PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

AMPLITUDE

MODULATION

CHAPTER 3 Objectives

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

■ The concept of modulation
■ Calculate the modulation index and percentage of modulation of
an AM signal, given the amplitudes of the carrier and modulating
signals.
 1
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Amplitude Modulation

In Chapter 1 and 2 we saw that modulation is necessary in order to transmit

intelligence over a radio channel.

A radio-frequency signal can be modulated by either analog or digital information.

In either case, the information signal must change one or more of three parameters:
amplitude, frequency, and phase.

In the modulation process, the baseband voice, video, or digital signal modifies
another, higher-frequency signal called the carrier, which is usually a sine wave.

A sine wave carrier can be modified by the intelligence signal through amplitude
modulation, frequency modulation, or phase modulation. The focus of this chapter is
amplitude modulation (AM).

Amplitude Modulation History

The first amplitude modulated signal was transmitted in 1901 by a Canadian

engineer named Reginald Fessenden. He took a continuous spark transmission and
placed a carbon microphone in the antenna lead.
 The sound waves impacting on the microphone varied its resistance and in turn
this varied the intensity of the transmission. Although very crude, signals were audible
over a distance of a few hundred meters, although there was a rasping sound caused by
the spark.

With the introduction of continuous sine wave signals, transmissions improved

significantly, and AM soon became the standard for voice transmissions. Nowadays,
amplitude modulation, AM is used for audio broadcasting on the long medium and short
wave bands, and for two way radio communication at VHF for aircraft.

However as there now are more efficient and convenient methods of modulating
a signal, its use is declining, although it will still be very many years before it is no
longer used.

2
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Amplitude Modulation Concept

As the name suggests, in AM, the information signal varies the amplitude of the
carrier sine wave. The instantaneous value of the carrier amplitude changes in
accordance with the amplitude and frequency variations of the modulating signal

Fig. 3-1 shows a single frequency sine wave intelligence signal modulating a
higher-frequency carrier. The carrier frequency remains constant during the modulation
process, but its amplitude varies in accordance with the modulating signal. An increase
in the amplitude of the modulating signal causes the amplitude of the carrier to increase.
Both the positive and the negative peaks of the carrier wave vary with the modulating
signal. An increase or a decrease in the amplitude of the modulating signal causes a
corresponding increase or decrease in both the positive and the negative peaks of the
carrier amplitude.

ENVELOPE: An imaginary line connecting the positive peaks and negative peaks of the
carrier waveform (the dashed line in Fig. 3-1) gives the exact shape of the modulating
information signal.
 The signals illustrated in Figs. 3-1 and 3-2 shows the variation of the carrier
amplitude with respect to time and are said to be in the time domain. Time-domain
signals— voltage or current variations that occur over time—are displayed on the screen
of an oscilloscope.

Using trigonometric functions, we can express the sine wave carrier with the
simple expression

Sine Wave Carrier

In this expression,

VC = instantaneous value of the carrier sine wave voltage at some specific time in the
cycle;

Vc = the peak value of the constant unmodulated carrier sine wave as measured
between zero and the maximum amplitude of either the positive-going or the
negative-going alternations (Fig. 3-1).

3
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

fc = the frequency of the carrier sine wave; and t is a particular point in time during the
carrier cycle.

A sine wave modulating signal can be expressed with a similar

formula.
4
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
 In Fig. 3-1, the modulating signal uses the peak value of the carrier rather than
zero as its reference point. The envelope of the modulating signal varies above and
below the peak carrier amplitude. That is, the zero reference line of the modulating
signal coincides with the peak value of the unmodulated carrier. Because of this, the
relative amplitudes of the carrier and modulating signal are important. In general, the
amplitude of the modulating signal should be less than the amplitude of the carrier.
When the amplitude of the modulating signal is greater than the amplitude of the
carrier, distortion will occur, causing incorrect information to be transmitted. In
amplitude modulation, it is particularly important that the peak value of the modulating
signal be less than the peak value of the carrier.

Mathematicaly…

Values for the carrier signal and the modulating signal can be used in a formula to
express the complete modulated wave. First, keep in mind that the peak value of the
carrier is the reference point for the modulating signal; the value of the modulating signal

5
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
is added to or subtracted from the peak value of the carrier. The instantaneous value of
either the top or the bottom voltage envelope can be computed by using the
equation

Which expresses the fact that the instantaneous value of the modulating signal
algebraically adds to the peak value of the carrier? Thus, we can write the instantaneous
value of the complete modulated wave by substituting for the peak value of
carrier voltage Vc as follows:

Now substituting the previously derived expression for v1 and expanding, we get
the following:

Where:

= the instantaneous value of the AM wave

= the carrier waveform

= the carrier waveform multiplied by the modulating signal

waveform

GOOD
TO
KNOW

• In this text, radian measure will be used for all angles unless otherwise
indicated. One radian is approximately 57.3°.
• If the amplitude of the modulating signal is greater than the amplitude of the
carrier, distortion will occur

It is the second part of the expression that is characteristic of AM. A circuit must
be able to produce mathematical multiplication of the carrier and modulating signals in
order for AM to occur. The AM wave is the product of the carrier and modulating signals

Modulator: The circuit used for producing AM.

 6
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Its two inputs, the carrier and the modulating signal, and the resulting outputs are
shown in Fig. 3-3. Amplitude modulators compute the product of the carrier and
modulating signals. Circuits that compute the product of two analog signals are also
known as analog multipliers, mixers, converters, product detectors, and phase detectors.

Modulator: a circuit that changes a lower-frequency baseband or intelligence signal to a

higher-frequency signal.

A circuit used to recover the original intelligence signal from an AM wave is known as a
detector or demodulator.

