Digital radio frequenc: memory

Digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) is a technique in which high-speed sampling and digital memory is used to store radio frequency and microwave signals. It is becoming a popular technique for the implementation of false-target ECM systems. The paper discusses the principles of DRFM and the advantages of alternative system architectures.

by S .J. Roome
Introduction Digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) is a technique in which high-speed sampling and digital memory is used for the storage of radio frequency and microwave signals. The ability to store and recall radio and microwave signals has many possible applications. Currently the main application of DRFM technology is the storage and recreation of intercepted radar signals in order to deceive hostile radar systems.
1

diagram, DRFM systems may also have signal-processing abilities.2 These may be implemented in analogue form within the replay circuitry o r digitally. A particularly versatile option is to include facilities to transfer data between the high-speed memory and a general-purpose digital computer.

Electronic countermeasures If a signal from a radar is intercepted and then retransmitted back towards the radar transmitter after a suitable delay, it will appear to be due to a target. The false target will appear to be further from the radar than thc DRFM by a distance governed by the delay introduced, and at an angular position determined by the current direction of the main lobe of the radar antenna. A DRFM is an attractive way o h implementing a false-target system for the following reasons:
Once a radar signal has been intercepted and digitised it may be stored indefinitely without degradation-in contrast to analogue storage methods. With a suitable high-speed memory design, several signals may be simultaneously recreated with different delays. The amount of delay introduced by a DRFM may be adjusted in steps as small as one sample period. A DRFM is inherently compatible with computer control so that systcms with the short reaction times necessary for modern electronic warfare can be implemented.3

Digital radio frequency memory A simple block diagram of a DRFM system is shown in Fig. 1. The incoming RF signal is downshifted in frequency, sampled, and the resulting numbers stored in a high-speed digital memory. To recreate the stored signal the stored values are coherently reconstructed and then upconverted to the original RF frequency. The instantaneous bandwidth of the DRFM system is primarily determined by the sampling rate of the A/D convertor. However, in order to extend thc operational bandwidth of the system the local oscillator may be switched. The high-speed digital memory will need to be dual-ported so that radio signals may be recorded and replayed simultaneously. A multiported memory in which recording and multiple replays can occur simultaneously is desirable in many applications. In addition to the record and replay functions shown in the
2

Applications The ability to store and recreate radio and microwave signals in digital form has many possible applications. Currently the most attention is being directed to electronic warfare applications and, in particular, to the generation of false radar targets for electronic countermeasures (ECM) purposes.
3

-4

i l
cornroller

con concept
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LO

LO

Single-sideband DRFM

In addition to the generation of delayed coherent returns used to create false radar targets, the DRFM can be used to create continuous radio signals by repeatedly replaying all or part of a stored signal. This will require some form of phase correction to avoid a phase discontinuity between the beginning and end of each replay. This technique allows the DRFM to be used instead of a wideband seton oscillator as the source of CW signals, which can then be modulated to create continuous jamming signals.
Radar An interesting application of a DRFM is as the heart of a radar system. The DRFM memory is loaded with an artificially generated sequence of complex numbers and the resulting RF signal transmitted as a radar waveform. The return signal is then recorded by the DRFM, transferred to a digital computer and processed. This approach has the advantages of wide bandwidth, allowing high compression gain and pulse-topulse modulation agility whilst maintaining coherent processing. Clark and Ingram reported an experimental system using a 1 GHz 2 bit DRFM together with a microVAX I1 fitted with an array processor and demonstrated timebandwidth products as high as 16 000 together with a range of coherent processing including synthetic aperture radar (SAR).4 Other applications As well as the applications discussed above, DRFM technology may be exploited in other areas where the analysis and synthesis of RF and microwave pulses is required, such as electronic intelligence, electronic warfare environment simulation and test equipment.
148

Q DRFM architectures
There are several alternative DRFM architectures designed to :arry out the same basic task: to convert the input RF signal to a Frequency low enough to be sampled by a high-speed A/D zonvertor and to convert the output of the D/A convertor back to the original RF f r e q ~ e n c y . ~

Single sideband Perhaps the simplest DRFM architecture is the single-sideband system shown in Fig. 2. The input signal is bandpass filtered and then multiplied by a sinusoidal local oscillator (LO) signal. The following lowpass filter removes components above the Nyquist frequency together with the unwanted mixer products. The resulting signal is then sampled and stored in the high-speed memory system. The replay of a stored signal consists ol essentially the same process in reverse. The instantaneous bandwidth of the single-sideband system is theoretically equal to half the sampling frequency, but in practice the bandpass filter necessary to reject the unwanted sideband reduces this. This architecture has the advantages of conventional superheterodyne processing and superior rejection of spurious signals. Double sideband Fig. 3 shows a system in which the input signal is equally divided between two channels. In one channel the signal is multiplied by a sinusoidal signal from a local oscillator; this channel is denoted the in-phase, o r I, channel. The signal in the other channel is multiplied by the same local oscillator signal after it has been phase shifted by 90; this channel is denoted the quadrature, o r Q, channel. Both channels are then filtered to remove the upper

sideband and sampled. The two Zhannels are carefully matched, and the two sampling operations x c u r simultaneously. The resulting digital numbers hen describe the in-phase and quadrature components of a Y-ersion of the input signal that has been down-shifted in frequency. rhey are regarded as being the real and imaginary components of I complex-valued signal. If the input signal is sinusoidal the resul will describe a vector rotating in a circle. In Reference 5 it has been shown that the result of the quadrature detection process consists of the complex envelope of the input signal multiplied by a vector rotating at the difference frequency between the carrier frequency of the signal and the LC frequency. In Fig. 4,a method of recreating the original signal from the stored pairs of sampled values is shown. It is essentially the quadrature detection process carried out in reverse and this arrangement is known as a single-sideband (SSB) modulator. The presence of the quadrature channel means that input frequencies above the local oscillator frequency can be distinguished from those below and thus the instantaneous bandwidth of the system is equal to the sampling frequency. This architecture has the advantages of wide bandwidth and ready access to the instantaneous phase of the input signal. However, the two channels have to be carefully matched to keep spurious signal levels low.

