Satellite Communication

Satellite communication has allowed for advances in global navigation, weather, mobile phones, radio, and television.

The Up-Link and Down-Link segments of Satellite’s contain RF frequencies up to approximately 7 GHz (L, S, and C-Bands) and for the 5G mobile/base station configurations up to 6 GHz and in the milli-meter wave bands (24 to 86 GHz).

On the receive side a weak analog signal is amplified and down converted to an Intermediate Frequency (IF) which is then fed into a high-performance digitizer for efficient processing.

• Wide analog bandwidth for flexibility in selecting the IF bandwidth
• High speed sampling needed for signal bandwidth and low noise aliasing
• High spurious free dynamic range to resolve low level signals
• Digital down converter to reduce the sample frequency and increase signal to noise ratio
• Decimation filtering for improved ENOB
• Open FPGA for custom real-time digital signal processing
• High data transfer rate is needed to support fast post-processing
• Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) use L-band up to 1.6 GHz. This can be recorded by direct sampling and avoiding analog mixers.

• ADQ7WB Digitizer
  12 Bit two channel 5 GSPS/Channel with a 6.5GHz analog bandwidth.
• ADQ7DC Digitizer
  14 Bit one channel 10 GSPS or two channels at 5 GSPS/Channel with a 3GHz analog bandwidth.
• SDR14TX - Arbitrary Waveform Generator
  14-bit two analog channel 2 GHz/Channel.
• FW2DDC - Digital Down-conversion Firmware
  Analog input channels receive either RF signals or (using two channels) I and Q or two differential signals.

• For information about the FW2DDC firmware package (Digital Down-conversion Firmware) and the frequency planning see here.
• For information about the optional firmware packages and development kit see here.