This study presents an architecture to increase the instantaneous dynamic range of multi-carrier wideband digital receivers. The proposed topology includes a directional coupler followed by two parallel analog-to-digital converters and digital signal processing to reconstruct the signal. It will be shown that the proposed technique is able to increase the dynamic range of software-defined radio (SDR) receivers for multiband signals presenting certain statistical patterns. The concept is validated by simulations and measurements of a real SDR front-end receiver for multiband communications scenario, which will demonstrate improvements in the order of 6 dB when compared to existing alternatives.

References

1. 1)
  - J. Mitola . The software radio architecture. IEEE Commun. Mag. , 5 , 26 - 38
2. 2)
  - 16. Gregers-Hansen, V., Brockett, S.M., Cahill, P.E.: ‘A stacked A-to-D converter for increased radar signal processor dynamic range’. Proc. IEEE Radar Conf., May 2001, pp. 169–174.
3. 3)
  - 11. Kurosawa, N., Kobayashi, H., Maruyama, K., Sugawara, H., Kobayashi, K.: ‘‘Explicit analysis of channel mismatch effects in time-interleaved ADC systems’, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I, Fundam. Theory Appl., 2001, 48, (3), pp. 261–271 (doi: 10.1109/81.915383).
4. 4)
  - 18. Lin, Y., Doris, K., Hegt, H., van Roermund, A.H.M.: ‘An 11b pipeline ADC with parallel-sampling technique for converting multi-carrier signals’, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I, Regul. Pap., 2012, 59, (5), pp. 906–914 (doi: 10.1109/TCSI.2012.2185299).
5. 5)
  - 9. Uchimura, K., Hayashi, T., Kimura, T., Iwata, A.: ‘Oversampling A-to-D and D-to-A converters with multistage noise shaping modulators’, IEEE Trans. Acoust. Speech Signal Process., 1988, 36, (12), pp. 1899–1905 (doi: 10.1109/29.9034).
6. 6)
  - 17. Cruz, P.M., Carvalho, N.B.: ‘Architecture for dynamic range extension of analog-to-digital conversion’. IEEE Int. Microwave Workshop Series on RF Front-ends for Software Defined and Cognitive Radio Solutions, Aveiro, Portugal, February 2010.
7. 7)
  - B. Gustavsen , A. Semlyen . Rational approximation of frequency domain responses by vector fitting. IEEE Trans. Power Deliv. , 1 , 1052 - 1061
8. 8)
  - 20. Chen, Y., Pollok, A., Haley, D., Davis, L.M.: ‘ADC diversity for software defined radios’. SDR – Wireless Innovation Forum, Washington, DC, January 2013.
9. 9)
  - 22. Hittite Microwave Corp.: ‘70 dB extended dynamic range SDLVA using HMC913LC4B’. Application Note, Chelmsford, MA, 2010.
10. 10)
  - 4. Cruz, P.M., Carvalho, N.B.: ‘Enhanced architecture to increase the dynamic range of SDR receivers’. IEEE Radio and Wireless Symp., Phoenix, AZ, January 2011, pp. 331–334.
11. 11)
  - 19. Lin, Y., Doris, K., Janssen, E., Zanikoupolos, A., Murroni, A., van der Weide, G., Hegt, H., van Roermund, A.: ‘An 11b 1GS/s ADC with parallel sampling architecture to enhance SNDR for multi-carrier signals’. Proc. ESSCIRC, September 2013, pp. 121–124.
12. 12)
  - 15. Doris, K.: ‘Data processing device comprising ADC unit’. U.S. Patent no. 7944383, May 2011.
13. 13)
  - 21. Agilent Technologies Inc.: ‘4 steps for making better power measurements’. Application Note no. 5965–8167E, Santa Clara, CA, June 4, 2008.
14. 14)
  - 3. Kou, Y., Wu-Sheng, L., Antoniou, A.: ‘New peak-to-average power-ratio reduction algorithms for multicarrier communications’, IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I, Regul. Pap., 2001, 51, (9), pp. 1790–1800 (doi: 10.1109/TCSI.2004.834510).
15. 15)
  - S. Lloyd . Least squares quantisation in PCM. IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory , 129 - 137
16. 16)
  - 5. Tsui, J.B.: ‘Digital techniques for wideband receivers’ (SciTech Publishing, Inc., Raleigh, NC, 2004, 2nd edn.).
17. 17)
  - 14. Caduff, C., Caillet, R.: ‘ADC with dynamic range extension’. U.S. Patent no. 7365664, April 2008.
18. 18)
  - W.C. Black , D.A. Hodges . Time interleaved converter arrays. IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits , 1022 - 1029
19. 19)
  - J. Max . Quantizing for minimum distortion. IRE, Trans. Inf. Theory , 7 - 12
20. 20)
  - 8. Reeder, R., Looney, M., Hand, J.: ‘Pushing the state of the art with multichannel A/D converters’, Analog Dialogue (Analog Devices, Inc., Norwood, MA, 2005), vol. 39, (2), pp. 7–10.
21. 21)
  - 12. Oberhammer, W., Li, B.: ‘Dynamic range extension of wideband receiver’. U.S. Patent no. 6333707, December 2001.
22. 22)
  - 24. Cruz, P.M., Carvalho, N.B.: ‘PAPR evaluation in multi-mode SDR transceivers’. Proc. 38th European Microwave Conf., Amsterdam, Netherlands, October 2008, pp. 1354–1357.
23. 23)
  - 25. Gharaibeh, K.M., Gard, K.G., Steer, M.B.: ‘Accurate estimation of digital communication system metrics – SNR, EVM andρ in a nonlinear amplifier environment’. Proc. 64th ARFTG Microwave Measurements Conf., Orlando, FL, December 2004, pp. 41–44.
24. 24)
  - J. Mitola , G.Q. Maguire . Cognitive radio: making software radios more personal. IEEE Pers. Commun. , 9 , 13 - 18
25. 25)
  - 13. Francis, C.L.: ‘Large dynamic range digitizing apparatus and method’. U.S. Patent no. 6445328, September 2002.

Improving dynamic range of software-defined radio receivers for multi-carrier wireless systems

References

Related content