Chapter 3: Angle (Exponential) Modulation

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Chapter Outline
 Angle Modulation, Definition
 Properties of Angle-Modulated Waves
 Differences between Angle modulation Amplitude modulation
 Power of an Angle Modulated Wave
 Single-Tone Frequency Modulation
 Frequency Domain Representation of Narrow Band FM signal
 Frequency Domain Representation of Wide Band FM signal
 Bandwidth of an Angle Modulated Wave
 Generation of FM Waves
 Advantages of FM over AM

Sem. II, 2018 2

Angle Modulation, Definition
 Angle Modulation is a method of modulation in which either Frequency or Phase
of the carrier wave is varied according to the message signal.
 In general form, an angle modulated signal can represented as

 Where 𝐴𝑐 is the amplitude of the carrier wave and 𝜃(𝑡) is the angle of the
modulated carrier and also the function of the message signal.
 The instantaneous frequency of the angle modulated signal, s(t) is given by

 An un-modulated carrier has the angle θ(t) defined as

 The angle modulated signal has the angle, θ(t) defined by

Sem. II, 2018 3

Angle Modulation, Definition
There are two commonly used methods of angle modulation:
1. Frequency Modulation, and
2. Phase Modulation.
 Frequency Modulation
 The frequency of the carrier changes continuously in accordance with the instantaneous
amplitude of the message signal
 A process where the frequency of the carrier wave varies with the magnitude variations of
the modulating or audio signal.
 Phase Modulation
 A process where the phase of the carrier wave varies with the magnitude variations of the
modulating or audio signal

Sem. II, 2018 4

 Angle Modulation, Definition

 Let θ𝑖 (𝑡) denote the angle of a modulated sinusoidal carrier at time t; it is

assumed to be a function of the information-bearing signal or message signal.
We express the resulting angle-modulated wave 𝑠(𝑡) as

 Phase modulation (PM) is that form of angle modulation in which the

instantaneous angle θ𝑖 (𝑡) is varied linearly with the message signal 𝑚(𝑡) as
shown by
 Where the constant 𝑘𝑝 represents the phase sensitivity factor of the modulator
 the phase-modulated wave is 𝑠(𝑡) correspondingly described in the time domain
by

Sem. II, 2018 5

Angle Modulation, Definition
 Frequency modulation (FM) is that form of angle modulation in which the
instantaneous frequency 𝑓𝑖 (𝑡) is varied linearly with the message signal 𝑚(𝑡) as
shown by

 Where the constant 𝑘𝑓 represents the frequency sensitivity factor of the modulator
 The frequency-modulated wave is

Sem. II, 2018 6

Angle Modulation, Definition

PM and FM Waveforms with a message

AM,FM and PM Waveforms with a message signal
signal

Sem. II, 2018 7

Summary of Basic Definitions in Angle Modulation

Sem. II, 2018 8

Properties of Angle-Modulated Waves
 Constancy of transmitted power
 Nonlinearity of the modulation process
 Irregularity of zero-crossings
 Visualization difficulty of message waveform
 Tradeoff of increased transmission bandwidth for improved noise
performance

Sem. II, 2018 9

Relationship Between PM and FM Waves

 an FM wave can be generated by first

integrating the message signal m(t)
with respect to time t and then using
the resulting signal as the input to a
phase modulator

 a PM wave can be generated by first

differentiating m(t) with respect to
time t and then using the resulting
signal as the input to a frequency
modulator

