Information about Amplitude Modulation

Topics in Modulation techniques

Analog modulation

AM | SSB | FM | PM | QAM

Digital modulation

OOK | ASK | PSK | FSK | MSK | QAM | CPM | TCM | OFDM

Spread spectrum

FHSS | DSSS

Amplitude modulation (AM) is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent. For example, changes in the signal strength can be used to reflect the sounds to be reproduced by a speaker, or to specify the light intensity of television pixels. (Contrast this with frequency modulation, also commonly used for sound transmissions, in which the frequency is varied; and phase modulation, often used in remote controls, in which the phase is varied.)

In the mid-1870s, a form of amplitude modulation—initially called "undulatory currents"—was the first method to successfully produce quality audio over telephone lines. Beginning with Reginald Fessenden's audio demonstrations in the early 1900s, it was also the original method used for audio radio transmissions, and remains in use by some forms of radio communication—"AM" is often used to refer to the mediumwave broadcast band (see AM radio).

Forms of amplitude modulation

As originally developed for the electric telephone, amplitude modulation was used to add audio information to the low-powered direct current flowing from a telephone transmitter to a receiver. As a simplified explanation, at the transmitting end, a telephone microphone was used to vary the strength of the transmitted current, according to the frequency and loudness of the sounds received. Then, at the receiving end of the telephone line, the transmitted electrical current affected an electromagnet, which strengthened and weakened in response to the strength of the current. In turn, the electromagnet produced vibrations in the receiver diaphragm, thus reproducing the frequency and loudness of the sounds originally heard at the transmitter.

In contrast to the telephone, in radio communication what is modulated is a continuous wave radio signal (carrier wave) produced by a radio transmitter. In its basic form, amplitude modulation produces a signal with power concentrated at the carrier frequency and in two adjacent sidebands. Each sideband is equal in bandwidth to that of the modulating signal and is a mirror image of the other. Amplitude modulation that results in two sidebands and a carrier is often called double sideband amplitude modulation (DSB-AM). Amplitude modulation is inefficient in terms of power usage and much of it is wasted. At least two-thirds of the power is concentrated in the carrier signal, which carries no useful information (beyond the fact that a signal is present); the remaining power is split between two identical sidebands, though only one of these is needed since they contain identical information.

To increase transmitter efficiency, the carrier can be removed (suppressed) from the AM signal. This produces a reduced-carrier transmission or double-sideband suppressed-carrier (DSBSC) signal. A suppressed-carrier amplitude modulation scheme is three times more power-efficient than traditional DSB-AM. If the carrier is only partially suppressed, a double-sideband reduced-carrier (DSBRC) signal results. DSBSC and DSBRC signals need their carrier to be regenerated (by a beat frequency oscillator, for instance) to be demodulated using conventional techniques.

Even greater efficiency is achieved—at the expense of increased transmitter and receiver complexity—by completely suppressing both the carrier and one of the sidebands. This is single-sideband modulation, widely used in amateur radio due to its efficient use of both power and bandwidth.

A simple form of AM often used for digital communications is on-off keying, a type of amplitude-shift keying by which binary data is represented as the presence or absence of a carrier wave. This is commonly used at radio frequencies to transmit Morse code, referred to as continuous wave (CW) operation.

In 1982, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) designated the various types of amplitude modulation as follows:

Designation	Description
A3E	double-sideband full-carrier - the basic AM modulation scheme
R3E	single-sideband reduced-carrier
H3E	single-sideband full-carrier
J3E	single-sideband suppressed-carrier
B8E	independent-sideband emission
C3F	vestigial-sideband
Lincompex	linked compressor and expander

Example

Double Sideband AM

A carrier wave is modelled as a simple sine wave, such as:

where the radio frequency (in Hz) is given by:  


For generality, and are arbitrary constants that represent the carrier amplitude and initial phase. For simplicity, we set their respective values to 1 and 0.

Let m(t) represent an arbitrary waveform that is the message to be transmitted.  And let the constant M represent its largest magnitude. For instance:

Thus, the message might be just a simple audio tone of frequency  

It is generally assumed that    and that  

Then amplitude modulation is created by forming the product:

represents another constant we may choose. The values A=1, and M=0.5, produce a y(t) depicted by the graph labelled "50% Modulation" in Figure 4.

For this simple example, y(t) can be trigonometrically manipulated into the following equivalent form:

Therefore, the modulated signal has three components, a carrier wave and two sinusoidal waves (known as sidebands) whose frequencies are slightly above and below  

Also notice that the choice A=0 eliminates the carrier component, but leaves the sidebands. That is the DSBSC transmission mode. To generate double-sideband full carrier (A3E), we must choose:  

Fig 2: The (2-sided) spectrum of an AM signal.

