
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Example

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Modulators and transmitters

Since AM and DSB-SC spectrum contains frequencies other than the message, the modulator must therefore be a time-varying or nonlinear system. Modulators
Product modulators Square-law modulators Balanced modulators Switching modulators

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Product modulator

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Square-law modulators

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Signal multiplication at higher frequencies can be accomplished by the squarelaw modulators. A nonlinear element approximates the square-law transfer curvature.

Square-law modulators

If fc>3W, the AM wave can be separate by filtering with B=2W centered at fc. We have a DSB wave if a1= 0 , corresponding to the perfect square law curve:
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Balanced modulators
Perfect square-law devices are rare, so high frequency DSB is obtained in using two AM modulators arranged in a balanced configuration to cancel out the carrier, called balanced modulator.

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Switching modulators
Because of the required filtering, square-law modulators are primarily used in low power modulation. The following RF power amplifier with required linearity is of high problems. Switching modulators are used when power ST is to be large.
The tank circuit is tuned to resonate at fc.

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Suppressed sideband AM
Suppressing one sideband in DSB, in whole or part, reduces transmission bandwidth and leads to
Single sideband modulation (SSB) Vestigial sideband modulation (VSB)

Conceptual approach of SSB

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SSB analyze in time domain

Input: output: The output is obtained by applying equivalent low pass method:
Low pass input

USSB filter LSSB filter

Both filters
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SSB analyze in time domain

Low pass output

In-phase and quadrature components Envelope

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SSB generation (1)

Conceptual SSB generation calls for the ideal filter with a perfect cutoff at fc, which is not realizable.

A real sideband filter will either pass a portion of the undesired sideband or attenuate a portion of the desired sideband (Doing so is called vestigial sideband modulation) .
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SSB generation (1)

SSB is suitable for signals with little or no low frequency content, which their spectra having holes at zero frequency, e.g audio signal.

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SSB generation (2)

Rewriting the SSB output Phase-shift SSB generation:
Bypasses the need of sideband filters HQ(f) is an unrealizable network that can only be approximated.

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Vestigial sideband modulation (VSB)

Signals with low frequency content such as television video have problems with SSB. The compromise modulation scheme is VSB. VSB is derived by filtering DSB or AM in such a fashion that one sideband is passed almost completely with just a trace or vestige of the other sideband. Taking upper sideband case

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Vestigial sideband modulation (VSB)

Depending on the vestige width , VSB approximates SSB or DSB modulation. The transmission power is not easy to determine exactly, but is bounded by If an AM wave is applied to a vestigial filter, the resulting modulation is VSB plus carrier (VSB+C).
This modulation is used in television video transmission. VSB+C allows envelope detection.

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Demodulation
Demodulation implies downward frequency translation in order to recover the message from the modulated wave:
Synchronous detection (Synchronous product detection, Envelope detectors
Homodyne detection)

Frequency translation or conversion is performed with multiplication by a sinusoid.

Devices that carry out this operation are called frequency convertors or mixers. The operation is termed heterodyning or mixing.
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Synchronous product detection

All types of linear modulation can be detected by the product demodulator.

It is assumed that local oscillator (LO) is exactly synchronized with the carrier in both frequency and phase (Synchronous or coherent detection). Let the input signal be the generalized form: Then
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Synchronous product detection

With low pass filtering, we have
KD: detection constant KD KC : DC term corresponds to the translated carrier if present. This can be removed by a blocking capacitor or transformer.

VSB Recalling the symmetry property of the vestigial filter, we find that the portion removed from upper sideband is exactly restored by the corresponding vestige of the lower sideband.
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Homodyne detection
Synchronizing an oscillator to a sinusoid is the difficulty of product demodulators in practice. Homodyne detector
To facilitate the matter, suppressed carrier systems may have a small amount of carrier reinserted in the transmitted signal. This pilot carrier is picked off at the receiver by a narrow band pass filter, amplified and used in place of an LO. The pilot carrier may also be used to synchronize a separate oscillator.

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Envelope detection
The envelope of an AM wave has the same shape of the message. Demodulation can be accomplished by extracting the envelope with no worries about synchronization.
V is the half-rectified version of the input Vin. R1C1 : low pass filter R2C2 acts as a dc block to remove the bias of the unmodulated carrier component.

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Envelope reconstruction in DSB and SSB

The addition of a large, locally generated carrier to the incoming signal reconstructs the envelope for recovery by an envelope detector. This method eliminates signal multiplication but does not get around the synchronization problem.

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