Dr. M. Venu Gopala Rao, Professor, Dept.

of ECE, KL University

Angle / Exponential Modulation

Lecture-4 FM Demodulation using PLL

The phase locked loop (PLL) is primarily used in tracking phase and frequency of the carrier
component of an incoming signal. It is useful for synchronous demodulation of AM-SC
(Amplitude Modulation with Suppressed Carrier) signals or signals with few cycles of pilot
carrier. The PLL is also useful for demodulating FM signals. PLL is particularly useful in
demodulation of FM signals in the presence of large noise and low signal power (low SNR).
Thus it is most suited for use in space vehicleto-earth data links or where loss along the
transmission path is very large. Recently, it has found application is commercial FM receivers.
A PLL is basically a negative feedback system (shown in Fig 1) which consists of three
major components a multiplier (phase detector), a loop filter and a voltage controlled oscillator
(VCO) connected together in the form of a feedback loop. VCO is a sine wave generator whose
frequency is determined by the voltage applied to it from external source. From this point of
view, any frequency modulator can serve as a VCO.
The operation of PLL is similar to any other
feedback system. In a typical feedback system,
the signal feedback tends to follow the input
signal. If the signal feedback is not equal to the
input signal, the difference signal (known as
error signal) will change the value of the feedback Fig 1 Block diagram of Phase Locked Loop
until it is equal to the input signal. A PLL operates on a similar principle except for the fact that
the quantity feedback is not the amplitude, but generalized phase angle. The error signal is
utilized to adjust the VCO frequency in such a way that the instantaneous phase angle comes
close to the angle of the incoming signal. At this point, the two signals (the incoming and VCO
output) are in synchronous and PLL is said to be locked to the incoming signal. FM
demodulation using PLL is described as below.

Mathematical Analysis: Assume that initially VCO is adjusted such that when the control
voltage is zero, the following conditions are satisfied.

(i) Initially VCO is set to the carrier frequency f c ( i.e., v(t ) 0 ).

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 Dr. M. Venu Gopala Rao, Professor, Dept. of ECE, KL University

(ii) The VCO output has a 900 phase shift with respect to the unmodulated carrier
frequency.

Let the input FM signal sFM (t ) Ac sin[2 f ct i (t )] (1)

t
Where
i (t ) 2 k f 0 m(t ) dt (2)

where Ac is the unmodulated carrier amplitude,

kf
is the modulation sensitivity, and
m(t ) is the modulating signal to extract from the

FM signal.
VCO: Refer Fig 2.

Let the VCO out be defined by r (t ) Av cos[2 f ct v (t )] (3)

t
v (t ) 2 kv v(t ) dt
where 0 (4)

where again Av is the amplitude of VCO output,

kv is the frequency sensitivity,

v (t ) is the input voltage to VCO.

It can easily verified that from equations (1) and (3), when v(t ) 0 ,
the VCO free running frequency and the unmodulated carrier
frequency and equal and 900out of phase.
Phase Detector: The incoming FM wave and the VCO out are
applied to a multiplier / phase detector. The output of the phase detector consists of sum and
difference frequency components are described as

(i) A high frequency component represented by k m Ac Av sin[2 f ct i (t ) v (t )]

(ii) A low frequency component represented by k m Ac Av sin[ i (t ) v (t )]

where k m is the multiplication gain measured in volt 1 .

The high frequency component is eliminated by the low pass filter. Thus the effective
input to the loop filter (LPF) can be written as

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 Dr. M. Venu Gopala Rao, Professor, Dept. of ECE, KL University

e(t ) km Ac Av sin[i (t ) v (t )]
(5)
km Ac Av sin[e (t )]

where e (t ) is phase error, i.e., e (t ) i (t ) v (t )

t
That is phase error e (t ) i (t ) 2 kv v(t ) dt (6)
0

Loop Filter: The loop filter is operated on e(t ) to produce

the output v (t ) is given by v(t ) e( )h(t )d (7)

where h(t) is the impulse response of the filter.

Using the equation (5), (6) and (7), we get
t
e (t ) i (t ) 2 km kv Ac Av sin[e ( )] h(t )d dt
0
t
(8)
i (t ) 2 k0 sin[e ( )] h(t )d dt
0

where k0 kmkv Ac Av . (9)

By differentiating on both sides, we get
d d
e (t ) i (t ) 2 k0 sin[e ( )] h(t )d (10)
dt dt

Linear model: When the phase error e (t ) is zero, the PLL is said to be inphase locked. For

small values of e (t ) , sin[e (t )] e (t ) , which is fairly accurate as long as e (t ) 0.5 rad. In

this the loop is said to be near lock condition and PLL becomes approximate linear model.
d d
From equation (10), e (t ) i (t ) 2 k0 e ( )h(t )d (11)
dt dt
By taking FT and simplifying we get,
1
jf e ( f ) jf i ( f ) 2 k0 e ( f ) H ( f ) jf i ( f ) k0e ( f ) H ( f )
2
1
e ( f ) (f) (12)
H( f ) i
1 k0
jf
H( f )
where H ( f ) is the transfer function , and k0 is called the open loop transfer function of
jf

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 Dr. M. Venu Gopala Rao, Professor, Dept. of ECE, KL University

H( f )
PLL. For k0 1 , e ( f ) approach to very small value. Under this condition, the
jf
phase of VCO becomes asymptotically equal to the phase of incoming wave.
Then e(t ) km Ac Av sin[e (t )] km Ac Ave (t ) , and its FT is represented by
E ( f ) km Ac Ave ( f ) (13)

As v(t ) e( )h(t )d , it follows the FT of v (t ) , V ( f ) E ( f ) H ( f )

k k 1
Then V ( f ) km Ac Ave ( f ) H ( f ) 0 e ( f ) H ( f ) 0 H ( f ) (f) (14)
kv kv H( f ) i
1 k0
jf
H( f ) k 1 jf
For 1 , V ( f ) 0 H ( f ) i ( f ) i ( f ) .
jf kv H( f ) kv
k0
jf
1 d
By inverse FT, we get v(t ) i (t ) (15)
2 kv dt
t
From equation(2),
i (t ) 2 k f 0 m(t ) dt , and equation (15), we get

v(t )
1 d
2 kv dt t
2 k f m(t ) dt
0
kv
kf
m(t ) (16)

kf
Therefore, the output v (t ) of PLL is approximately same except for a scale factor as the
kv
original baseband signal m(t ) and the frequency demodulation is accomplished.
Points to be noted:
The control signal of the VCO has a bandwidth of the baseband signal, while the output
of VCO is a wideband frequency modulated wave whose instantaneous frequency tracks
the incoming FM.
The complexity of PLL is determined by the transfer function H ( f ) of the loop filter.
The simplest PLL is one which has H ( f ) 1 , that there is no loop filter, and the PLL is
referred to as first order phase locked loop.
The order of the PLL is determined by the order of denominator polynomial of a closed
loop transfer function.