Electronic – With an amplitude modulated signal, why does a bandpass filter not filter out the signal of interest

amplifierfilterradio

See the title. You could imagine that I am asking about an AM radio, but I will use a simpler example with a lock-in amplifier.

Let's say that I have a lock-in amplifier with a reference frequency of 330 Hz. If I take that signal and modulate it at 0.01 Hz and connect that to the input of the lock-in, then look at the DC output of, say, the X channel, I can see that modulation, even if the lock-in is AC coupled, with a cutoff frequency of 1 Hz (3 orders of magnitude higher).

I do not understand why this is. It seems to me to be the same as an AM radio. If you have a 500 kHz carrier frequency modulated by your signal, if you connect that to a bandpass filter, you still get your signal out, right?

So, to rephrase my question: why is the signal of interest not filtered out in both of the above cases?

Thanks!

Best Answer

In the frequency domain, AM modulation ("multiplication") is the convolution of the modulated signal with the carrier. Thus, the Fourier Transform energy is at the carrier frequency, and has the bandwidth of the original signal.

So, as long as the width of your lock-in filter is as wide as the bandwidth of the original signal, you don't lose signal.