Frequency-Agile Real-Time All-Digital Transmitter With 1 GHz of Bandwidth

This brief presents an all-digital transmitter implemented in a field programmable gate array (FPGA) that surpasses the state of art in terms of carrier frequency agility as well as in bandwidth using a single multi-gigabit transmitter. These figures of merit were achieved through the optimization of the delta-sigma modulator architecture as well as by the utilization of higher-order filters in such modulator. Results show an error vector magnitude (EVM) of around 4% for carrier frequencies in the 2 to 9 GHz range and under 8% in the 1 to 2 GHz and 9 to 12 GHz range using a 1 GHz bandwidth, 16-QAM signal, which would comply with EVM standards under the 5G protocol.