Automatic gain

control

Schematic of an AGC used in the analog

telephone network; the feedback from output level
to gain is effected via a Vactrol resistive opto-
isolator.
Automatic gain control (AGC), also
called automatic volume control (AVC),
is a closed-loop feedback regulating
circuit, the purpose of which is to
provide a controlled signal amplitude at
its output, despite variation of the
amplitude in the input signal. The
average or peak output signal level is
used to dynamically adjust the input-to-
output gain to a suitable value, enabling
the circuit to work satisfactorily with a
greater range of input signal levels. It is
used in most radio receivers to
equalise the average volume
(loudness) of different radio stations
due to differences in received signal
strength, as well as variations in a
single station's radio signal due to
fading. Without AGC the sound emitted
from an AM radio receiver would vary
to an extreme extent from a weak to a
strong signal; the AGC effectively
reduces the volume if the signal is
strong and raises it when it is weaker.

How it works
The signal to be gain controlled (the
detector output in a radio) goes to a
diode & capacitor, which produce a
peak-following DC voltage. This is fed
to the RF gain blocks to alter their bias,
thus altering their gain. Traditionally all
the gain-controlled stages came before
the signal detection, but it is also
possible to improve gain control by
adding a gain-controlled stage after
signal detection.

Example use cases

AM radio receivers

In 1925, Harold Alden Wheeler invented

automatic volume control (AVC) and
obtained a patent. Karl Küpfmüller
published an analysis of AGC systems
in 1928.[1] By the early 1930s most new
commercial broadcast receivers
included automatic volume control.[2]

AGC is a departure from linearity in AM

radio receivers.[3] Without AGC, an AM
radio would have a linear relationship
between the signal amplitude and the
sound waveform – the sound
amplitude, which correlates with
loudness, is proportional to the radio
signal amplitude, because the
information content of the signal is
carried by the changes of amplitude of
the carrier wave. If the circuit were not
fairly linear, the modulated signal could
not be recovered with reasonable
fidelity. However, the strength of the
signal received will vary widely,
depending on the power and distance
of the transmitter, and signal path
attenuation. The AGC circuit keeps the
receiver's output level from fluctuating
too much by detecting the overall
strength of the signal and
automatically adjusting the gain of the
receiver to maintain the output level
within an acceptable range. For a very
weak signal, the AGC operates the
receiver at maximum gain; as the signal
increases, the AGC reduces the gain.

It is usually disadvantageous to reduce

the gain of the RF front end of the
receiver on weaker signals as low gain
can worsen signal-to-noise ratio and
blocking;[4] therefore, many designs
reduce gain only for stronger signals.

Since the AM detector diode produces

a DC voltage proportional to signal
strength, this voltage can be fed back
to earlier stages of the receiver to
reduce gain. A filter network is required
so that the audio components of the
signal don't appreciably influence gain;
this prevents "modulation rise" which
increases the effective modulation
depth of the signal, distorting the
sound. Communications receivers may
have more complex AVC systems,
including extra amplification stages,
separate AGC detector diodes, different
time constants for broadcast and
shortwave bands, and application of
different levels of AGC voltage to
different stages of the receiver to
prevent distortion and cross-
modulation.[5] Design of the AVC
system has a great effect on the
usability of the receiver, tuning
characteristics, audio fidelity, and
behavior on overload and strong
signals.[6]

FM receivers, even though they

incorporate limiter stages and
detectors that are relatively insensitive
to amplitude variations, still benefit
from AGC to prevent overload on
strong signals.

Radar
A related application of AGC is in radar
systems, as a method of overcoming
unwanted clutter echoes. This method
relies on the fact that clutter returns far
outnumber echoes from targets of
interest. The receiver's gain is
automatically adjusted to maintain a
constant level of overall visible clutter.
While this does not help detect targets
masked by stronger surrounding
clutter, it does help to distinguish
strong target sources. In the past, radar
AGC was electronically controlled and
affected the gain of the entire radar
receiver. As radars evolved, AGC
became computer-software controlled,
and affected the gain with greater
granularity, in specific detection cells.
Many radar countermeasures use a
radar's AGC to fool it, by effectively
"drowning out" the real signal with the
spoof, as the AGC will regard the
weaker, true signal as clutter relative to
the strong spoof.

Audio/video

An audio tape generates a certain

amount of noise. If the level of the
signal on the tape is low, the noise is
more prominent, i.e., the signal-to-noise
ratio is lower than it could be. To
produce the least noisy recording, the
recording level should be set as high as
possible without being so high as to
clip or distort the signal. In professional
high-fidelity recording the level is set
manually using a peak-reading meter.
When high fidelity is not a requirement,
a suitable recording level can be set by
an AGC circuit which reduces the gain
as the average signal level increases.
This allows a usable recording to be
made even for speech some distance
from the microphone of an audio
recorder. Similar considerations apply
with VCRs.

