RF Performance Characterization of Direct Digital Wideband Transceivers Using Digital/RF Cross-Domain Stimulus Response

摘要

With advancements in system integration and high speed data converters, high performance phased array antenna (PAA) systems become practical in very small form factors. This expands their use cases in a variety of communication and RF sensing applications.^2 This article discusses the performance characterization challenges associated with highly integrated RF front-end and digital baseband devices, including the RF path in digital beamforming or software-defined radio devices, RF transceiver ICs and high speed data converters. The development of a new digital and RF cross-domain stimulus/response method is introduced using a vector network analyzer (VNA) and measurement examples are provided for a digital and RF mixed signal device.