RFEL adds new Wideband DDC to its signal processing range

Newport, Isle of Wight, UK - October 6, 2014 - RFEL has announced the latest addition to its range of award winning FPGA based signal processing solutions. The flexible Wideband Digital Down-Converter (Wideband DDC) IP core is designed to accept wideband digitised data at sample rates of up to 3.6GS/s, supporting first or second Nyquist bandwidths of up to 1.8GHz.

RFEL's highly flexible and compact Wideband DDC is ideal for communications, electronic warfare and surveillance applications

Signals with bandwidths as high as 180MHz can be down-converted to complex baseband (I/Q) from anywhere within the chosen input Nyquist band, within the limits imposed by the signal bandwidth. The down-conversion frequency is tuneable over the entire 1.8GHz range, with an accuracy of better than 1Hz, enabling, for example, the total removal of intermediate frequency (IF) components. The extracted signal bandwidth is precisely selectable in the range 800Hz to 180MHz. This is provided through user control of the output sample rate, which may be programmed in the range 1kS/s to 225MS/s with an accuracy of better than 1S/s.

High performance filtering provides a spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) of at least 80dB, with a passband peak-to-peak ripple of less than 0.1dB.

User control of the down-conversion frequency and output sample rate, makes the core eminently suitable for Software Defined Radio (SDR), Electronic Warfare (EW), signal surveillance and generic digital receiver applications.

The wideband DDC complements RFEL's range of "channeliser" designs that provide flexible down-conversion for single and multiple channel applications.

Alex Kuhrt, RFEL's CEO added, "The ability to down-convert a signal, from a bandwidth as high as 1.8GHz, makes the Wideband DDC an obvious choice for communications, electronic warfare and surveillance applications. We use the latest Xilinx and Altera FPGA technology, so that solutions can be made compact, lightweight and low power. Furthermore, the use of a flexible architecture makes the product easily configurable to the customer's specific needs."

Wideband DDC Architecture

The Wideband DDC will be launched at MILCOM (6-8 October 2014), where RFEL is presenting their range of signal and video processing solutions (Baltimore Convention Center, booth 468). The product, formally specified in a datasheet, is available now. Special configurations, such as those supporting multiple inputs, are available on request.

RFEL

RFEL Ltd is a UK-based innovative electronic systems designer, providing real-time high specification signal, image and video processing products, FPGA solutions and design services to defence, security, communications and instrumentation markets.