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ES440. Lab 4
Amplitude Modulation and Demodulation
I. Objective
1. Build simple AM modulator by using Crystal Oscillator.
2. Build simple envelope detector for AM demodulation.
II. Introduction
For AM signals, the information is carried by the amplitude (or envelope) of the
signal. There are many ways to detect the envelope of AM signals. Here we will
consider the simplest, used by most portable radios, the envelope detector, as shown
in Fig. 1.
Tc Tm
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ES440 Lab#4
Whenever the amplitude of the AM signal starts to drop, the capacitor will discharge
through the resistor. Denote the maximum amplitude of the AM signal as V p , then
the capacitor discharge will follow the following equation
V p' = Vp exp( −t / τ )
where τ = RC is the time constant of the RC circuits.
It can be seen from Fig. 2 that, in order to minimize the ripple effect at high voltage,
we should have τ >> Tc , where Tc is the period of the carrier. On the other hand, in
order to minimize the negative peak clipping, we wish the voltage drops as fast as
possible, thus τ << Tm , where Tm is the period of the modulating signal (envelope).
Based on the discussion above, the value of R and C should be chosen such that
Tc << RC << Tm .
III. Pre-lab
1. Consider an AM signal s( t ) = Ac [1 + m( t ) ]cos( 2πf ct ) with amplitude Ac = 3V and
carrier frequency f c = 1 KHz. The modulation signal (envelope) is
m(t ) = 0.5 cos( 2πf mt ) with modulating frequency f m = 10 Hz.
(a) Find out Tc and Tm .
(b) An envelope detector with time constant τ = 10 ms is used for demodulation.
Will this envelope detector successfully perform demodulation? If the
capacitor is 10 µF , calculate the value of the resistor.
IV. Procedures
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ES440 Lab#4
7. Set f m = 10 Hz and f c = 1 00Hz. What do you observe and why? Capture the
display.
1. Build the circuit as shown in Fig. 2 with the audio transformer and 1MHz crystal
oscillator. (IMPORTANT: A voltage higher than 9V will destroy the crystal
oscillator).
2. Connect the mono-plug or stero-plug to a music player or computer, and play
music.
3. Tune the AM radio to 1MHz. Adjust the volume until you have clear reception of
the music.
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