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

This paper presents a simple method for calculating the output spectra of a half-wave linear rectifier excited by frequency-, quasi-frequency- and amplitude-modulated waves. By representing the half-wave linear rectifier characteristic by a Fourier series, closed-form expressions, in terms of the ordinary Bessel functions, are obtained for the amplitudes of the output components. The expressions obtained are compared with previously published expressions and, as a by-product, some apparently new results concerning Bessel functions are obtained.