For more general forms of m(t), trigonometry is not sufficient. But if the top trace of Figure 2 depicts the frequency spectrum, of m(t), then the bottom trace depicts the modulated carrier. It has two groups of components: one at positive frequencies (centered on ) and one at negative frequencies (centered on ). Each group contains the two sidebands and a narrow component in between that represents the energy at the carrier frequency. We need only be concerned with the positive frequencies. The negative ones are a mathematical artifact that contains no additional information. Therefore, we see that an AM signal's spectrum consists basically of its original (2-sided) spectrum shifted up to the carrier frequency.

::For those interested in the mathematics of Figure 2, it is a result of computing the Fourier transform of:   using the following transform pairs:

:::

:::

:::

:::

Fig 3: The spectrogram of an AM broadcast shows its two sidebands (green) separated by the carrier signal (red).

In terms of the positive frequencies, the transmission bandwidth of AM is twice the signal's original (baseband) bandwidth — since both the positive and negative sidebands are shifted up to the carrier frequency. Thus, double-sideband AM (DSB-AM) is spectrally inefficient, meaning that fewer radio stations can be accommodated in a given broadcast band. The various suppression methods in Forms of AM, can be readily understood in terms of the diagram in Figure 2. With the carrier suppressed there would be no energy at the center of a group. And with a sideband suppressed, the "group" would have the same bandwidth as the positive frequencies of   The transmitter power efficiency of DSB-AM is relatively poor (about 33%). The benefit of this system is that receivers are cheaper to produce. The forms of AM with suppressed carriers are found to be 100% power efficient, since no power is wasted on the carrier signal which conveys no information.

Modulation index

As with other modulation indices, in AM, this quantity, also called modulation depth, indicates by how much the modulated variable varies around its 'original' level. For AM, it relates to the variations in the carrier amplitude and is defined as:

  where and were introduced above.

So if , the carrier amplitude varies by 50% above and below its unmodulated level, and for it varies by 100%. For the A3E transmission mode, modulation depth greater than 100% must be avoided. Practical transmitter systems will usually incorporate some kind of limiter circuit, such as a VOGAD, to ensure this.

Variations of modulated signal with percentage modulation are shown below. In each image, the maximum amplitude is higher than in the previous image. Note that the scale changes from one image to the next.

Fig 4: Modulation depth

Amplitude modulator designs

Circuits

A wide range of different circuits have been used for AM, but one of the simplest circuits uses anode or collector modulation applied via a transformer. While it is perfectly possible to create good designs using solid-state electronics, valved (tube) circuits are shown here. In general, valves are able to easily yield RF powers far in excess of what can be achieved using solid state. Most high-power broadcast stations still use valves.

Anode modulation using a transformer. The tetrode is supplied with an anode supply (and screen grid supply) which is modulated via the transformer. The resistor R1 sets the grid bias, both the input and outputs are tuned LC circuits which are tapped into by inductive coupling

Modulation circuit designs can be broadly divided into low and high level.

Low level

Here a small audio stage is used to modulate a low power stage, the output of this stage is then amplified using a linear RF amplifier.

Advantages

The advantage of using a linear RF amplifier is that the smaller early stages can be modulated, which only requires a small audio amplifier to drive the modulator.

Disadvantages

The great disadvantage of this system is that the amplifier chain is less efficient, because it has to be linear to preserve the modulation. Hence Class C amplifiers cannot be employed.

An approach which marries the advantages of low-level modulation with the efficiency of a Class C power amplifier chain is to arrange a feedback system to compensate for the substantial distortion of the AM envelope. A simple detector at the transmitter output (which can be little more than a loosely coupled diode) recovers the audio signal, and this is used as negative feedback to the audio modulator stage. The overall chain then acts as a linear amplifier as far as the actual modulation is concerned, though the RF amplifier itself still retains the Class C efficiency. This approach is widely used in practical medium power transmitters, such as AM radiotelephones.

High level

Advantages

One advantage of using class C amplifiers in a broadcast AM transmitter is that only the final stage needs to be modulated, and that all the earlier stages can be driven at a constant level. These class C stages will be able to generate the drive for the final stage for a smaller DC power input. However, in many designs in order to obtain better quality AM the penultimate RF stages will need to be subject to modulation as well as the final stage.

Disadvantages

A large audio amplifier will be needed for the modulation stage, at least equal to the power of the transmitter output itself. Traditionally the modulation is applied using an audio transformer, and this can be bulky. Direct coupling from the audio amplifier is also possible (known as a cascode arrangement), though this usually requires quite a high DC supply voltage (say 30 V or more), which is not suitable for mobile units.

See also

• AM radio also referred to as Mediumwave
• Frequency Modulation
• Shortwave radio almost universally uses AM, narrow FM occurring above 25 MHz.
• Modulation, for a list of other modulation techniques
• AMSS Amplitude Modulation Signalling System, a digital system for adding low bitrate information to an AM signal.
• Sideband, for some explanation of what this is.
• Types of radio emissions, for the emission types designated by the ITU
• Airband

References

• Newkirk, David and Karlquist, Rick (2004). Mixers, modulators and demodulators. In D. G. Reed (ed.), The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications (81st ed.), pp. 15.1–15.36. Newington: ARRL. ISBN 0-87259-196-4.

