Figure 1: Traditional superheterodyne radio architectures can meet performance targets, but their complexity prevents them from meeting emerging targets for minimal SWaP. Image source: Analog Devices
Aerospace and defense (ADEF) system designers face unrelenting demand for lower power and more compact communications systems that are capable of an agile response to a dynamic signals environment. Moving beyond traditional radio architectures, software-defined radio (SDR) technology can help meet the fast- changing requirements for ADEF radios, but SDR implementation has presented multiple challenges for meeting both the functional requirements and the need for reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP). This article describes a more effective SDR solution from Analog Devices that can simplify the design of low-power, compact, and agile communications systems without compromising performance. Emerging challenges drive more demanding requirements Designers face a demand for more effective communications in a growing number of industrial and mission-critical applications, including secure
radio communications, adaptive radar, electronic warfare, and enhanced GPS navigation. These new challenges drive a need for enhanced wideband operation, higher dynamic range, greater frequency agility, and reconfigurability. However, these more demanding functional requirements can conflict with the need for lower SWaP as communications systems move to smaller battery-powered platforms, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAS) and portable units. Design solutions based on traditional discrete superheterodyne radio architectures offer high performance, wide dynamic range, and minimal spurious noise. For designers, the challenge of isolating the desired signal from the intermediate frequency (IF) at the heart of this approach typically results in complex designs with high SWaP and little to no reconfigurability (Figure 1). In contrast, direct conversion (zero- IF) architectures reduce both the filtering requirements and the need for very high-bandwidth analog-to- digital converters (ADCs), resulting in a simpler design that can be
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