A Simple Signal Shaper for GMSK/GFSK and MSK Modulator Based on Sigma-Delta Look-up Table

Due to wide power spectrums of rectangular data streams, it is important for base-band signals to be heavily band limited before modulation. That can be achieved by pulse shaping of rectangular bits. Some of the most common are a half-sine pulse shaper and a Gaussian pulse shaper which are used in Minimum Shift Keying (MSK), Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) and Gaussian Frequency Shift Keying (GFSK) modulations, respectively. The most common solutions of such shapers use PCM based look-up-table (LUT), which requires an nbit D/A converter. We proposed the use of a 1-bit Sigma Delta Modulation (SDM) LUT, which results in smaller ROM capacity, a 1-bit wide output word, and a simple1-bit D/A converter realized as an out-of-chip first-order lowpass RC filter, or an in-chip charge pump. This article describes a simple, but efficient SDM LUT-based half-sine and Gaussian shaper that can be used for generation of MSK and GMSK/GFSK modulated signals. Oscillograms and power spectrums are measured on SDM LUT realized in FLEX Altera PLD, for a 10-bit pseudo-noise sequence test input signal.