Modulation Index and Percentage of Modulation

As stated previously, for undistorted AM to occur, the modulating signal voltage

Vm must be less than the carrier voltage Vc. Therefore, the relationship between the
amplitude of the modulating signal and the amplitude of the carrier signal is important.
This relationship, known as the modulation index m (also called the modulating factor
or coefficient, or the degree of modulation), is the ratio

These are the peak values of the signals, and the carrier voltage is the
unmodulated value. Multiplying the modulation index by 100 gives the percentage of
modulation. For example, if the carrier voltage is 9 V and the modulating signal voltage
is 7.5 V, the modulation factor is 0.8333 and the percentage of modulation is 0.833 3
100 5 83.33.
 7
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Over modulation and Distortion

The modulation index should be a number between 0 and 1. If the amplitude of

the modulating voltage is higher than the carrier voltage, m will be greater than 1,
causing distortion of the modulated waveform.

If the distortion is great enough, the intelligence signal becomes unintelligible.

Distortion of voice transmissions produces garbled, harsh, or unnatural sounds in the
speaker. Distortion of video signals produces a scrambled and inaccurate picture on a
TV screen.

Simple distortion is illustrated in Fig. 3-4.

Over modulation is a condition where sine wave information signals is modulating

a sine wave carrier, but the modulating voltage is much greater than the carrier voltage.

As you can see, the waveform is flattened at the zero line. The received signal
will produce an output waveform in the shape of the envelope, which in this case is a
sine wave whose negative peaks have been clipped off. If the amplitude of the
modulating signal is less than the carrier amplitude, no distortion will occur. The ideal
condition for AM is when V m 5 Vc, or m 5 1, which gives 100 percent modulation. This
results in the greatest output power at the transmitter and the greatest output voltage at
the receiver, with no distortion.

Preventing over modulation is tricky. For example, at different times during voice
transmission voices will go from low amplitude to high amplitude. Normally, the
amplitude of the modulating signal is adjusted so that only the voice peaks produce 100
percent modulation. This prevents over modulation and distortion. Automatic circuits
called

8
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

compression circuits solve this problem by amplifying the lower-level signals and
suppressing or compressing the higher-level signals. The result is a higher average
power output level without over modulation. Distortion caused by over modulation also
produces adjacent channel interference. Distortion produces a non-sinusoidal
information signal. According to Fourier theory, any non-sinusoidal signal can be treated
as a fundamental sine wave at the frequency of the information signal

GOOD
TO KNOW

plus harmonics. Obviously, these harmonics also modulate the carrier and can cause •
Distortion caused by over modulation also produces adjacent channel interference with
other signals on channels adjacent to the carrier.
interference.

Percentage of Modulation

The modulation index can be determined by measuring the actual values of the
modulation voltage and the carrier voltage and computing the ratio. However, it is more
common to compute the modulation
index from measurements taken on the composite modulated wave itself. When the AM

9
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

signal is displayed on an oscilloscope, the modulation index can be computed from Vmax
and Vmin, as shown in Fig. 3-5. The peak value of the modulating signal Vm is one-half
the difference of the peak and trough values:

As shown in Fig. 3-5, Vmax is the peak value of the signal during modulation, and
Vmin is the lowest value, or trough, of the modulated wave. The Vmax is one-half the
peak to-peak value of the AM signal, or V max(p2p)/2. Subtracting Vmin from Vmax produces
the peak-to-peak value of the modulating signal. One-half of that, of course, is simply
the peak value.

The peak value of the carrier signal Vc is the average of the Vmax and Vmin values:
 The values for Vmax( p-p) and Vmin( p-p) can be read directly from an oscilloscope
screen and plugged directly into the formula to compute the modulation index.

The amount, or depth, of AM is more commonly expressed as the percentage of

modulation rather than as a fractional value. In Example 3-1, the percentage of
modulation is 100 x m, or 66.2 percent. The maximum amount of modulation without
signal distortion, of course, is 100 percent, where Vc and Vm are equal. At this time, Vmin
=0 and Vmax = 2Vm, where Vm is the peak value of the modulating signal.

10
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
Amplitude modulation applications

Amplitude modulation is used in a variety of applications. Even though it is not as widely

used as it was in previous years in its basic format it can nevertheless still be found.

• Broadcast transmissions: AM is still widely used for broadcasting on the long,

medium and short wave bands. It 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.
• 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.

11
PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
These form some of the main uses of amplitude modulation. However in its basic form,
this form of modulation is being used less as a result of its inefficient use of both
spectrum and power.

Advantages & disadvantages of amplitude modulation, AM

As with any technology there are advantages and disadvantages to be considered. The
summary below gives a highlight of the basic pros and cons.

Advantages
• It is simple to implement
• it can be demodulated using a circuit consisting of very few components •
AM receivers are very cheap as no specialized components are needed.
Disadvantages
• It is not efficient in terms of its power usage
• It is not efficient in terms of its use of bandwidth, requiring a bandwidth equal to twice
that of the highest audio frequency
• It is prone to high levels of noise because most noise is amplitude based and obviously
AM detectors are sensitive to it.
Although in the current technological climate, AM in its basic form is not nearly as
effective as other modes that can be used, it is still retained in many areas like
broadcasting, because of the number of users. However, it is likely that with time, its
use will decrease still further and ultimately many AM transmissions will cease.
However, its derivatives like quadrature amplitude modulation are widely used as they
offer a very effective form of modulation, especially for data transmission.

12
 PRINCIPLE OF COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Video Tutorial Link:

Understanding Amplitude Modulation
■ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I46eP8uZh_Y

Reference:
■ Principles of Electronic Communications Systems
4th Edition by Louis E. Frenzel Jr.
13