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Amplitude Modulation
In amplitude modulation, the amplitude of the carrier is varied in accordance with the instantaneous amplitude of the message signal. The carrier signal is a high frequency signal. In the process of modulation, the amplitude of the carrier is varied and the variations are proportional to the amplitude of the message signal, ie. whenever the modulating signal reaches maximum amplitude, the amplitude of the carrier is also made higher and whenever the message signal reaches minimum amplitude, the amplitude of the carrier is also minimum.

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Modulation Index In amplitude modulation, we define a parameter called as modulation index which is a measure of depth of modulation. Modulation index may be defined as the ratio of modulating signal amplitude to carrier signal amplitude.

m a= Vm / VC
ma = modulation index,Vm = modulating signal amplitude Vc = carrier signal amplitude. The value of modulation index normally varies between 0 and 1. i.e. 0< m a < 1. Where,

AM Wave Equation Mathematically we can represent a AM wave by means of the following equations. Let modulating signal Vm (t) = Vmsin m t . Carrier signal Vc(t) = VC sin c t. V(t)=Vc sin c t+ maVC/2[COS (c - m )t+cos (c + m )t] The AM wave basically consists of three terms. The first term is the unmodulated carrier term. The second term is called as lower sideband and the third term is called as upper sideband term. In the above equation ma represents modulation index. The percentage modulation of a modulated carrier is determined by dividing the change in amplitude by the amplitude of the unmodulated carrier, multiplied by 100 Ie, % modulation = Vm / VC x 100 Modulation index may also be defined in terms of the values referred to the modulated carrier wave and is given as
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Where Vmax and Vmin are the maximum and minimum values of the amplitude of the modulated carrier wave. Ma= (V max Vmin) / (V max + Vmin)

Power Relations in Amplitude Modulated Wave.

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It is obvious that the carrier component of the amplitude modulated wave has the same amplitude as the unmodulated carrier. However, two sideband components are also present in the modulated wave. Thus the modulated wave has more power than that had by the carrier wave before modulation. Now total power in the modulated wave is given as

Ptotal = Pcarrier + PLSB + PUSB

Limitations of Amplitude Modulation.

Amplitude modulation suffers from the following drawbacks:

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Low Efficiency. In amplitude modulation, the useful power that lies in the sidebands is quite small, so the efficiency of AM system is low. Limited Operating Range. Transmitters employing amplitude modulation have small operating range. This is due to low efficiency. Hence information cannot be transmitted over long distances. Noisy Reception. Incase of AM, the reception is generally noisy. This is because a radio- receiver cannot distinguish between the amplitude variations that represent noise and those contain the desired signal. Poor Audio Quality. In order to attain high fidelity reception, all audiofrequencies up to 15 kHz must be reproduced and this necessitates the bandwidth of 30 kHz while the AM broadcasting stations are assigned bandwidth of only 10 kHz to minimize the interference from the adjacent broadcasting stations. Therefore in AM-broadcasting stations audio quality is usually poor.