Jeffery A. Wepman and J. Randy Hoffman

Abstract: Hardware development of analog-to-digital converters (ADC's) and digital signal processors, including specialized integrated circuits, has advanced rapidly within the last few years. These advances have paved the way for development of radio receivers using digitization at the IF and in some cases at the RF. Applications for these receivers are expected to increase rapidly in areas such as cellular mobile, satellite, and personal communications services (PCS) systems. The constraints placed on these receivers due to hardware limitations of these devices are investigated in this paper. Some examples of state-of-the-art ADC's, signal processors, and specialized integrated circuits are listed. Various quantization techniques, nonlinear compression devices, postdigitization algorithms for improving dynamic range, sampling downconverters, and specialized integrated circuits are discussed as they are expected to be useful in the development of these types of receivers. Several examples of radio receivers employing digitization at the IF and RF are also presented.

Reissued February 2014.

Keywords: automatic gain control devices; digital signal processors; digitization; logarithmic amplifiers; quantization; radio receivers; sampling downconverters; signal-to-noise ratio; spurious free dynamic range; analog-to-digital converter

Disclaimer: Certain commercial equipment, components, and software may be identified in this report to specify adequately the technical aspects of the reported results. In no case does such identification imply recommendation or endorsement by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, nor does it imply that the equipment or software identified is necessarily the best available for the particular application or uses.

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