Sem. II, 2018 10

Difference between Angle modulation Amplitude modulation
 transmission bandwidth is usually much greater than twice the message
bandwidth.
 Compensating for the bandwidth liability is the fact that exponential modulation can provide
increased signal-to-noise ratios without increased transmitted
power.
 Exponential modulation thus allows you to trade bandwidth for power in the design of a
communication system.
 unlike linear modulation, in which the message information resides in the
signal’s amplitude,
 with angle modulation, the message information resides where the signal crosses the time axis or
the zero crossings.
 the zero crossings of an exponentially modulated wave are not periodic
 The message resides in the zero crossings alone, providing the carrier frequency is large.
 The modulated wave does not resemble the message waveform.
 The amplitude of an angle-modulated wave is constant, Immunity to noise
Sem. II, 2018 11
Power of an Angle Modulated Wave
 The phase and frequency of angle modulated wave vary with time but the
amplitude remains constant, which is 𝐴𝑐
 Hence, Regardless of the message signal, the average transmitted power is
1
𝐴𝑐 2
2

Sem. II, 2018 12

Frequency Deviation and Modulation Index
 The maximum deviation in instantaneous frequency due to a message m(t) is
given by

 For a sinusoidal modulating wave defined by

Sem. II, 2018 13

Modulation Index and Sidebands

 The ratio of the frequency deviation to the modulating frequency is known as the
modulation index (β).
 In most communication systems using FM, maximum limits are put on both the
frequency deviation and the modulating frequency.
 In standard FM broadcasting, the maximum permitted frequency deviation is 75
kHz and the maximum permitted modulating frequency is 15 kHz.
 The modulation index for standard FM broadcasting is therefore 5.
 The value of modulation index determines the number of sidebands having
significant power

Sem. II, 2018 14

Example 1
 What is the deviation ratio of TV sound if the maximum deviation is 25 kHz and
the maximum modulating frequency is 15 kHz?
 Solution: deviation ratio =Δ𝑓 /𝑓𝑚=25/15

Sem. II, 2018 15

Example 2
 A sinusoidal wave of amplitude 10𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑠 and frequency of 1 𝑘𝐻𝑧 is applied to an
FM generator that has a frequency sensitivity constant of 40 𝐻𝑧/𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡. Determine
the frequency deviation and modulating index.

Sem. II, 2018 16

Example 3
 A modulating signal 𝑚(𝑡) = 10 𝑐𝑜𝑠(10000𝜋𝑡) modulates a carrier signal, Ac
c𝑜𝑠(2 𝜋 𝑓𝑐 𝑡). Find the frequency deviation and modulation index of the resulting
FM signal. Use 𝑘𝑓 = 5𝑘𝐻𝑧/𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡.

Sem. II, 2018 17

Exercise
1. A sinusoidal modulating waveform of amplitude 5 V and a frequency of 2 KHz
is applied to FM generator, which has a frequency sensitivity of 40 Hz/volt.
Calculate the frequency deviation, modulation index, and bandwidth.
2. An FM wave is given by 𝒔(𝒕) = 𝟐𝟎 𝐜𝐨𝐬(𝟖𝝅 × 106 𝒕 + 𝟗 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝟐𝝅 × 103 𝒕)).
Calculate the frequency deviation, bandwidth, and power of FM wave.

Sem. II, 2018 18

Single-Tone Frequency Modulation
 Consider a sinusoidal modulating signal defined as
𝑚 𝑡 = 𝐴𝑚 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜋 𝑓𝑚 𝑡
 the instantaneous frequency of the FM signal is

 where Δ𝑓 is called the frequency deviation given by Δ𝑓 = 𝑘𝑓 𝐴𝑚

 and the instantaneous angle is

Sem. II, 2018 19

Single-Tone Frequency Modulation
 The resultant FM signal is

 The frequency deviation factor indicates the amount of frequency change in the
FM signal from the carrier frequency 𝑓𝑐 on either side of it.
 Thus FM signal will have the frequency components between (𝑓𝑐 − Δ𝑓 ) to (𝑓𝑐 + Δ𝑓 ).
 The modulation index, β represents the phase deviation of the FM signal and is
measured in radians.
 Depending on the value of β, FM signal can be classified into two types:
1. Narrow band FM (β << 1) and
2. Wide band FM (β >> 1).

