The Design of an Analogue Rf Front End for a Multi-role Radio

The drive towards a So@are-Defked which much of the processing is n A Warr, R J Wilkinson, J P McGeehan Centre for Communications Research University of Bristol, UK Radio (SDR) in Recent advances INTRODUCTION in analogue-to-digital conversion and controlled by digital processing technology have led to increasing reprogrammable digital hardware is placing new demands on the analogue RFji-ont-end. In order to facilitate multirole multi-mode operation, this must impose the minimum of constraints on the parameters that can be defined in so~are, while still oflering performance which is at least as good as today’s application-specljic radios. l%is paper outlines some of the areas of research being carried out at the University of Bristol, ji.mded by DERA, in an attempt to improve the~exibility andperformance of the analogue Wfiont-end of a multi-role radio. v interest in the concept of a Software-Defined Radio (SDR) [1]. Such a radio would have all its main operating parameters defined in software rather than hardware and would therefore be extremely flexible, with obvious benefits in both military and commercial applications. For the military, such technology would provide a method of combining a number of radios into one unit, providing savings in terms of size, weight, cost and logistics support. Its software programmability would also have benefits in terms of upgradability and inter-operation between nations, leading to shorter procurement cycles and an ability to respond more rapidly to advances in technology .———————-—, I Input I I 1.6-2690 MHz I Wanted -113 to +7 dBm I I Interferww I I O dBm (manpack) ~ +42dBm (vehicle) I ——-—————-—— ~ _——--— —-&:~f~u~ -6dB ; --—L .—-—-— —--—-~——_—— I Image rajactiom 100 dB I IF reJec40n 90 dB -—-—— -—-I Spurious rapctiort 73 dB I r -----——-—-— —-— I 31P mferrad to antenna I Ad]aoant channel rejection 100dB ~ I -2dBm(manpack) ~ ~ 1 Vatiabla BW 0.2-1728 kHz I SFDR 109dB (manpack) ,–__––– _——-— — . L._–__–––__–-_--: l–-_-xfnmwd6L__. ! , Spurious rqection. 73 dB I , SFDR 100dB (manpack) I