FPGA-based ultra-fast and wideband instantaneous frequency measurement receiver

Abstract

In this paper, an ultra-wideband, ultra-fast, fine resolution and compact digital instantaneous frequency measurement (DIFM) is proposed. The algorithm is implemented on the platform of Virtex-5 Field Programmable Grid Array (FPGA) from Xilinx. Due to only one high speed comparator with some relative circuits are needed, this DIFM can be blended in other digital system with compact size. The RocetIO GTP has been successfully introduced in this system for the interface with comparator. Thanks to the advantage of 1.46 GHz wideband, the large numbers of RF channels required in traditional solutions can be decreased. Comparing to traditional analog and digital method, this design is more flexible to reconfigure, easy to adjust, and with smaller size. The measurement results show that our invention is capable of detecting short wave pulse and continuous wave (CW) signal from DC to 1.46 GHz with a major error within 1.25 MHz in less than 200 ns throughput time. This digital instantaneous frequency measurement (DIFM) system has been successfully used in radar systems.

A comparison of modified periodogram and Blackman-Tucky methods for wideband receiver applications

“…The wideband receiver like an electronic warfare receiver is designed to detect an unknown number of signals and determine their characteristics [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. A simplified Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)-based wideband receiver is illustrated in Fig.…”

Digital Instantaneous Frequency Measurement of a Real Sinusoid Based on Three Sub-Nyquist Sampling Channels

“…In recent decades, with the development of high-speed analog to digital converter (ADC), field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and photonic devices, many researchers have developed various digital instantaneous frequency measurement (DIFM) technologies [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. DFT algorithm is a simple algorithm widely used in frequency estimation [4][5][6][7][8].…”

“…is will increase hardware complexity and cost. Monobit ADC sampling [9,10] and photonic technology [11][12][13] can achieve a large bandwidth of tens of GHz owing to their ultrahigh sampling rate. However, the drawbacks are obvious, with errors of up to several hundred megahertz.…”