AM, PM and FM

modulation
What is amplitude modulation

• In order that a radio signal can carry audio or other

information for broadcasting or for two way radio
communication, it must be modulated or changed in some
way. Although there are a number of ways in which a radio
signal may be modulated, one of the easiest is to change its
amplitude in line with variations of the sound.

Amplitude modulation
Amplitude demodulation
• Amplitude modulation, AM, is one of the most straightforward
ways of modulating a radio signal or carrier. It can be achieved
in a number of ways, but the simplest uses a single diode
rectifier circuit.
• Other methods of demodulating an AM signal use synchronous
techniques and provide much lower levels of distortion and
improved reception where selective fading is present.
• One of the main reasons for the popularity of amplitude
modulation has been the simplicity of the demodulation. It
enables costs to be kept low - a significant advantage in
producing vast quantities of very low cost AM radios.
Advantages & disadvantages of AM

Advantages Disadvantages

• It is simple to implement • It is not efficient in terms of its

• it can be demodulated using a power usage
circuit consisting of very few • It is not efficient in terms of its
components use of bandwidth, requiring a
• AM receivers are very cheap as bandwidth equal to twice that
no specialised components are of the highest audio frequency
needed. • It is prone to high levels of noise
because most noise is amplitude
based and obviously AM
detectors are sensitive to it.
 • Broadcast transmissions: AM is still
widely used for broadcasting on the
long, medium and short wave bands. It
Applications is simple to demodulate and this means
that radio receivers capable of
demodulating amplitude modulation
are cheap and simple to manufacture.
Nevertheless many people are moving
to high quality forms of transmission
like frequency modulation, FM or digital
transmissions.

• Air band radio: VHF transmissions for

many airborne applications still use AM.
. It is used for ground to air radio
communications as well as two way
radio links for ground staff as well.
Cont.. • Single sideband: Amplitude modulation
in the form of single sideband is still used
for HF radio links. Using a lower
bandwidth and providing more effective
use of the transmitted power this form of
modulation is still used for many point to
point HF links.

• Quadrature amplitude modulation: AM

is widely used for the transmission of data
in everything from short range wireless
links such as Wi-Fi to cellular
telecommunications and much more.
Effectively it is formed by having two
carriers 90° out of phase.
What is Phase Modulation
• Phase modulation, PM is sometimes used for analogue
transmission, but it has become the basis for
modulation schemes used for carrying data. Phase
shoft keying, PSK is widely used for data
communication.Phase modulation is also the basis of a
form of modulation known as quadrature amplitude
modulation, where both phase and amplitude are
varied to provide additional capabilities.
Phase modulation basics

• A radio frequency signal consists of an oscillating carrier in the form

of a sine wave is the basis of the signal. The instantaneous amplitude
follows this curve moving positive and then negative, returning to the
start point after one complete cycle - it follows the curve of the sine
wave.
Cont..

• The sine wave can also be represented by the movement of a

point around a circle, the phase at any given point being the
angle between the start point and the point on the waveform
as shown.

• Phase angle of points on a sine waveAlso the phase advances

as time progresses so points on the waveform can be said to
have a phase difference between them.
Cont..

• Phase modulation works by modulating the

phase of the signal, i.e. changing the rate at
which the point moves around the circle. This
changes the phase of the signal from what it
would have been if no modulation was applied.
In other words the speed of rotation around
the circle is modulated about the mean value.
 Forms of phase modulation
Although phase modulation is used for some analogue
transmissions, it is far more widely used as a digital form of
modulation where it switches between different phases. This is known
as phase shift keying, PSK, and there are many flavours of this. It is
even possible to combine phase shift keying and amplitude keying in a
form of modulation known as quadrature amplitude modulation,
QAM.
 What is frequency modulation, FM
• As with any form of modulation, it is necessary
to be able to successfully demodulate it and
recover the original signal. The FM
demodulator may be called a variety of names
including FM demodulator, FM detector or an
FM discriminator.
• There are a number of different types of FM
demodulator, but all of them enable the
frequency variations of the incoming signal to
be converted into amplitude variations on the
output. These are typically fed into an audio
amplifier, or possibly a digital interface if data is
being passed over the system.
 FM modulators
• Varactor diode oscillator: This method simply requires the use of a
varactor diode placed within the tuned circuit of an oscillator circuit. It is
even possible to use a varactor diode within a crystal oscillator circuit.
Typically when crystal oscillators a re used the signal needs to be
multiplied in frequency, and only narrow band FM is attainable.

• Phase locked loop: Phase locked loops provide an excellent method of

generating frequency modulation. It is often necessary to manage the
constraints within the loop carefully but once done it provides and
excellent solution.
 Frequency demodulation
• it is necessary to be able to successfully demodulate it and
recover the original signal. The FM demodulator may be called
a variety of names including FM demodulator, FM detector or
an FM discriminator.
• There are a number of different types of FM demodulator, but
all of them enable the frequency variations of the incoming
signal to be converted into amplitude variations on the output.
These are typically fed into an audio amplifier, or possibly a
digital interface if data is being passed over the system.
CONT..

The list below gives some of the forms of phase shift keying that are
used:
• PM - Phase Modulation
• PSK - Phase Shift Keying
• BPSK - Binary Phase Shift Keying
• QPSK - Quadrature Phase Shift Keying
• 8 PSK - 8 Point Phase Shift Keying
• 16 PSK - 16 Point Phase Shift Keying
• OPSK - Offset Phase Shift Keying
Advantages of frequency modulation,
FM:
• Resilience to noise: One particular advantage of frequency
modulation is its resilience to signal level variations. The modulation
is carried only as variations in frequency.
• Easy to apply modulation at a low power stage of the
transmitter: Another advantage of frequency modulation is
associated with the transmitters.
• It is possible to use efficient RF amplifiers with frequency modulated
signals: It is possible to use non-linear RF amplifiers to amplify FM
signals in a transmitter and these are more efficient than the linear
ones required for signals with any amplitude variations (e.g. AM and
SSB).
disadvantages of frequency modulation,
FM
• FM has poorer spectral efficiency than some other modulation
formats: Some phase modulation and quadrature amplitude
modulation formats have a higher spectral efficiency for data
transmission than frequency shift keying, a form of frequency
modulation.
• Requires more complicated demodulator: One of the minor
disadvantages of frequency modulation is that the demodulator is a
little more complicated, and hence slightly more expensive than the
very simple diode detectors used for AM.
CONT..

• Some other modes have higher data spectral efficiency: Some

phase modulation and quadrature amplitude modulation formats
have a higher spectral efficiency for data transmission that frequency
shift keying, a form of frequency modulation.
• Sidebands extend to infinity either side: The sidebands for an FM
transmission theoretically extend out to infinity. They are normally
significant for wideband frequency modulation transmissions,
although small for narrow band FM.