Chapter 3:

Continuous Wave (CW) Modulation

Amplitude Modulation
AM-C, DSB, SSB, VSB

September 2024
Lectured by Prof. Dr. Thuong Le-Tien

Slides with references from HUT Finland; Mc. Graw Hill Co.;
A.B. Carlson’s Communication Systems Book;
Simon Haykin - Communication Systems Book.
R.Ziemer&H.Transfer – Principles of Communications Book
1
Linear continuous wave (CW) modulation sóng mang
tín hiệu gốc

Bandpass systems and signals

Lowpass (LP) equivalents
Amplitude modulation (AM) AM
Double-sideband modulation (DSB) 2 dãy đảo pha

Modulator techniques
Suppressed-sideband DSB
(Single Sideband) amplitude
modulation (LSB, USB)
Vestigial Sideband modulation (VSB)
Detection techniques of linear modulation SSB=LSB
– Coherent detection
– Noncoherent detection
VSB

2
Baseband and CW communications
carrier

Baseband communications is used in

– PSTN local loop baseband CW
– PCM communications for instance between exchanges
– (fiber-) optical communication
Using carrier to shape and shift the frequency spectrum (eg CW
techniques) enable modulation by which several advantages are
obtained
– different radio bands can be used for communications
– wireless communications
– multiplexing techniques become applicable
– exchanging transmission bandwidth to received SNR

3
Defining
bandpass
signals
The bandpass signal is band limited
Vbp ( f ) = 0, f  f c − W  f  f c + W
Vbp ( f )  0,otherwise

We assume also
W  f C
In telecommunications bandpass signals are used to convey
messages over medium medium môi trường truyền
In practice, transmitted messages are never
strictly band limited due to
– their nature in frequency domain (Fourier series coefficients
may extend over very large span of frequencies)
– non-ideal filtering 4
Example of a bandpass system
Consider a simple bandpass system: a resonant (tank) circuit
jL / jC
zp = zi = R + z p Vin ( ) H ( ) = Vout ( )
jL + 1 / jC
H ( ) = Vout ( ) / Vin ( ) = z p / zi  H ( ) = 1/[1 + jQ( f / f0 + f0 / f )]

Q = R C / L Q cao băng thông hẹp


 f 0 = (2 LC )
−1

zp
Tank circuit

5
Bandwidth and Q-factor
The bandwidth is inversely proportional to Q-factor:

B3 dB = f0 / Q (for the tank circuit: Q = R C / L )

Q cao băng thông hẹp

System design is easier if the fractional bandwidth 1/Q=B/f0 is

kept relatively small:
0.01  B / f0  0.1
Some practical examples:

6
System design is easier for smaller fractional
bandwidths (FB).

Antenna and bandpass amplifier design is difficult for

large FB:s:
– one will have “difficult to realize” components or
parameters in circuits as
• too high Q
• too small or large values for capacitors and
inductors
These structures have a bandpass nature because one
of their important elements is the resonant circuit.
Making them broadband means decreasing resistive
losses that can be difficult

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 In I-Q presentation bandpass signal carrier and modulation parts
are separated into different terms
vbp (t ) = A(t )cos[C t +  (t )]
vbp (t ) = vi (t ) cos(C t ) − vq (t ) sin(C t )
vi (t ) = A(t )cos  (t ), vq (t ) = A(t )sin  (t )

Bandpass signal
in frequency
domain

Bandpass signal cos( +  ) = cos( ) cos(  )

in time
dashed line
− sin( ) sin(  )
domain
denotes envelope
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The phasor description of bandpass signal
Bandpass signal is conveniently represented by a phasor
rotating at the angular carrier rate  C t +  (t ) :

vbp (t ) = vi (t )cos(C t ) − vq (t )sin(C t )

vi (t ) = A(t )cos  (t ), vq (t ) = A(t )sin  (t )
vi (t )  0,arctan(vq (t ) / vi (t ))
A(t ) = vi (t ) + vq (t )  (t ) = 
2 2

vi (t )  0, + arctan(vq (t ) / vi (t ))

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 vbp (t ) = vi (t )cos(C t ) − vq (t )sin(C t )
Lowpass (LP) signal
vi (t ) = A(t )cos  (t ), vq (t ) = A(t )sin  (t )
Lowpass signal is defined by
yielding in time domain
vlp (t ) = F −1 Vlp ( f )  = 12 vi (t ) + jvq (t ) 
Taking rectangular-polar conversion yields then
vlp (t ) = A(t )  cos  (t ) + j sin  (t )  / 2 vlp (t ) = 12 A(t )exp j (t )
vlp (t ) = A(t ) / 2, arg vlp (t ) =  (t )


