SUPER HETERODYNE RECEIVER

Receivers

Intercept the electromagnetic waves in the receiving antenna to

produce the desired RF modulated carrier.

Select the desired signal and reject the unwanted signal.

Amplify the RF signal.

Detect the RF carrier to get back the original modulation

frequency voltage.

Amplify the modulation frequency voltage

Features of receivers

Simplicity of operation

Good fidelity

Good selectivity

Average sensitivity

Adaptability to different types of aerials

If receiver has poor selectivity.

If receiver has poor sensitivity.

If receiver has poor fidelity

A good solution to overcome these

problems is using superheterodyne
receiver.it is the major
breakthrough in the communication
field..

Super Heterodyne Receiver

Mixer /
Converter
Section
RF Section

Pre
selector

IF Section

Mixer

RF
amplifier

Band pass
filter

IF
Amplifier

IF signal

RF signal

Local
Oscillator
Gang tuning

speaker

Audio amplifier
Section

Audio
Amplifier
Audio
Frequencies

Audio detector
Section

AM
Detector

Sections
Heterodyne receiver has five sections

RF section

Mixer/converter section

IF section

Audio detector section

Audio amplifier section

RF section
Preselector stage
Broad tuned band pass filter with adjustable frequency that is tuned
to
carrier frequency

Provide initial band limiting to prevent specific unwanted radio

frequency called image frequency from entering into receiver.

Reduces the noise bandwidth of the receiver and provides the

initial step toward reducing the over all receiver bandwidth to the
minimum bandwidth required to pass the information signal.

Amplifier stage
It determines the sensitivity of the receiver.

RF amplifier is the first active device in the network it is the

primary contributor to the noise. And it is the predominant factor
in determining the noise figure.

Receiver may have one or more RF amplifier depending on the

desired sensitivity.

Due to RF amplifier

Greater gain and better sensitivity

Improved image frequency rejection

Better signal to noise ratio

Better selectivity.

Mixer or conversion section

It consists of two components
Mixer

Local oscillator

Mixer stage :
Heterodyning takes place in the mixer stage.

Radio frequencies are down converted to intermediate frequency

Carrier and sidebands are translated to high frequencies without

effecting the envelope of message signal.

Frequency conversion
The difference between the RF and Local oscillator frequency is always
constant IF.
High side injection

Local oscillator
frequency is tuned
above RF
f

LO

= fRf + fIF

Low side injection

Local oscillator
frequency is tuned
below RF
f

LO

= fRf - fIF

RF-to-IF conversion

Receiver RF input (535 1605

kHz)
Preselecto
r
535 - 565
kHz

53
5

54
5

55
5

565 kHz

Mixer
Oscillator

44
0

45
0

46
0

470 kHz

flo f RF f IF
45
0

460 kHz

IF filter
450
460 kHz
IF Filter output

1005 kHz
high-side
injection
(fLO > fRF)

Gang tuning

The adjustment for the center frequency of the preselector and

the adjustment for local oscillator are gang tuned.

The two adjustments are mechanically tied together and

single
adjustment will change the center frequency of the
preselector and
the local oscillator

Local oscillator tracking:

TRACKING:
It 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 IF frequency through the entire radio
frequency band.

Tracking error

Tracking error: the difference between the actual local oscillator

frequency to the desired frequency.

The maximum tracking error 3KHz + or -.

Tracking error can be reduced by using three point tracking.

The preselector and local oscillator each have trimmer capacitor

in parallel with primary tuning capacitor that compensates for
minor tracking errors in the high end of AM spectrum.

The local oscillator has additional padder capacitor in series with

the tuning coil that compensates for minor tracking errors at the
low end of AM spectrum.

Image frequency It:

is any frequency other than the selected

radio frequency carrier that is allowed to
enter into the receiver and mix with the local
oscillator
will
produce
cross
product
frequencies that is equal to the intermediate
frequency.

flo =fsi+fif
fsi=flo-fif when signal frequency is mixed with
oscillator frequency one of the by products is the difference
frequency which is passed to the amplifier in the IF stage.
The frequency fim= flo+fsi the image frequency
produce fsi when mixed with fo .

will also

For better image frequency rejection a high IF is preferred.

If intermediate frequency is high it is very difficult to design
stable amplifiers.

2fif
fif

IF

RF
SF

fif

LO

IM

frequency

Image frequency rejection ratio

It is the numerical measure of the ability of the preselector to reject the
image frequency.
Single tuned amplifier the ratio of the gain at the desired RF to the gain
at the image frequency.

IFRR (1 Q 2 2
f im

f RF

f RF

f im

Choice of IF : Factors
If the IF is too high

Poor Selectivity and Poor adjacent channel rejection.

Tracking Difficulties.
If the IF is too low

Image frequency rejection becomes poorer.

Selectivity too sharp and cutting off sidebands

Instability of oscillator will occur.

Detector section

It contains detector and AGC or AVC

Detector: Rectifies the modulated signal, then filters out the 455
KHz. Leaving only the audio frequency or intelligence of 50 Hz
20 KHz Which is sent to the AF amplifiers.

Automatic Volume Control or gain control is taken at the detector

(demodulated and fed back to the first IF amplifier base). Required
to overcome atmospheric and terrain conditions that adversely
affect signal strength between the transmitter & receiver.

Amplifier section
The resultant audio signal is amplified in this section and fed into
the
output device(ex: loudspeaker)
In this section we have

Audio preamp stage

Audio driver stage

Audio push pull stage

Double superheterodyne receiver

Although the basic idea for the superheterodyne receiver works very well,
to ensure the optimum performance under a number of situations, an
extension of the principle, known as the double superheterodyne radio
receiver may be used.
Improves image rejection ratio and adjacent channel filter performance .

Conclusion
After invention of superheterodyne,there
are
many inventions but it is the best
receiver..