A Digital Down Converter IP Core is a digital signal processing algorithm that is widely used in digital radio receivers. The Digital Down Converter IP Core (DDC IP Core) converts a digitized band of high sample rate to a lower frequency signal, typically frequency translation from Intermediate Frequency (IF) band to a baseband signal, while retaining all the information. Digital Down Converter FPGA is used in high-performance equipment, providing superior quality with optimal mixing without non-linear distortions, phase noise or temperature stability problems, fully controllable filters and decimation, and the possibility of programmable digital channel equalization.

Digital Down Converter IP Core

The Digital Down Converter FPGA from Mistral is a wide-band DDC IP Core, typically used in digital receivers for defense and aerospace applications. The Digital Down Converter IP Core provides the digital signal processing logic on FPGA required to down-convert the desired frequency band using FPGAs. The principal components of the Digital Down Converter FPGA IP Core (DDC IP Core) are the tuner (Mixer and NCO/DDS) and the polyphase decimating filters. Features such as input/output data widths, number of filter taps, decimation factors, and provision for fixed or dynamically loadable filter coefficients of the Digital Down Converter IP Core are customizable according to the user’s requirements.

The programmable Digital Down Converter FPGA IP Core provides digital signal processing (DSP) logic required to down-convert the desired frequency band with decimation factors of 2 to 16 in steps of 1. Mistral’s Digital Down Converter FPGA is designed to be Programmable (Run-time), customizable (of the IP), and offer optimal resource utilization and support for Xilinx and Intel (Altera) FPGAs.

The Digital Down Converter IP Core can improve the performance of any basic dual-down-conversion receiver by eliminating the imbalance-related distortion created by an analog IF mixer and also avoiding phase distortion from analog filters. After the Digital Down Conversion, the sample rate is significantly reduced, and developers have a more efficient implementation of the DSP routines that further process the data. However, a Digital Down Converter FPGA requires a high-speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and real-time data processing. One of the main advantages of using an FPGA to implement Digital Down Converter IP Core is the speed and the option to customize the filter chain to meet exact requirements.

Digital Down Converter FPGA Core

The wide-band DDC IP Core provides the DSP logic required to down-convert the desired frequency band. It is ideal for digital receivers used in defense and aerospace applications.

Numerically Controlled Oscillator (NCO): Digital Down Converter uses a Xilinx / Altera IP for generating sine and cosine outputs. It supports run time configuration for frequency tuning and phase offset. The DDS provides SFDR of 120 dB using Taylor Series correction.

Polyphase Decimating Filter: Polyphase filter is an efficient way of implementing decimating filters. It uses fixed number of taps (P) for different decimation factors (D). This is equivalent to an FIR filter with P*D taps followed by a decimator D. Two polyphase filters are used; one each for in-phase and quadrature mixer outputs.

Mixer: It multiplies the input with sine and cosine outputs of NCO and generates in-phase and quadrature outputs.

Mistral’s Digital Down Converter FPGA offers several benefits in digital signal processing applications. The Digital Down Converter FPGA provides high-speed processing capabilities, allowing for real-time signal processing and analysis. Digital Down Converter IP Core can handle complex algorithms and deliver fast and accurate results. The DDC IP Core is programmable, enabling customization and adaptation to specific application requirements. It offers flexibility in selecting sampling rates, filter parameters, and other processing parameters to optimize performance.

Benefits of Digital Down Converter FPGA Core

Mistral’s DDC IP Core optimizes resource utilization, maximizing the processing power available on the FPGA. This ensures efficient usage of the hardware resources and enables cost-effective implementation of signal processing functions. By integrating the DDC functionality into an FPGA, Mistral simplifies system design and reduces the need for external components. This leads to a more compact and streamlined solution, saving space and reducing overall system complexity. The Digital Down Converter FPGA is designed to be power-efficient, minimizing power consumption while delivering high-performance signal processing capabilities. This is particularly advantageous in portable and battery-powered applications.

Mistral’s Digital Down Converter IP Core reduces the application development time and allows easy integration with other complex applications. To know more about Digital Down Converter FPGA, aka, Digital Down Converter IP Core (DDC IP Core), write to us.