Direct IF Synthesis of Vector Modulated Signals using Real-Time Signal Processing

In this contribution, advanced signal processing techniques are employed to develop a flexible, high performance arbitrary waveform generator while keeping hardware complexity to a minimum. The waveform memory saving benefit of real-time signal processing is exploited, with the added stipulation of a fixed frequency sample clock. In this manner, flexibility is achieved without the need to resort to a lower performance variable sample clock and variable analog filtering of the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) output. The proposed approach is realized with a computational burden similar to current field programmable gate array (FPGA) based solutions, yielding improved performance without moving to more complex, inflexible application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) solutions. Thus, the flexibility provided by an FPGA is maintained while the overall system is simplified.