Receiver:

The A receivers job is to select radio frequency signals

form the medium in which it exists and convert the
information contained on these signals into a usable form
such as audible signals or visual signals.
A receiver must be able to select the desired frequency from
all those present and amplify it.
The receiver contains demodulator circuit to remove the
information from the RF signal.
If the demodulator is sensitive to amplitude changes it is used
in AM receivers, and called as detector.
A demodulator which is sensitive to frequency modulation is
used for FM reception and is known as a discriminator.

Functions of Receiver :

Functionally the receiver must perform the following

tasks:

Transduction and matching (antenna, matching network)

Selection of desired signals
Rejection of undesired signals
Amplification by very large factors
Demodulation
Error detection and correction (digital)
Received information conditioning and reproduction of
output

Receiver Specifications
Parameters that determine the ability of a
receiver to successfully demodulate signal :

Sensitivity
Selectivity
Fidelity

Receiver Specifications

Sensitivity

Sensitivity is a minimum input signal that will produce a

specified signal to noise ratio (SNR).

Sensitivity refers to the weakest signal that can be

received and still produce an acceptable out.

The sensitivity of any receiver is an indication of how well it can

measure small signals.
Sensitivity can be specified as a minimum voltage (V) or as a
power level (dBm).

Receiver Specifications

Selectivity

Selectivity specifies a receivers ability to discriminate

against adjacent channel signals.

Receiver Specifications

Selectivity

The better the ability of the receiver to reject unwanted

signals, the better its selectivity.
The degree of selection is determined by the sharpness of
resonance to which the frequency- determining circuits
have been tuned.

Receiver Specifications

Fidelity

The fidelity of a receiver is its ability to accurately reproduce,

in its output, the signal that appears at its input.
The broader the band passed by frequency selection circuits,
the greater your fidelity.

Good selectivity requires that a receiver pass a narrow

frequency band. Good fidelity requires that the receiver pass
a broader band to amplify the outermost frequencies of the
sidebands.

Receivers you find in general use are a compromise between

good selectivity and high fidelity.

Superheterodyne receivers

A superheterodyne receiver converts all incoming radio

frequency (RF) signals to a lower frequency known as an
intermediate frequency (IF).

Superheterodyne Receiver

Heterodyning

The inputs to the mixer are the radio signal fs and a sine wave
from a local oscillator fo.
The mixer output consists of four signals:

This function is called heterodyning.

Mixing principles

The output of the mixer is filtered to eliminate everything but

the IF signal.

Tuning a Superhet receiver

In a TRF receiver, a station is tuned by adjusting

the resonant frequency of a filter.
In a superhet receiver, a station is tuned by
changing the frequency of the receivers local
oscillator fo.

The oscillator is set such that fo - fs = fIF

fIF is a fixed value (typically 455-kHz for AM radio).

Image frequency

The mixing process creates sum and difference frequencies

for the desired signal (680 kHz).

It also creates sum and difference frequencies for the

undesired signal (1590 kHz).
The problem arises because the difference frequencies are
the same (both 455 kHz)

1135 680 = 455 kHz

1590 1135 = 455 kHz

Image frequency

Which image that occurs depends upon whether the local

oscillator frequency fo is above or below the signal
frequency.

Once the image signal is mixed down to the IF, there is no

way to separate the desired signal from the undesired.

Image Frequencies

Image frequency Rejection

The rejection of an image frequency by a single tuned

i.e. the ratio of the gain at signal frequency to the gain at
image frequency :

IFRR ( ) = 1 + Q 2 2
where

fi
fs

=
fs
fi

Image rejection depends on the front end selectivity of

the receiver and must be achieved before IF stage.

Image frequency Rejection

In order to prevent interference, we need to prevent the

image frequency from appearing at the mixer.
This is accomplished by the use of Bandpass filter
associated with the initial RF amplifier sometimes
called a preselector.

Preselector

Preselector

Preselector operation

Mixer and IF filter operation