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Transforming lowpass signals and bandpass signals
vbp (t ) = A(t )cos[ct +  (t )]
vbp = Re  A(t ) exp[ j ct +  (t )]
 
 A(t ) 
vbp = 2 Re  exp[ j (t )]exp[ j ct ]
 2 
 vlp ( t ) 
vbp = 2Re vlp (t )exp[ jct ]
Physically this means that the lowpass signal is modulated to
the carrier frequency  when it is transformed to bandpass
signal. Bandpass signal can be transformed into lowpass signal
The physical meaning of this is a spectrum translation.
Vlp ( f ) = Vbp ( f + fC )u ( f + fC ) Vbp chính là Vlp dịch tần số fc

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 Amplitude Modulation (AM full)
Four linear modulation methods: (1) AM (amplitude modulation),
(2) DSB (double sideband modulation), (3) SSB (single
sideband modulation), (4) VSB (vestigial sideband modulation)
u hệ số điều chế
AM signal:
xC (t ) = Ac [1 +  xm (t )]cos(ct +  (t )) 0    1

= Ac cos(ct +  (t )) + Ac  xm (t )cos(ct +  (t ))  xm (t )  1
Carrier Information carrying part
(t) is an arbitrary constant. Hence we note that no information
is transmitted via the phase. Assume for instance that (t)=0,
then the LP components are
vi (t ) = A(t )cos( (t )) = A(t ) = Ac [1 +  xm (t )]
vq (t ) = A(t )sin( (t )) = 0

Also, the carrier component contains no information-> Waste of

power to transmit the unmodulated carrier, but can still be useful
for a simple demodulation. 12
 AM: waveforms and bandwidth
AM in frequency domain:
xc (t ) = Ac [1 +  xm (t )]cos( ct )
= Ac cos( ct ) +  xm (t )cos( ct )
Carrier Information carrying part

X c ( f ) = Ac ( f − f c ) / 2 +  Ac X m ( f − f c ) / 2 f  0(for brief notations)

Carrier Information carrying part

AM bandwidth is twice the message bandwidth W:

v(t )cos( ct +  )  12 V ( f − f c )exp j + V ( f + f c )exp − j 

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AM waveforms

(a): modulation
(b): modulated carrier
with <1
(c): modulated carrier
with >1 with distortion
(d) Modulation Index
=(Amax-Amin)/2Ac.

Envelope distortion!

(AM signal: xc (t ) = Ac [1 +  xm (t )]cos(ct ))

14
 AM power efficiency
AM wave total power consists of the idle carrier part and the
useful signal part:  xc2 (t ) =  Ac2 cos 2 ( ct ) 
Carrier

(AM signal: xc (t ) = +   2 Ac2 xm2 (t ) cos 2 ( ct ) 

Ac [1 +  xm (t )]cos(ct )) Power: SX

= Ac2 / 2 +  2 Ac2 S X / 2
PC 2 PSB
Assume AC=1, SX=1, then for =1 (the max value) the total
power is
PT max = 1 / 2 + 1 / 2 = 50% + 50%
carrier + mod ulated power
Therefore at least half of the total power is wasted on carrier
Detection of AM is simple by enveloped detector that is a reason
why AM is still used. Also, sometimes AM makes
system design easier in both Transmitting and
Receiving 15
AM-Double SideBand (DSB)
In DSB the wasteful carrier is suppressed:
xc (t ) = Ac xm (t )cos(ct )
The spectra is otherwise identical to AM and the transmission
BW equals again double the message BW
X c ( f ) = Ac X m ( f − fc ) / 2, f  0
In time domain each modulation signal zero crossing produces
phase reversals of the carrier. For DSB, the total power ST and
the power/sideband PSB have the relationship

ST = Ac2 S X / 2 = 2PSB  PSB = Ac2 S X / 4( DSB)

Therefore AM transmitter requires twice the power of DSB

transmitter to produce the same coverage assuming SX=1.
However, in practice SX is usually smaller than 1/2, under which
condition at least four times the DSB power is required for the
AM transmitter for the same coverage

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AM-Double SideBand DSB and spectra
xm (t ) = Am cos( m t )
AM in frequency domain with

X c ( f ) = Ac ( f − f c ) / 2 +  Ac X m ( f − f c ) / 2, f  0 (general expression)

Carrier Information carrying part

A A A A
 ( f − fc ) + c m  ( f − fc − fm ) + c m  ( f − fc + fm )
Ac
Xc( f ) =
2 4 4

In summary, difference of AM and DSB at frequency domain is

the missing carrier component. Other differences relate to power
efficiency and detection techniques.
/2

