Receivers

receiver is an electronic equipment which picks up any desired radio frequency signal. Functions: Amplifying the desired signal to the requisite level. Demodulating RF signal. Feeding modulating voltage to an indicator (loud speaker)

Classification of Radio Receivers

Based

on the Principle of Operation

Straight or TRF Receivers

Operation is straight forward without any frequency conversion or mixing.

Super heterodyne receivers

Incoming signal frequency is converted into standard intermediate frequency (IF) with the help of frequency converter

Classification of Radio Receivers

According to the application (type of traffic they are designed to handle) AM Receivers
Receives speech or music radiated from AM transmitter operating on long wave , medium wave (broadcast band) or short wave

FM Receivers
Receives signals from FM transmitters operating in VHF or UHF bands

TV receivers
Receives television broadcast in VHF or UHF bands

Communication receivers
To receive telephony and telegraphic signals

Radar receivers
Receives radar signals

Characteristics of Radio Receivers

Sensitivity

Ability to receive weak signals

Selectivity

Ability to select desired signal and reject all other unwanted signals
Fidelity

Faithful reproduction of original signal

Signal

to Noise ratio

A good receiver should have high SNR

TRF (Tuned Radio Frequency )Receiver

RF STAGE

RF STAGE

DETECTOR

AF AMP

RF Stage- selects the desired station and amplifies weak antenna signal DETECTOR- removes information from the carrier AF Amp- power amplifier to drive the speaker

TRF receiver
Advantages
TRF receivers are simple and have a relatively high sensitivity.

Limitations
Bandwidth is inconsistent and varies with center frequency when tuned over a wide range of input frequencies. Instability due to the large number of RF amplifiers all tuned to the same center frequency. Unable to achieve sufficient selectivity at high frequencies.

Superheterodyne Concept
The

discussion at this point will be limited to the single-conversion superheterodyne receiver. The concept is to establish an intermediate frequency (IF) amplifier stage in which very high selectivity can be achieved. All signals are then down-converted to this frequency range for filtering.

Super heterodyne Receiver

RF STAGE

RF Stage- selects the desired station and amplifies weak antenna signal(Normally a wideband amplifier tunable from approx 540 kHZ to 1650 KHZ)(standard commercial AM band)

Super heterodyne Receiver

RF STAGE

LO

Local Oscillator- Variable oscillator capable of generating a signal from 0.995 MHz to 2.105 MHz.

Super heterodyne Receiver

RF STAGE

MIXER

LO

Mixer- combines RF and local oscillator producing the sum and difference

Super heterodyne Receiver

RF STAGE IF STAGE

MIXER

LO

IF STAGE- filters off the sum, passes the difference and amplifies the signal to a level that turns on the detector.(rejects all other frequencies but 455 kHz).

Super heterodyne Receiver

RF STAGE IF STAGE

MIXER

DETECTOR

LO

DETECTOR- converts the IF signals back to the original source information.

Super heterodyne Receiver

RF STAGE IF STAGE AF AMP

MIXER

DETECTOR

LO

AF AMP- power amp to drive the speaker

Superheterodyne Receivers
Antenna

RF Stage
a(t) (radio frequency) RF Amplifier & RF BPF b(t)

Converter (Multiplier)

IF Stage
d(t) (intermediate frequency) IF Amplifier & IF BPF e(t)

Envelope Detector
f(t) Diode, Capacitor, Resistor, & DC blocker

Audio Stage
Power amplifier

X
c(t)

g(t)

Local Oscillator
Ganged RF BPF and Oscillator cos[(c+IF)t]

Superheterodyne Receivers
RF Amplifier
The antenna picks up the weak radio signal and feeds it to the RF amplifier provide some initial gain and selectivity and are sometimes called preselectors. Pick up desired station by tuning filter to right frequency band

Concept of Mixer
Mixer
From RF output

Superheterodyne Receivers
Mixing Principles
Mixers accept two inputs: The signal to be translated to another frequency is applied to one input, and the sine wave from a local oscillator is applied to the other input. Like an amplitude modulator, a mixer essentially performs a mathematical multiplication of its two input signals. The oscillator is the carrier, and the signal to be translated is the modulating signal. The output contains not only the carrier signal but also sidebands formed when the local oscillator and input signal are mixed.

