Digital Signal Processing in IF/RF Data Converters

To meet the ever increasing data demands of smartphone functionality, the infrastructure architecture of modern digital mobile communication systems must constantly evolve to accommodate wider bandwidths and faster data conversion. Functional processing blocks that are now being utilized in data conversion architectures to achieve faster data rates are digital IF processing, DDC (digital downconverter), and DUC (digital upconverter). These digital functions can be realized in DSPs and FPGAs and some big companies also build their own digital IF processing ASICs. ADI is integrating more and more of these digital IF processing blocks into high speed converter ICs, which significantly relieves design work and provides cost and power savings in the system. This article explores the integrated DDC and DUC channels in ADI’s IF and RF converters and explains how they work in real-world applications.