Nonlinear distortion of an FM signal by half-wave linear rectification (Q1294305)

It is a known fact that frequency-modulated (FM) and amplitude-modulated (AM) signals play a major role in communications. On the other hand, some recent investigations have shown that in the auditory channel some operations occurring there can be approximated by a half-wave (HW) rectification of modulated signals. Therefore, the passing of FM or AM signals through HW rectifiers became of interest. The authors succeed to derive a way to calculate the output of a HW rectified when acted by FM or AM signals, the output being expressed in a closed form involving Bessel functions of various orders. Numerical examples are given. The procedure can be extended for memoryless nonlinear two-ports described by \(y=f(x)\), where the mapping \(f\) can be expanded in a Fourier series.