University of San Carlos

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Name: Neil John Perez
Date Submitted: January 15, 2015
Subject:EE423NL
Remarks:
Schedule: 10:30-1:30/Thu
Experiment#3-Mixing and Amplitude Modulation Principle
Experiment#4-DSB and Balance Modulation
People normally brand amplitude modulation or AM as a station in the radio where they
will listen to their morning news and radio dramas but actually there is still more to it. Amplitude
modulation, as what is understood, is a process where an input sinusoid signal of a higher
frequency, called as carrier, is combined with another input sinusoid signal with a lower
frequency, called as message or modulating signal. The output of an amplitude modulated
signal appears where the carrier signal follows or rides the waveform of the message signal.
The principle of amplitude modulation can be traced back to the basic process of
mixing. In communications, mixing is a process of combining one signal to another signal like
the carrier wave and the message wave in amplitude modulation. Mixing can be additive or
multiplicative. Simply put, additive mixing simply adds the two signals while the multiplicative
mixing takes the product of the two signals. In the experiment, additive mixing was performed in
the form of the diode modulator. An input signal of higher frequency, the carrier, is applied to one
end of the diode-resistor network while another input signal, the message, was applied to
another end. The two signals are then additively mixed and then the diode will rectify the mixed
signal only in its positive half. In order to produce the negative half of the mixed signal, an LCoscillator or a tank circuit is connected in parallel with the output resistor. The expected output
signal should look like a sine wave that appears to be riding a sinusoid path because the two
signals were added. The output signal that was actually recorded in the manual looks like a
stabilized signal probably because the carrier wave frequency is still small in order to see a
noticeable change in the combined waveform or another possibility is that the cycles seen in the
oscilloscope is not enough to see noticeable change.
Next to be studied was the series modulator. Series modulator is another type of
modulator where two transistor networks are connected in series. In the experiment, one
transistor network is inputted with the carrier and another transistor network is connected with
the message. When the circuit was energized, it releases an output signal where the carrier
signals amplitude follows the waveform of the message signal as if the message signal is
enveloping the carrier signal which is the same as what is expected. When the amplitude of the
message was decreased, the percent modulation also decreases. It was then noticed that the
carrier eventually reverts back to its original form. When the amplitude of the message was
increased, the percent modulation then increases thus the groove on our output signal only
approaches to zero. When the groove reaches to zero, it means that the percent modulation has
reached 100%, this phenomenon is called overmodulation. Overmodulation is usually avoided
because it will cause a standard AM to fail which will result to a clipping or distortion in the
modulation. In the experiment, the % modulation didnt reach 100% because of the presence of
the tank circuit so removing the tank circuit would result to the signal to be clipped (distorted).
The advantage of the series modulator is that series modulators produces high-level modulation
without using the cumbersome and expensive modulation transformer. Another advantage is
that series modulators make use of capacitor coupling rather than transformer coupling which
will result to a lesser distortion in the output.

A ring modulator would look like this:

The carrier, which alternates between positive and negative current, at any given time, makes
one pair of diodes conduct, and reverse-biases the other pair. The conducting pair carry the
signal from the left transformer secondary to the primary of the transformer at the right. If the left
carrier terminal is positive, the top and bottom diodes conduct. If that terminal is negative, then
the "side" diodes conduct, but create a polarity inversion between the transformers.
Plate modulators, on the other hand, look like this:

The rf power amplifier (V1) acts as a class C amplifier when no modulation is present in
the plate circuit. V2 is the modulator which transfers the modulating voltage to the plate circuit of
V1. The incoming rf carrier is applied to the grid of V1 by transformer T1 and causes the plate

circuit current to PULSE (SURGE). Each time the grid is driven positive. These rf pulses are
referred to as current pulses .The plate tank output circuit (T3) is shocked into oscillation by
these current pulses and the rf output waveform shown in view (E) is developed. An audiomodulating voltage applied to the grid of V2 is amplified by the modulator and coupled tothe
plate of V1 by modulation transformer T2. The secondary of T2 is in series with the plate-supply
voltage (E) of V1. The modulating voltage will either add to or subtract from the plate voltage of
V1. On advantage is that it allows antennas and equipment of practical sizes to be used
totransmit the intelligence. Another advantage is that all of the power orvoltage that contains the
intelligence must come from the modulator stage. This is why plate modulationis called highlevel modulation.
Grid modulators look like this:

The control-grid modulator uses a variation of grid bias (at the frequency of the
modulating signal)to vary the instantaneous plate voltage and current. These variations cause
modulation of the carrier frequency. The carrier frequency is introduced through coupling
capacitor Cc. The modulating frequency is introduced in series with the grid bias through T1. As
the modulating signal increases and decreases(positive and negative), it will add to or subtract
from the bias on rf amplifier V1. This change in bias causes a corresponding change in plate
voltage and current. These changes in plate voltage and current add vectorially to the carrier
frequency and provide a modulation envelope in the same fashion as does the plate
modulator. The disadvantage of this is that grid modulation is less efficient, produces more
distortion, and requires the rf power amplifier to supply all the power in the output signal. Grid
modulation has the advantage of not requiring much power from the modulator.