High-speed ADC technology paves the way for SDR

Software Defined Radio (SDR) addresses the tremendous capital expenditure demands placed on operators as wireless standards continue to evolve and change. The cost to install infrastructure is considerable, and it's this cost that inhibits rapid adoption and deployment of new wireless technologies. This poses a significant hindrance to the agility of operators in offering new and improved services to their subscribers.

Paradoxically, the goal of a fully reconfigurable radio that can adapt to a new standard or accommodate multiple standards simply through software upgrades is not limited by software. Indeed, it is the analogue domain and its bridge to the digital world that presents system designers with their biggest challenge. The focus of this article is on the challenges of analogue-to-digital (A/D) conversion as they pertain to SDR implementations, and how breakthroughs in analogue-to-digital converters (ADCs) can bring true SDR closer to reality.

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