A high dynamic range Digital Down-Converter for software radio application

As Digital Signal Processing encroaches further into a radio receiver´s RF sections, the dynamic range that must be handled by the Digital DownConverter (DDC) increases. This paper presents a high dynamic range DDC designed using HDL Design Studio and SystemView. The techniques applied to attain >100 dB spur-free dynamic range in a compact design are reviewed. This is followed by a presentation of the automated design-flow from system-level design through to synthesis in FPGA technology.