Demodulation Procedure for Very Wide-Band FM

Abstract

Since conventional FM demodulators are incapable of accurately demodulating very wide-band frequency-modulated signals, a new approach to the problem is needed. Based upon a theorem by Sandberg, a practical procedure is presented for demodulating not only typical FM signals but also those employing modulation bandwidths and/or frequency deviations on the order of the cartier frequency. The proposed demodulator utilizes an iterative recovery procedure. The first iteration is analogous to demodulation by a conventional zero crossing discriminator and results in severe distortion of the modulation under wide-band conditions. This distortion is reduced by successive iterations. Because, in practice, the iterative process is truncated after a finite number of terms, a procedure for computing the coefficients of these terms for minimum mean-squared error is given. Using computer simulation, the demodulation technique is demonstrated to work effectively for several very wide-band FM signals.