
WSA5000 Functional Overview
Digital Down Converter
The DDC block takes the frequency band of interest and shifts it down in frequency, then
provides decimation of the sampling rate to one that is lower and consistent with the
bandwidth of the signal of interest. This enables channelization of signals having
bandwidth smaller than the IBW.
, the DDC has two major elements, an NCO (DDS) and a down
sampling with filtering. The NCO generates a complex sinusoid, which is mixed with the
IQ input using a complex multiplier, to shift or offset the signal spectrum from the selected
carrier frequency. This process provides the frequency fine-tuning (and shifting) feature
as mentioned in the previous subsections.
Figure 5:
DDC Functional Block Diagram
The complex multiplication is then followed by either a finite impulse response (FIR) filter
or cascaded integrator-comb (CIC) filters with a FIR filter combined. The CIC filter has a
‘droop’ associated with it in the passband. In order to compensate for this droop, the CIC
filter is followed by a compensating FIR filter. Each filter type has its own decimator.
This whole process effectively reduces the sample rate and filters the signal to remove
adjacent channels, minimize aliasing, and maximize the received signal-to-noise ratio.
Note:
The use of the NCO converts the in-phase signal (I data) input of the receiver's
DD, SH and SHN processing paths to complex I and Q data output. See
Triggers
Triggers provide a means of qualifying the storage of captured time domain IQ data
based on an external, periodic or frequency domain event. Triggering can be considered
a means of filtering signals of interest for the purposes of subsequent visualization
and/or analysis.
The following describes the different types of triggers and their common controls.
Selection of different types is mutually exclusive.
21
ThinkRF WSA5000 Wireless Signal Analyzer Programmer's Guide
NCO (DDS)
f
s
f
s
f
s
I
out
Q
out
I
in
Q
in