PRINCIPLES OF

COMMUNICATIONS
 Block Diagram of Communication System
Receiver
➢ a collection of electronic components and
circuits that accept the transmitted message
from the channel and convert it back into a
form understandable by humans.
➢ is made up of amplifiers, oscillators, mixers,
tuned circuits and filter, and a demodulator
that recovers the original intelligence signal
from the modulated carrier.
➢ it performs decoding and demodulation.
 Process in a receiver

1. Signal received at the antenna is very low, need to

amplify (LNA) and tuned to desired frequency to
avoid interference.
2. Detector finds the information signal from the RF
signal.
3. Further amplification needed to give it enough
power to drive a loudspeaker.
 Parameters used to evaluate the ability of a
receiver to successfully demodulate radio
signal:
1. Selectivity
2. Sensitivity
3. Bandwidth Improvement Factor
4. Dynamic Range
5. Fidelity
6. Insertion Loss
 Selectivity
➢ refers to the ability of a receiver to accept a given band of
frequency and reject all others.
➢ is obtained using tuned circuits or filters.
➢ the higher the Q the narrower the BW and the better the
selectivity.
➢ Selectivity Q, is given by
𝑿𝑳
𝑸=
𝑹
Where:
Q= Quality Factor
𝑋𝐿 = inductive reactance at resonance
R= total winding reactance of the inductor
 Thebandwidth curve from the tuned
circuit is:
𝒇𝒓
BW=
𝑸
Where:
BW = tuned circuit bandwidth
Q = quality factor
𝒇𝒓 =resonant frequency
𝟏
𝒇𝒓 =
𝟐𝝅 𝑳𝑪
Example:
High-Q tuned circuit is used to keep the BW
narrow to ensure that only the desired signal is
passed. Assumed that 10𝜇H coil with resistance
of 20Ω is connected in parallel with 101.4pF
variable capacitor.
a. What is the resonant frequency?
b. What is the inductive reactance?
c. What is the selectivity of the circuit?
d. What is the BW of the tuned circuit?
e. Find the upper and lower cutoff frequencies?
Sensitivity
➢also called receiver threshold
➢the minimum RF signal that can be detected
at the input of a receiver and still produce a
usable demodulated information signal.
➢Depends on the noise power present at the
input of the receiver, the receiver’s noise
figure, sensitivity of the detector and the
bandwidth improvement factor of the
receiver.
Bandwidth Improvement Factor
➢The noise reduction ratio achieved by
reducing the bandwidth.
➢Bandwidth improvement expressed
mathematically as:
𝑩𝑹𝑭
BI=
𝑩𝑰𝑭
➢Noise figure improvement expressed as:
𝑵𝑭𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 = 𝟏𝟎𝒍𝒐𝒈𝑩𝑰
Dynamic Range
➢The difference in decibels between the
minimum input level necessary to discern a
signal and the input level that will overdrive
the receiver and produce distortion.
➢Minimum receive level is a function of the
front-end noise, noise figure and the desired
signal quality.
➢Input that produce distortion is a function of
the net gain of the receiver.
➢1 dB compression point is used for the upper
limit for usefulness.
Fidelity
➢A measure of the ability of the receiver
to produce, at the output of the receiver,
an exact replica of the original source
information.
➢Any amplitude, frequency or phase
variations present in the demodulated
waveform that are not included in the
original signal are consider as
distortion.
Insertion Loss
➢The ratio of power transferred to a
load with a filter in the circuit to the
power transferred to the load
without a filter.
➢The loss occur when a signal enter
the input of the receiver.
Standard AM Receivers:

a. Tuned-Radio Frequency
Receiver
b. Superheterodyne Receiver
A. Tuned-Radio Frequency Receiver (TRF)
➢It is the earliest and simplest receiver design
➢Consist of RF amplifier stages, detector and
audio amplifier stages
➢The received signal is tuned by LC circuit to a
passband centered at carrier frequency.
➢Selectivity pas only the desired signal, others
are rejected.
➢The tuned signal is boost up by an amplifier for
better info. detection.
➢Signal info detection is made at the demodulator
and after further amplified for the speaker
output.
 The
earliest and simplest TRF
Receiver design:
 Block diagram of a TRF Receiver:
RF Amplifier
➢Filter and amplify the received signal to a
level sufficient to drive the detector stage.
Detector
➢Converts RF signals directly into
information signal.
AF Amplifier
➢Amplify the power level of the audio
signal.
Disadvantages of TRF Receiver:
➢Inconsistent bandwidth
➢Instability due to the large number of
RF amplifier
➢Gains are not uniform over a wide
range of frequency.
B. Superheterodyne Receiver
➢was designed to overcome the problems in
TRF.
➢Complex circuitry compared to TRF but
excellent performance under many
conditions.
➢Receiver tunes to desired signal and converts
the signal to intermediate frequency via a
signal mixing circuit.
➢Then IF signal is optimized to fully recover the
modulated information signal.
 Block diagram of a Superheterodyne Receiver:
 Stages in Superheterodyne Receiver
1. RF Stage
➢Takes the weak signal from the antenna and
amplifies it to a level large enough to be used in
the following stages
➢Provide some initial gain and selectivity
➢Sometimes referred to as preselector
2. Mixer and Local Oscillator Stage
➢The mixer converts the RF signal to IF signal
➢Mixer may be a diode, a balanced modulator, or
a transistor.
Concept of a mixer
Concept of a mixer:
➢Output of mixer is an infinite number of
harmonic and cross product of
frequencies.
➢LO is designed so that its frequency is
always above or below the desired RF
carrier by an amount equal to If center
frequency.
 Stages in Superheterodyne Receiver

3. IF Stage
➢Further amplifies the signal and has
bandwidth and passband shaping appropriate
for the received signal.
Intermediate Frequency:
➢Sum or difference in the output of a mixer that
enters the IF stage.
Intermediate Frequency:
➢Provide most gain and selectivity.
Image Frequency and Rejection:
➢It is formed after the mixer circuitry
➢Represented in two form: HIGH side injection
and LOW side injection.
➢The image has an equal distance form the LO
frequency on the other side of it from the
signal.
➢It must be rejected prior to mixing, because
it’s indistinguishable and impossible to filter
out.
Image Frequency

High Side Low Side

Image Frequency and Rejection:
➢The numerical measure of the ability of the
preselector to reject the image frequency.

𝑰𝑭𝑹𝑹 = 𝟏 + (𝑸𝝆)𝟐

𝒇𝒊𝒎 𝒇𝑹𝑭
𝝆= −
𝒇𝑹𝑭 𝒇𝒊𝒎
Where:
Q = quality factor of the tuned circuit
Example:

Determine the image frequency for a

standard broadcast band receiver
using 455-kHz IF and tuned to station
at 620 kHz.
 Stages in Superheterodyne Receiver
3. Detector Stage
➢Recovers (demodulates) the information signal
from the carrier.
➢Eg: diode detector
4. Audio Amplifier
➢Amplify the detected audio signal to be passed
to the user
5. Automatic Gain Control
➢Helps maintain a constant output voltage level
over a wide range of RF input signal levels.
Superheterodyne Receiver with AGC