Electromagnetic Waves also called  Electromagnetic Radiations are basically defined as

superimposed oscillations of an Electric and a Magnetic Field in space with their direction of

propagation perpendicular to both of them. In simple words, electromagnetic waves are

oscillations produced due to crossing over of an electric and a magnetic field.

The direction of the propagation of such waves is perpendicular to the direction of the force of

either of these fields as seen in the above figure. Like all waveforms, these have some

properties as well. Let us have a look at the properties of electromagnetic wave propagation.

Properties of Electromagnetic Wave Propagation

 These waves travel at the speed of light.

  These waves do not require any medium for propagation.

 Electromagnetic waves travel in a transverse form.

 Electromagnetic waves are not deflected by electric or magnetic field.

 These waves can be polarized.

 Electromagnetic Waves undergo interference and diffraction.

The wavelength(λ) and frequency (v) of the EM waves can be related as:

c= v.λ

where c = velocity of the wave.

Antenna is a metal rod or dish that catches radio waves and turns them into electrical signals

feeding into something like a radio or television or a telephone system. Antennas like this are

sometimes called receivers. A transmitter is a different kind of antenna that does the opposite job

to a receiver: it turns electrical signals into radio waves so they can travel sometimes thousands

of kilometers around the Earth or even into space and back. Antennas and transmitters are the

key to virtually all forms of modern telecommunication.

Transmitter and receiver antennas are often very similar in design.

Working of the circuit

Transmitter section - This section comprises of a HT12E encoder chip, RF transmitter and

Antenna are shown below

a) HT12E Encoder - The HT12E IC converts the parallel data into serial data for passing it to

the RF transmitter. HT12E encoder IC belongs to the 212 series of encoders. It is paired with 212

series of decoders having the same number of addresses and data format. These ICs are mainly

used for interfacing RF and infrared circuits. HT12E is capable of encoding 12 bits, out of them

8 are address bits and 4 are data bits. Thus the encoded signal is a serialized 12-bit parallel data

comprising of 4-bit data to be transferred appended with the address byte. The pin diagram and

configuration of HT12E are shown below

Figure 1 Pin diagram and pin configuration

b) RF Transmitter - The RF transmitter consists of an electrical oscillating circuit which

generates the radio wave, a modulator which perform hybrid ASK modulation of the wave

according to the digital data received from the encoder, and an amplifier which increases the

strength of modulated signal for transmission.

The RF transmitter module is a small PCB sub assembly. The pin configuration of transmitter

module is as follow - :

PIN NO. FUNCTION NAME  

1 Ground(0V) Ground
2 Serial data input pin Data  
3 Supply Voltage ; 5V VCC
4 Antenna output pin ANT
 

The serialized data from encoder is received at pin 2 of the module and passed on to the antenna

from pin 4 of the module.

Transmitter design
Receiver

This section comprises of Antenna, RF receiver and HT12D decoder chip. The modulated RF

signal is received by the antenna and passed to the RF receiver.

a) RF Receiver - The RF receiver consists of an amplifier that amplifies the received signal, a

demodulator or detector which extracts the modulated signal from the carrier wave, a modulated

signal amplifier and an output transducer.

There are two types of RF receivers - Super heterodyne receiver and super regenerative receiver.

The receiver module has 8 pins and has following pin configuration.

PIN NO. FUNCTION NAME  

1 Ground(0V) Ground
2 Serial Data output pin Data  
3 Linear output pin ; not connected NC
4 Supply voltage ; 5V VCC
5 Supply Voltage ; 5V VCC  
6 Ground(0V) Ground
7 Ground(0V) Ground  
8 Antenna input pin ANT

 
 

The carrier wave from the antenna is received at the pin 8 of the module. The extracted data in

serial form is output at pin 2 of the module.

b) HT12D Decoder - The signal extracted from the RF receiver is passed to the HT12D decoder.

It converts the serial data back to the parallel data after separating data and addresses. HT12D

belongs to the 212 series of decoders and can be paired with 212 series of encoders having the

same number of addresses and data format. HT12D is capable of decoding 12 bits, out of them 8

are address bits and 4 are data bits. The 4-bit data is of latch type and when passed to the output

data pins it remains unchanged until the new data is received.

The pin diagram and configuration of HT12D is as follows - :

There are two types of RF receivers - Super heterodyne receiver and super regenerative receiver.

The receiver module has 8 pins and has following pin configuration.

PIN NO. FUNCTION NAME  

1 Ground(0V) Ground
2 Serial Data output pin Data  
3 Linear output pin ; not connected NC
4 Supply voltage ; 5V VCC
5 Supply Voltage ; 5V VCC  
6 Ground(0V) Ground
7 Ground(0V) Ground  
8 Antenna input pin ANT
 

The carrier wave from the antenna is received at the pin 8 of the module. The extracted data in

serial form is output at pin 2 of the module.

b) HT12D Decoder - The signal extracted from the RF receiver is passed to the HT12D decoder.

It converts the serial data back to the parallel data after separating data and addresses. HT12D

belongs to the 212 series of decoders and can be paired with 212 series of encoders having the

same number of addresses and data format. HT12D is capable of decoding 12 bits, out of them 8

are address bits and 4 are data bits. The 4-bit data is of latch type and when passed to the output

data pins it remains unchanged until the new data is received.

The pin diagram and configuration of HT12D is as follows - :

The data in this RF module is transmitted as 4-bit data. The data to be transferred is hard-wired

with the help of switches at pins 10 to 13 of the HT12E IC designated as D0 to D3 respectively

according to the pin configuration of the IC. Here 10K ohm resistors are used at data pins as

pull-up resistors. The address of the transmitter is also hard-wired. Here all address pins are

grounded to allot transmitter an address of 0x00. The pin 14 of the IC is grounded to enable

transmission as it is active LOW. A switch can also be connected to pin 14 of the IC to reset

transmission. To set the oscillator, a resistor from 750MΩ to 1MΩ can be connected between pin

15 and 16 of the encoder IC. Here a 1MΩ resistor is used in the circuit. The serialized data is

passed on from pin 17 of the encoder IC to the pin 2 of the RF transmitter. A modulated carrier

wave is output from pin 4 of the RF transmitter and transmitted through the antenna.

At the receiver end, the modulated carrier wave is detected by the receiver antenna and passed on

to pin 8 of the RF receiver. The demodulated signal is output from pin 2 of the RF receiver

which is sent to pin 14 of HT12D decoder IC for converting to parallel data from the serial form.

A resistor between 30KΩ to 50KΩ can be connected between pins 15 and 16 of the decoder IC

to match the oscillator settings. Here, a 50KΩ resistor is used in the circuit. These values of the

resistances are dictated as according to the datasheets of HT12E and HT12D ICs. The address at
the decoder IC is again hard wired and should match with the address at encoder IC to enable the

pairing of transmitter and receiver.

Here all address pins are grounded to match the 0x00 address at the transmitter end. The received

data is fetched at pins 10 to 13 of HT12D which are designated as D0 to D3 respectively

according to the pin configuration of the decoder IC. In the experiment, received data is detected

with the help of LEDs. An LED serially connected to a 1KΩ pull-up resistor is interfaced to each

data pin to detect the digital signal at the respective pin. If the LED glows that means a HIGH

signal is receiving at that pin else a LOW signal is receiving at that pin. As the data is changed at

the encoder IC on altering the on/off status of the switches at data pins of the encoder IC, a

similar change in the on/off status of the LEDs connected to data pins of the decoder IC is

reflected.