MC13030
 9
MOTOROLA ANALOG IC DEVICE DATA
PIN FUNCTION DESCRIPTION (continued)
Pin No. DescriptionInternal Equivalent Circuit
26
V
CC
V
ref
26
75
VCO Reference
The first oscillator coil is connected from Pin 26 to 27. Pin 26 must be 
bypassed to ground with a capacitor which has a low impedance at the 
oscillator frequency. This capacitor also will reduce the phase noise of 
the VCO.
27
7.5 k
27
to Mixer1
VCO
The VCO is a negative resistance type and has an internal level control 
circuit so a tapped coil or one with a secondary is not needed. The level 
is fixed at 0.8 Vpp so the oscillator signal does not modulate the tuning 
diode, thus keeping the distortion low. The oscillator stray capacitance is 
≈ 12 pF and the tuned circuit impedance should be greater than 3.0 k to 
guarantee oscillation. Oscillator range is up to 45 MHz so it can be used 
for SW receivers.
28
100
28
VCO Out
The output level is 240 mVrms (108 dBµ), high enough to drive any 
CMOS synthesizer.
AM CAR RADIO DESIGN NOTES
The MC13030 AM Radio IC is intended for dual 
conversion AM radios. In most cases, the 1st IF frequency 
(F
IF1
) is upconverted above the highest input frequency. The 
first oscillator (VCO) is tuned by a synthesizer and operates 
at Fin + F
IF1
. For the 530 to 1700 kHz AM band with a
10.7 MHz first IF, the VCO goes from 11.23 to 12.40 MHz. 
Therefore, F
max/Fmin
 for VCO is only 1.104, so one low–cost 
tuning diode can be used. Since the required tuning voltage 
range can be made less than 5.0 V , it may also be possible to 
drive the tuning diode directly or from the phase detector of 
the synthesizer IC, such as the Motorola MC145170, 
operating from 5.0 V, without using a buffer amplifier or 
transistor.
If the VCO is above the incoming frequency, the image
frequency of the first mixer is at f
OSC
 + F
IF1
. For th e A M 
broadcast receiver, it is around 22 MHz, so a simple LPF 
can be used between the RF stage and Mixer1 input. 
However, if a LPF is used, an additional coil is still needed 
to supply the collector voltage of the RF amplifier. For this 
reason, a BPF filter was used in the application circuit 
instead, since it uses the same number of coils and gives 
better performance. It is simply a lowpass to bandpass 
conversion. The lowpass filter is designed to have a cutoff 
frequency equal to the desired bandwidth. In this case, it 
would be 1700 – 530 kHz = 1170 kHz. Then, it is 
transformed to be resonant at 949 kHz, the geometric 
mean of the end frequencies:
1700 x 530 = 949 kHz.
p
A balanced–to–unbalanced transformer is required at the 
output of both mixers. The first one is designed so that Mixer1 
has enough gain to overcome the loss of the 10.7 MHz filter 
and so that the output of the mixer will not overload before the 
input. The primary impedance of the transformer is relatively 
low, and it may be difficult to control with commonly available
7.0 mm transformers because the number of primary turns is
quite small. It would also require a large tuning capacitance. 
A better solution is to tune the secondary with a small 
capacitance and then use a capacitive divider to match the 
tuned circuit to the filter. This allows one transformer to be 
used for either a ceramic or crystal filter. The capacitors can 
be adjusted to match the filter. The recommended coil is 
made this way.
If the formula: Pin = IP3 – DR/2 is used, the maximum input 
level to the mixer can be calculated for a desired dynamic 
range.
IP3 = 3rd order intercept level in dB (dBm or dBµ)
DR = dynamic range in dB between the desired signals 
and 3rd order intermodulation products
Pin = input level in dBm or dBµ
The RF AGC level can then be adjusted so that Pin does 
not exceed this level.
Whether or not a narrow bandwidth crystal or wide 
bandwidth ceramic filter is used between the first and second 
mixers depends on the receiver requirements. It is possible to 
achieve about 50 dB adjacent channel and IM rejection with 
a ceramic filter because of the wide dynamic range of the 
mixers. If more than this is required, a crystal filter should be 
used. If a crystal filter is used, a lower cost CFU type of 
455 kHz second IF filter can be used. If a ceramic filter is 
used, a CFW type filter should be used because there is no 
RF section selectivity in this type of radio.
Since the wideband AGC system is quite sensitive, it can 
be set to eliminate all spurious responses present at the 
receiver output. However, the RF AGC will sometimes 
eliminate or reduce the level of desired signals if there is a 
strong signal somewhere in the bandpass of the RF circuit.
The second mixer is designed like the first and requires a 
balanced output. Since its load impedance is higher, the 
transformer can be designed to be tuned on the primary or