A potential disadvantage of AGC is that

when recording something like music
with quiet and loud passages such as
classical music, the AGC will tend to
make the quiet passages louder and
the loud passages quieter,
compressing the dynamic range; the
result can be a reduced musical quality
if the signal is not re-expanded when
playing, as in a companding system.

Some reel-to-reel tape recorders and

cassette decks have AGC circuits.
Those used for high-fidelity generally
don't.

Most VCR circuits use the amplitude of

the vertical blanking pulse to operate
the AGC. Video copy control schemes
such as Macrovision exploit this,
inserting spikes in the pulse which will
be ignored by most television sets, but
cause a VCR's AGC to overcorrect and
corrupt the recording.

Vogad
A voice-operated gain-adjusting
device[7] or volume-operated gain-
adjusting device[8] (vogad) is a type of
AGC or compressor for microphone
amplification. It is usually used in radio
transmitters to prevent overmodulation
and to reduce the dynamic range of the
signal which allows increasing average
transmitted power. In telephony, this
device takes a wide variety of input
amplitudes and produces a generally
consistent output amplitude.

In its simplest form, a limiter can

consist of a pair of back-to-back clamp
diodes, which simply shunt excess
signal amplitude to ground when the
diode conduction threshold is
exceeded. This approach will simply
clip off the top of large signals, leading
to high levels of distortion.

While clipping limiters are often used

as a form of last-ditch protection
against overmodulation, a properly
designed vogad circuit actively controls
the amount of gain to optimise the
modulation depth in real time. As well
as preventing overmodulation, it boosts
the level of quiet signals so that
undermodulation is also avoided.
Undermodulation can lead to poor
signal penetration in noisy conditions,
consequently vogad is particularly
important for voice applications such
as radiotelephones.

A good vogad circuit must have a very

fast attack time, so that an initial loud
voice signal does not cause a sudden
burst of excessive modulation. In
practice the attack time will be a few
milliseconds, so a clipping limiter is still
sometimes needed to catch the signal
on these short peaks. A much longer
decay time is usually employed, so that
the gain does not get boosted too
quickly during the normal pauses in
natural speech. Too short a decay time
leads to the phenomenon of "breathing"
where the background noise level gets
boosted at each gap in the speech.
Vogad circuits are normally adjusted so
that at low levels of input the signal is
not fully boosted, but instead follow a
linear boost curve. This works well with
noise cancelling microphones.

Telephone recording
Devices to record both sides of a
telephone conversation must record
both the relatively large signal from the
local user and the much smaller signal
from the remote user at comparable
loudnesses. Some telephone recording
devices incorporate automatic gain
control to produce acceptable-quality
recordings.

Biological

As is the case with many concepts

found in engineering, automatic gain
control is also found in biological
systems, especially sensory systems.
For example, in the vertebrate visual
system, calcium dynamics in the retinal
photoreceptors adjust gain to suit light
levels. Further on in the visual system,
cells in V1 are thought to mutually
inhibit, causing normalization of
responses to contrast, a form of
automatic gain control. Similarly, in the
auditory system, the olivocochlear
efferent neurons are part of a
biomechanical gain control loop.[9][10]

Recovery times
Similar to all automatic control system
the time dynamics of AGC operation
may be important in many applications.
Some AGC systems are slow to react
to the need for gain changes, others
may react very rapidly. An example of
an application where fast AGC recovery
time is required is in receivers used in
Morse code communications where so-
called full break-in or QSK operation is
necessary to enable receiving stations
to interrupt sending stations mid-
character (e.g. between dot and dash
signals).
See also
Companding
Dynamic range compression
Gain compression
Squelch
Glossary of video terms

References
1. K. Küpfmüller, "Über die Dynamik der
selbsttätigen Verstärkungsregler",
Elektrische Nachrichtentechnik, vol. 5,
no. 11, pp. 459-467, 1928. (German) On
the dynamics of automatic gain
controllers , (English translation)
2. Memorial Tributes: National Academy
of Engineering, Volume 9 (2001) page
281 , retrieved 2009 Oct 23
3. F. Langford-Smith (ed.), Radiotron
Designer's Handbook 4th ed., RCA,
1953, chapter 27 section 3
4. Automatic gain control in receivers
by Iulian Rosu, VA3IUL
5. Langford-Smith 53, page 1108
6. Langford-Smith 53, chapter 25 page
1229
7. Vogad at Federal Standard 1037C
8. "Roar and Whisper Equalled by Radio
Voice Leveler" . Popular Mechanics:
236. Feb 1939.
9. D. O. Kim (1984). "Functional roles of
the inner-and outer-hair-cell subsystems
in the cochlea and brainstem". In C. I.
Berlin. Hearing science: Recent
advances (PDF). College Hill Press.
pp. 241–262.
10. R. F. Lyon (1990). "Automatic Gain
Control in Cochlear Mechanics". In P.
Dallos; et al. The Mechanics and
Biophysics of Hearing (PDF). Springer-
Verlag. pp. 395–402.

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