Sem. II, 2018 20

Frequency Domain Representation of Narrow Band FM signal
 Using trigonometric identities

Sem. II, 2018 21

Frequency Domain Representation of Narrow Band FM signal
 The above equation represents the NBFM signal.
 This representation is similar to an AM signal, except that the lower side
frequency has negative sign.
 The magnitude spectrum of NBFM signal is shown below, which is similar to AM
signal spectrum.
 The bandwidth of the NBFM signal is 2𝑓𝑚 , which is same as AM signal

Magnitude Spectrum of NBFM

Waveform

Sem. II, 2018 22

Frequency Domain Representation of Wide-Band FM signals:
 The FM wave for sinusoidal modulation is given by

 the FM signal, after some computations, can be written as

(derivation left as an exercise for students)

Fourier series representation of the single tone FM

wave.

Where 𝐽𝑛 (β), the 𝑛𝑡ℎ order Bessel function of the first kind is defined as

Sem. II, 2018 23

Frequency Domain Representation of Wide-Band FM signals
 Applying the Fourier transform to

 We have

 the spectrum is composed of a carrier with an amplitude J0(β) and a set of

sidebands spaced symmetrically on either side of the carrier at frequency
separation of 𝑓𝑚 , 2𝑓𝑚 , 3𝑓𝑚 , etc.

Sem. II, 2018 24

FM Spectra as Function of Modulation Index

Sem. II, 2018 25

Frequency Domain Representation of Wide-Band FM signals
 The above equation indicates the following:
(i) FM signal has infinite number of side bands at frequencies (fc + nfm).
(ii) Relative amplitudes of all the spectral lines depends on the value of Jn(β).
(iii) The number of significant side bands depends on the modulation index (β).
With (β<<1), only J0(β) and J1(β) are significant. But for (β>>1), many sidebands
exists.
(iv) The average power of an FM wave is P = 0.5𝐴𝑐 2 (based on Bessel function
property).

Sem. II, 2018 26

Bessel function
 The equation that expresses the phase angle in terms of the sine wave
modulating signal is solved with a complex mathematical process known as
Bessel functions.
 As seen in Bessel function table, it shows that as the sideband relative amplitude
increases, the carrier amplitude,J0 decreases.
 This is because, in FM, the total transmitted power is always constant and the total
average power is equal to the unmodulated carrier power, that is the amplitude of
the FM remains constant whether or not it is modulated.
 In effect, in FM, the total power that is originally in the carrier is redistributed
between all components of the spectrum, in an amount determined by the
modulation index, β, and the corresponding Bessel functions.
 At certain value of modulation index, the carrier component goes to zero, where in
this condition, the power is carried by the sidebands only.

Sem. II, 2018 27

Bessel function
 Bessel function is an useful function to represent the FM wave spectrum.
 Some of the useful properties of Bessel functions are given below:

Sem. II, 2018 28

Bessel function

Plots of Bessel functions

Sem. II, 2018 29

Bessel Functions of the First Kind, 𝐽𝑛 (β), for some value of modulation index

 B

Sem. II, 2018 30

FM Power Distribution
 As seen in Bessel function table, it shows that as the sideband relative
amplitude increases, the carrier amplitude,J0 decreases.
 This is because, in FM, the total transmitted power is always constant and the
total average power is equal to the unmodulated carrier power, that is the
amplitude of the FM remains constant whether or not it is modulated.
 In effect, in FM, the total power that is originally in the carrier is redistributed
between all components of the spectrum, in an amount determined by the
modulation index, β, and the corresponding Bessel functions.
 At certain value of modulation index, the carrier component goes to zero, where
in this condition, the power is carried by the sidebands only.