/2 /2

(a) DSB spectra, b) AM spectra 17

Example of DSB Modulator

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AM phasor analysis, tone modulation
AM and DSB can be inspected also by trigonometric expansion
yielding for instance for AM
xC (t ) = AC Am  cos( m t )cos( C t ) + AC cos( C t )
AC Am  AA
= cos( C −  m )t + C m cos( C +  m )t
2 2
+ AC cos( C t )
This has a nice phasor interpretation;
take for example: let taking =2/3, Am=1:

 2 
A(t ) = Ac 1 + cos  ct 
 3 

2
Am  =
3
AM signal: xc (t ) = Ac [1 +  xm (t )]cos(ct )
19
A( t )
 Examples of modulators

Both AM and DSB can be generated by

– Analog or digital multipliers
– Special nonlinear circuits
CE chung
trở vào ra trung bình
CC chung trở vào lớn ,
• based on semiconductor junctions (as diodes,
trở kháng ra bé
FETs etc.)
CB trở vào bé trở khang ra lớn

• based on analog or digital nonlinear amplifiers

as
– log-antilog amplifiers:
v1
p = log v1 + log v2 Log
p v1v2
10 p = v1v2 v2 Log
10

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 (a) Product modulator
(b) respective schematic
diagram
=multiplier+adder

Circuit for Variable

transconductance multiplier
(AM signal: xc (t ) = Ac [1 +  xm (t )]cos(ct ))
21
Square-law modulator (for AM)
Square-law modulators are based on nonlinear elements:

Example: (a) functional block diagram, (b) circuit realization 22

Balanced modulator (for DSB)
By using balanced configuration non-idealities on square-law
characteristics can be compensated resulting a high degree of
carrier suppression:

Note that if the modulating signal has a DC-component, it is not

cancelled out and will appear at the carrier frequency of the
modulator output
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 Synchronous detection
All linear modulations can be detected by synchronous
detector
Regenerated, in-phase carrier replica required for signal
regeneration that is used to multiple the received signal
Consider an universal*, linearly modulated signal is assumed:

xc (t ) = [ K c + K  x(t )]cos(ct ) + K  xq (t )sin(ct )

The multiplied signal y(t) is:

ALO
xc (t ) ALO cos(ct ) =
2

[ K c + K  x(t )][1 + cos(2ct ) ] − K  xq (t )sin(2ct ) 
A
= LO [ K c + K  x(t )]
2

Synchronous
detector
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The envelope detector
Important motivation for using AM is the possibility to use the
envelope detector that
– has a simple structure (also cheap)
– needs no synchronization
(e.g. no auxiliary, unmodulated
carrier input in receiver)
– no threshold effect (
SNR can be very small and
receiver still works)

25
Envelope detector analyzed
Assume diode half-wave rectifier used to rectify AM-signal.
Therefore after the diode AM modulation is in effect multiplied
with the half-wave rectified sinusoidal signal w(t)
1 2  1 
vR =  A + m(t )  cos  C t  +  cos  C t − cos3 C t + ...  
2   3 
w( t )
1
vR =  A + m(t ) + other higher order terms

The diode detector is then followed by a lowpass circuit to
remove the higher order terms
The resulting DC-term may also be blocked by a capacitor
Note the close resembles of this principle to the synchronous-
detector.
1
cos 2 ( x) = 1 + cos(2 x)
2 26
(a) (b) (c)

(a)

(b) (c)

27
W is the bandwidth of m(t)
COHERENT DETECTION FOR DSB SIGNALS

The output with cos is a contact phase error

28
COSTAS RECEIVER FOR DSB SIGNALS

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AM Single SideBand
(SSB) GENERATION
Using Bandpass Filter
or Hilbert Transform

30
 SSB Generation
m(t) is the message
and its Fourier Transform M(f)

Generate Lower Sideband SSB Signal by using the LP filter

Response of the LP filter

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32
Generate the SSB signal by using the Hilbert Transform

DSB signal
(*)

Hilbert Transform of the signal m(t)

(**)
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Combining (*) and (**), we get the Lower-Sideband SSB

Or similar (look at the figure) for the Upper-Sideband SSB

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Phase shift method for SSB generation

35
Weaver’s SSB modulator

36
Analog Quadrature carrier multiplexing or
Analog Quadrature Amplitude Modulation QAM

37
VESTIGIAL SIDEBAND (VSB) MODULATION

38
Generation VSB
a. DSB Magnitude
b. VSB filter
c. VSB spectrum

39
Given Modulating SIgnal
DSB signal

VSB filter response

DSB signal

VSB signal

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SOME APPLICATIONS OF AMPLITUDE MODULATION
TV Signal using VSB modulation

41
Frequency conversion using SSB

Satellite transponder with frequency conversion

42
 VSB spectra. a) Message; b) Modulated signal
C) Frequency-translated signal before lowpass filtering
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