For the musical use of "modulation" as a change of key, see modulation (music).

In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a periodic waveform, i.e.
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frequency modulation (FM) conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency (contrast this with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant).
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“QAM

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is a modulation scheme which conveys data by changing (modulating) the amplitude of two carrier waves.
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On-off keying (OOK) is a type of modulation that represents digital data as the presence or absence of a carrier wave. In its simplest form, the presence of a carrier for a specific duration represents a binary one, while its absence for the same duration represents a
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Amplitude-shift keying (ASK) is a form of modulation that represents digital data as variations in the amplitude of a carrier wave.

The amplitude of an analog carrier signal varies in accordance with the bit stream (modulating signal), keeping frequency and phase
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Phase-shift keying (PSK) is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal (the carrier wave).

Any digital modulation scheme uses a number of distinct signals to represent digital data.
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Frequency-shift keying (FSK) is a modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted through discrete frequency changes of a carrier wave. The most common form of frequency shift keying is 2-FSK.
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“QAM

Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is a modulation scheme which conveys data by changing (modulating) the amplitude of two carrier waves.
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Continuous phase modulation (CPM) is a method for modulation of data commonly used in wireless modems. In contrast to other coherent digital phase modulation techniques where the carrier phase abruptly resets to zero at the start of every symbol (e.g.
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In telecommunication, trellis modulation (also known as trellis coded modulation, or simply TCM) is a modulation scheme which allows highly efficient transmission of information over band-limited channels such as telephone lines.
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Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) — essentially identical to Coded OFDM (COFDM) — is a digital multi-carrier modulation scheme, which uses a large number of closely-spaced orthogonal sub-carriers.
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Spread-spectrum techniques are methods by which energy generated in a particular bandwidth is deliberately spread in the frequency domain, resulting in a signal with a wider bandwidth.
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Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) is a method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver.
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In telecommunications, direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) is a modulation technique. As with other spread spectrum technologies, the transmitted signal takes up more bandwidth than the information signal that is being modulated.
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Radio is the wireless transmission of signals, by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space.
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In telecommunications, a carrier wave, or carrier is a waveform (usually sinusoidal) that is modulated (modified) with an input signal for the purpose of conveying information, for example voice or data, to be transmitted.
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frequency modulation (FM) conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its frequency (contrast this with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant).
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FreQuency is a music video game developed by Harmonix and published by SCEI. It was released in November 2001. A sequel, titled Amplitude was released in 2003.
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Phase modulation (PM) is a form of modulation that represents information as variations in the instantaneous phase of a carrier wave.

Unlike its more popular counterpart, frequency modulation (FM), PM is not very widely used (except perhaps in the inappropriately named FM
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remote control is an electronic device used for the remote operation of a machine.

The term remote control can be also referred to as "remote" or "controller" when abbreviated.
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phase can be readily understood in terms of simple harmonic motion. The same concept applies to wave motion, viewed either at a point in space over an interval of time or across an interval of space at a moment in time.
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Reginald Fessenden (October 6, 1866 – July 22, 1932) was a Canadian inventor, best known for his work in early radio. Three of his most notable achievements include: the first audio transmission by radio (1900), the first two-way transatlantic radio transmission (1906), and
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Medium wave or mediumwave (MW) is a part of the Medium frequency (MF) radio band used for AM broadcasting. For most of the world the frequencies used for broadcasting are from 520 kHz up to 1611 kHz, and in North America an extended AM broadcast band goes up to
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For other uses, see Band.

A band is a small section of the spectrum of radio communication frequencies, in which channels are usually used or set aside for the same purpose.
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For the song by Everclear, see .

AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using Amplitude Modulation.

History

:

Main article: History of radio

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continuous wave or continuous waveform (CW) is an electromagnetic wave of constant amplitude and frequency; and in mathematical analysis, of infinite duration.
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In telecommunications, a carrier wave, or carrier is a waveform (usually sinusoidal) that is modulated (modified) with an input signal for the purpose of conveying information, for example voice or data, to be transmitted.
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sideband is a band of frequencies higher than or lower than the carrier frequency, containing power as a result of the modulation process. The sidebands consist of all the Fourier components of the modulated signal except the carrier. All forms of modulation produce sidebands.
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Bandwidth is the difference between the upper and lower cutoff frequencies of, for example, a filter, a communication channel, or a signal spectrum, and is typically measured in hertz.
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Reduced-carrier transmission is an amplitude modulation (AM) transmission in which the carrier wave level is reduced to reduce wasted electrical power. Suppressed-carrier transmission
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