Sem. II, 2018 31

Example 4
 An FM transmitter has a power output of 10 W. If the index of modulation is 1.0,
determine the power in the various frequency components of the signal.
 Solution: The various frequency components of the FM signal are
fc, (fc + fm), (fc + 2fm), (fc + 3fm), and so on.
 The power associated with the above frequency components are
(𝐽0 )2 , ( 𝐽1 )2 , (𝐽2 )2 , and (𝐽3 )2 respectively.
 From the Bessel function Table, for β = 1;
J0 = 0.77, J1 = 0.44, J2 = 0.11, and J3 = 0.02

Sem. II, 2018 32

Example 4

Sem. II, 2018 33

Bandwidth of FM Wave
 The theoretical bandwidth of FM wave is infinite
 But most of the modulated-signal power resides in a finite bandwidth
 The value of modulation index determine the number of sidebands that have the
significant relative amplitudes
 the higher the modulation index in FM, the greater the number of significant
sidebands and the wider the bandwidth of the signal.
 There are two distinct possibilities in terms of bandwidth
 Narrowband FM and wideband FM

Sem. II, 2018 34

Bandwidth of an Angle Modulated Wave
 Carson’s Rule:
 In single–tone modulation, for the smaller values of modulation index the
bandwidth is approximated as 2𝑓𝑚.
 For the higher values of modulation index, the bandwidth is considered as
slightly greater than the total deviation 2Δf.
 Thus the Bandwidth for sinusoidal modulation is defined as, Carson’s rule:

 For non-sinusoidal modulation, a factor called Deviation ratio (D) is considered.

 The deviation ratio is defined as the ratio of maximum frequency deviation to the
bandwidth of message signal

Sem. II, 2018 35

Bandwidth of an Angle Modulated Wave
 Deviation ratio , 𝐷 = ( Δ𝑓 / 𝑊 ), where W is the bandwidth of the message
signal and the corresponding bandwidth of the FM signal is,

 Universal Curve :
 An accurate method of bandwidth assessment is done by retaining the
maximum number of significant side frequencies with amplitudes greater than
1% of the un-modulated carrier wave.
 Thus the bandwidth is defined as “the 99 percent bandwidth of an FM wave as
the separation between the two frequencies beyond which none of the side-
band frequencies is greater than 1% of the carrier amplitude obtained when the
modulation is removed”.
 Transmission Bandwidth - BW = 2 𝒏𝒎𝒂𝒙 𝒇𝒎

Sem. II, 2018 36

Bandwidth of an Angle Modulated Wave
 where 𝒇𝒎 is the modulation frequency and ‘n’ is the number of pairs of side-
frequencies such that Jn(β) > 0.01.
 The value of 𝒏𝒎𝒂𝒙 varies with modulation index and can be determined from the
Bessel coefficients.
 The transmission bandwidth calculated using this method can be expressed in
the form of a universal curve which is normalised with respect to the frequency
deviation and plotted it versus the modulation index
 From the universal curve, for a given message signal frequency and modulation
index the ratio (B/ Δf ) is obtained from the curve.
 Then the bandwidth is calculated as:

Sem. II, 2018 37

Bandwidth of an Angle Modulated Wave

Sem. II, 2018 38

Example 5
 Find the bandwidth of a single tone modulated FM signal described by
S(t)=10 cos[2π108 t + 6 sin(2 π 103 t)].

Solution

Sem. II, 2018 39

Example 6
 A carrier wave of frequency 91 MHz is frequency modulated by a sine wave of
amplitude 10 Volts and 15 kHz. The frequency sensitivity of the modulator is 3
kHz/V.
a. Determine the approximate bandwidth of FM wave using Carson’s Rule.
b. Repeat part (a), assuming that the amplitude of the modulating wave is
doubled.
c. Repeat part (a), assuming that the frequency of the modulating wave is
doubled.

Sem. II, 2018 40

Example 6

Sem. II, 2018 41

Exercise
1. Determine the bandwidth of an FM signal, if the maximum value of the
frequency deviation Δf is fixed at 75kHz for commercial FM broadcasting by
radio and modulation frequency is W= 15 kHz.
2. Consider an FM signal obtained from a modulating signal frequency of 2000
Hz and maximum Amplitude of 5 volts. The frequency sensitivity of modulator
is 2 kHz/V. Find the bandwidth of the FM signal considering only the significant
side band frequencies.
3. A carrier wave of frequency 91 MHz is frequency modulated by a sine wave of
amplitude 10 Volts and 15 kHz. The frequency sensitivity of the modulator is 3
kHz/V. Determine the bandwidth by transmitting only those side frequencies
with amplitudes that exceed 1% of the unmodulated carrier wave amplitude.
Use universal curve for this calculation.