Local Oscillator
What should be the frequency of the local oscillator used for translation from RF to IF? fLO = fc + fIF (up-conversion) or fLO = fc - fIF (downconversion) Tuning ratio = fLO, max / fLO, min Up-Conversion: (1600 + 455) / (530+455) 2 Down-Conversion: (1600455) / (530 455) 12

Superheterodyne Receivers
IF Amplifiers The primary objective in the design of an IF stage is to obtain good selectivity. Narrow-band selectivity is best obtained at lower frequencies. At low frequencies, circuits are more stable with high gain.

Superheterodyne Receivers
IF Amplifiers
The output of the mixer is an IF signal containing the same modulation that appeared on the input RF signal. The signal is amplified by one or more IF amplifier stages, and most of the gain is obtained in these stages. Selective tuned circuits provide fixed selectivity. Since the intermediate frequency is usually lower than the input frequency, IF amplifiers are easier to design and good selectivity is easier to obtain.

Superheterodyne Receivers
Demodulators
The highly amplified IF signal is finally applied to the demodulator, which recovers the original modulating information. The demodulator may be a diode detector (for AM), a Ratio detector (for FM), or a product detector (for SSB). The output of the demodulator is then usually fed to an audio amplifier.

FM Receiver

Amplitude Limiter
Most frequency discriminators use envelope detection to extract the intelligence from the FM wave form Envelope detection will demodulate incident amplitude variations as well as frequency variation Transmission noise and interference add to the signal to produce unwanted amplitude variations

Amplitude Limiter
In the receiver, unwanted AM and random noise are demodulated along with the signal: unwanted distortion is produced A limiter circuit is used to produce a constant amplitude output for all input signal above a specified threshold level

Automatic Volume Control

All modern receivers employ automatic volume control (AVC) bias to vary the overall gain automatically with changing magnitudes of the received signals so that the output remains substantially constant. AVC or AGC(Automatic Gain Control) bias is obtained from the detector and applied to IF,RF and sometimes to mixer stages of the receiver. AGC circuit compensates for minor variations in the received RF signal level. The AGC circuit automatically increases the receiver gain for weak RF input levels and automatically decreased the receiver gain when a strong RF signal is received.

Types of AGC
Simple AGC Delayed AGC Forward AGC

Automatic Frequency Control

It is very difficult to tune accurately a super heterodyne receiver to a station by listening to its output since AVC tends to maintain the receiver output constant inspite of variation in the signal strength. Similarly a drift in the local oscillator frequency may cause mistuning of the receiver but even under such circumstances, AVC will tend to keep the receiver output constant. These difficulties are overcome by incorporating an automatic frequency control circuit in the receiver

Automatic Frequency Control

The AFC circuit employs a discriminator circuit which biases the reactance tube circuit thereby adjusting the local oscillator frequency, correctly tuning the receiver to the station. When the receiver is correctly tuned, the discriminator output is zero. An incorrect tuning of the receiver results in a corresponding DC bias being produced by the discriminator which is passed on the reactance tube for shifting the local oscillator frequency accordingly so as to produce the correct intermediate frequency.

AM Vs FM
Radio AM Radio FM

Carrier range RF
IF Bandwidth

535 1605 KHz

455 kHz 10 kHz

88 108 MHz
10.7 MHz 200 kHz

Choice of IF and Oscillator frequencies

Major factors influencing the choice of IF frequency.

If the intermediate frequency is too high, poor selectivity and poor adjacent-channel rejection results. A high value of intermediate frequency increases tracking difficulties. As the intermediate frequency is lowered , the difference between a signal frequency and its image-frequency is reduced, this results in a poorer image signal rejection. The intermediate frequency must be made high as if image signals are to be completely rejected.

Choice of IF and Oscillator frequencies

Major factors influencing the choice of IF frequency.

A low IF makes the selectivity sharp, thereby increasing the adjacent channel rejection. To avoid this , magnification factor Q of the IF circuits has to be lowered which results in low stage gain of the IF circuits. If a low IF is used, then a high stability of the local oscillator frequency must be maintained because any drift in the local oscillator frequency results in large percentage IF drift. The IF should not fall within the tuning range of the receiver (selected to be lower than the lowest signal frequency to be received), otherwise instability will occur and heterodyne whistles will be heard.

Local Oscillator Tracking

Tracking is the ability of the local oscillator in a receiver to oscillate either above or below the selected radio frequency carrier by an amount equal to the intermediate frequency throughout the entire radio frequency band.
With high side injection fLO = fRF + fIF With low side injection fLO = fRF - fIF