5-4-8 Autom atic Gain Control C ircu its

An automatic gain control (A G C ) circuit com pensates for m inor v anaiions in ihc received R F sig
nal level. T he AGC circuit autom atically increases the receiver gain for w eak R F input levels and
autom atically decreases the receiver gain w hen a strong R F signal is received. Weak sig n als can
be buried in receiver noise and. consequently, be im possible to detect. An excessively strong sig
nal can overdrive the R F and/or IF am plifiers and produce excessive nonlinear d isto n io n and even
saturation. T here are several types o f A G C . w hich include direct o r sim ple A G C . delayed AGC.
and forw ard AGC.

5 -4 -8 -1 S im p le A G C . Figure 5 -2 9 show s a block diagram for an AM superheterodyne

receiver w ith sim ple AGC. T h e autom atic gain control circuit m onitors the received signal level and
sends a signal back to the R F and IF am plifiers to adjust their gain autom atically. A G C is a fom t o f
degenerative o r negative feedback. T h e purpose o f AGC is to allow a receiver to detect and dem od
ulate. equally well, signals that arc transm itted from different stations w hose output pow er and d is
tance from the receiver vary. For exam ple, an AM radio in a vehicle does not receive the sam e signal
level from all the transm itting stations in the area or. for that m atter, from a single station w hen the
autom obile is m oving. T he A G C circuit produces a voltage that adjusts the receiver gain and keeps
ihc IF carrier pow er at the input to the AM d etecto r at a relatively constant level. T he A G C circuit is
not a form o f automatic volume control ( AVC); A G C is independent o f m odulation and totally u n af
fected by norm al changes in the m odulating signal am plitude.
Figure 5 -3 0 show s a schem atic diagram for a sim ple AGC circuit. A s you can sec. an AGC cir
cuit is essentially a peak detector. In fact, very often the AGC correction voltage is taken from the
output o f the audio detector. In Figure 5 -2 7 . it was shown that the dc voltage at the output o f a peak
detector is equal to the peak unm odulated earn e r am plitude m inus the barrier potential o f the diode
and is totally independent o f the depth o f m odulation. If the carrier am plitude increases, the AGC
voltage increases, and if the carrier am plitude decreases, the AGC voltage decreases. T he circuit
shown in Figure 5 - 3 0 is a negative peak detector and produces a negative voltage at its output. The
greater the am plitude o f the input carrier, the m ore negative the output voltage. T h e negative voltage
from the AGC detector is fed back to the IF stage, w here it controls the bias voltage on the base o f
Q x. W hen the carrier am plitude increases, the voltage on the base o f Q , bccon>cs less positive, cau s
ing the em itter current to decrease. A s a result, r , increases and the am plifier gain ( r j r f ) decreases,
w hich in turn causes the carrier am plitude to decrease. W hen the carrier am plitude decreases, the
AGC voltage becomes lew negative, the emitter current incrcaves. r* dec reaves, and the amplifier gain
increases. Capacitor C , is an audio bypass capacitor that presents changes in the AGC voltage due
to modulation from affecting the gain o f (? ,.

5 -4 4 I-2 Delayed AGC. Simple AGC is used in most inexpensive broadcast-band radio
receivers. However. with simple AGC. the AGC bias begins to increase as soon as the received sig
nal level exceeds the thermal noise o f the receiver. Consequently, the receiver becomes less sensitive
(which is sometimes called automatic destnsing). Delayed AGC prevents the AGC' feedback voltage
from reaching the RF o r IF amplifiers until the RF level exceeds a predetermined magnitude. Once
the carrier signal has exceeded the threshold level, the delayed AGC voltage is proportional to the
earner signal strength. Figure 5 - 3 1a shows the response characteristics for both simple and delayed
AGC. It can be seen that with delayed AGC. the receiver gain is unaffected until the AGC threshold
level is exceeded, whereas with simple AGC. the receiver gain is immediately affected. Dela>ed
AGC is used with more sophisticated communications receivers. Figure 5-31 b shows IF gain-versus-
RF input signal level for both simple and delayed AGC.

5-4-S-3 F orw ard AGC. An inherent problem w ith both simple and delayed AGC is the fact
that they are both forms o f post-ACC (after-the-fact) compensation. With post-AGC. the circuit that
monitors the carrier level and provides the AGC correction voltage is located after the IF amplifiers;
therefore, the simple fact that the AGC voltage changed indicates that it may be too late (the earner
level h is already changed and propagated through the receiver) Therefore, neither \imple nor
delayed AGC can accurately compensate for rapid changes in the carrier amplitude. F onw ni AGC
is similar to conventional AGC except that the receive signal is monitored closer to the front end of
the receiver and the correction voltage is fed forward to the IF amplifiers. Consequently, when a
change in signal level is detected, the change can be compensated for in succeeding stages.
Figure 5-32 shows an AM superheterodyne receiver with forward AGC.