Sem. II, 2018 42

Exercise
4. An FM wave is defined below.
S(t) = 12 sin(6x108 π t + 5 sin1250 πt)
Find the carrier and modulating frequencies, the modulating index, and the
maximum deviation of the FM wave. Also find the bandwidth of the FM wave.
What power will the FM wave dissipate in a 10 ohm resistor?
5. Consider an FM signal with :
Δf = 10 kHz, 𝒇𝒎 = 10 kHz, 𝑨𝒄 = 10 V, 𝒇𝒄 = 500 kHz
Compute and draw the spectrum for FM signal.

Sem. II, 2018 43

Generation of FM Waves
 There are two basic methods of generating frequency-modulated waves
 Direct, and
 Indirect methods
 The direct method uses a sinusoidal oscillator, with one of the reactive elements
(e.g., capacitive element) in the tank circuit of the oscillator being directly
controllable by the message signal
 a serious limitation of the direct method is the tendency for the carrier frequency
to drift, which is usually unacceptable for commercial radio applications.
 To overcome this limitation, frequency stabilization of the FM generator is required, which is
realized through the use of feedback around the oscillator

Sem. II, 2018 44

Indirect Method: Armstrong Modulator
 In the indirect method, the message signal is first used to produce a narrow-
band FM, which is followed by frequency multiplication to increase the frequency
deviation to the desired level.
 the carrier-frequency stability problem is alleviated by using a highly stable
oscillator (e.g., crystal oscillator) in the narrowband FM generation;
 this modulation scheme is called the Armstrong wide-band frequency modulator

Block diagram of the indirect method of

generating a wide-band FM wave.

Sem. II, 2018 45

Demodulation of FM Signals(Reading Assignment)
 for frequency demodulation we need a device whose output amplitude is
sensitive to variations in the instantaneous frequency of the input FM wave in a
linear manner too

Sem. II, 2018 46

Advantages of FM over AM
 Noise Immunity.
 Frequency modulation is resilient to noise and interference
 Capture Effect
 Transmitter efficiency
 Freedom from interference: all natural and external noise consist of amplitude variations,
thus receiver usually cannot distinguish between amplitude of noise or desired signal. AM is
noisy than FM.
 Operate in very high frequency band (VHF): 88MHz-108MHz
 Can transmit musical programs with higher degree of fidelity.
 Frequency modulation is resilient to signal level variations. Any variation in
signal level does not affect the output as long as the receiver is able to cope up
with the signal level. This makes the FM ideal for two-way radio communication
or mobile communication application.

Sem. II, 2018 47

Disadvantages of Angle Modulation
 Angle modulation requires a transmission bandwidth much larger than the
message signal bandwidth.
 Angle modulation requires more complex and expensive circuits than AM.

Sem. II, 2018 48

Applications of Angle Modulation
 Some of the applications of the FM modulation are listed below:
 FM Radio,(88-108 MHz band, 75 kHz, )
 TV sound broadcast, 25 kHz,
 2-way mobile radio, 5 kHz / 2.5 kHz.
 Telemetry, radar and seismic prospecting, EEG monitoring of newborns etc also
use the technique of frequency modulation.
 It is also used in music synthesis, some systems that use video-transmission
and also for magnetic tape-recording systems.

Sem. II, 2018 49

Reading Assignment
 Demodulation of FM wave
 Frequency discriminator
 Balanced zero-crossing FM detector
 Phase-locked loops
 FM Receivers
 Super-hetrodyne Receivers

Sem. II, 2018 50

Angle Modulation

End of the
Chapter!

Sem. II, 2018 Adigrat University Department ECE 51