Phase sampling The information content of an intercepted radar signal is mainly carried in the phase modulation o the signal. Radar signals are usually transmitted without intentional amplitude modulation
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during the pulse 0 to maximise the transmitted power 0 to minimise the effect of amplitude variations due to multipath propagation on the radar system 0 to enable a hard-limited radar receiver to be used to overcome the large variation in propagation losses with range. In a phase-sampled DRFM the amplitude information in the received signal is discarded and the instantaneous phase is quantised. This may be achieved by using a quadrature detector, as described above, and then using the sampled I and Q channel values to access a phase look-up table. A particularly simple phasesampled system is a quadrature detector with a comparator in each channcl.6 The resulting two bits describe the phase directly. The advantage of a phasesampled DRFM system is that its performance within a false target jammer is v c v similar to that of the double-sideband system whilst f requiring the storage o approximately hall the number of bits. It has the following disadvantages: Digital processing of the stored signal becomes more difficult. In particular the addition of signals must now be carried out in the analogue replay chain. 0 When more than one signal is received simultaneously the smaller signals will be suppressed by up to 6 dB and spurious products will be generated. An additional subsystem is required to ensure that thc recreated signal is transmitted at an appropriate level.

shift

lowpass

I channel

0 channel

Quadrature detector followed by A/D conversion

ccurs by division ot the input -equency, using a series of -equency halvers.8 Output signals re recreated using an equal umber of frequency doublers to :store the original frequency mge. This approach promises ompact wideband DRFMs but as a number of disadvantages: When several signals arc rcceivcd simultaneously, only the largest is divided. The remainder are mixed Lvith thc result and its harmonics to generate spurious signals. Frequency accuracy and coherency is likely to be rather poorer than with other architectures. Performance of DRFM systems The performance of a DRFM vstem is primarily determined by

three factors: the system architecture 0 the sampling frequency the number of quantisation bits.

Iti~tuntuneoushutzduidtlz The instantaneous bandu.idth B of a single-sideband system is given by

fW,,,,,/<,

B=u-

(1)

\\here l,,,,,,,,,, is the sampling lrequency and U is the available fraction of thc ideal band\vidth. U is less than unity because of the cflect of the handpass and antialiasing filters and is typically 0 5. For the double-sideband system. the above relation becomcs
B
U
=

d,',,,,,>/',

(2)

is greater than in ihe single-

Direct digital dotrwconversion Fig. 5 illustrates a direct digital down-conversion architecture. It is identical to the single-sideband system except that the input mixer is eliminated by deliberately allowing the input signal to be aliased into the passband ol the system. However, to keep spurious signal levels low requires a highperformance sample-and-hold circuit.' Direct frequency division All of the above system architectures reduce the frequency of the input signal by downward translation of the input frequency range. In the architecture shown in Fig. 6 frequency reduction
Q channel

oscillator

lowpass filter

D/A conversion followed by SSB modulator

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Dlcect dlgltal conversion DRFM

sideband case (typically 0.8) as there is no need to eliminate the unwanted sideband. This value can be increased if aliased signals can be tolerated at the band edges. The instantaneous bandwidth of a direct digital down-conversion system is the same a s in the singlesideband case. However, the bandwidth can be increased by allowing a number of RF bands to be aliased into the baseband. A separate detection system (e.g. an instantaneous frequency measurement [IFM] system) is then necessary to determine into which band the stored signal should be up-converted. For a frequency division system the instantaneous bandwidth is given by

:he nature of the received signal. For a sinusoidal input the pantisation noise will appear as a large number of spurious signals at harmonic frequencies aliased into the system bandwidth. For a oroadband input signal the quantisation noise appears a s an uncorrelated background noise across the system bandwidth. The quantisation noise power is basically independent of the input signal level but it is traditionally related to the power of a peak level sinewave signal. For a single rz-bit A/D convertor this gives a signal-to-quantisation noise ratio of

convertors is the same as that of a single-sideband system with one. The quantisation noise performance of a phase-sampled system is very dependent on the nature of the input signal. For sinusoidal signals the quantisation noise will appear a s spurious signals at harmonic frequencies. For an ideal n-bit system the spurious signals occur at the frequencies
o = Hoc with

(5)

SNR = 6.02n+l.76dB (4) In practice this figure will be enhanced by the effect of system = mafsurnple (3) filtering and degraded by A/D conversion nonlinearities. where a and fsumple are a s in the To establish the equivalent n is the single-sideband case and r frequency multiple, a power of relation for the double-sideband system we need to consider the two. effect of the SSB modulator on the addition of two quantised Quantisation noise signals. The wanted signals in the Quantisation noise is caused by the difference between the two channels are correlated but 90" out of phase; thus their received signal and its quantised powers add. The quantisation representation. It is particularly noise signals in the two channels important for DRFM systems as may be correlated or uncorrelated technology constraints mean that small numbers of quantisation bits but their powers add in either case. We thus obtain the, perhaps have to be used to be able to surprising, result that the signal-toachieve the necessary sampling noise ratio for a double-sideband rates. The appearance of the system with two n-bit A/D quantisation noise is dependent on

H = lfwz2' (6) where w, is the frequency of the input signal and m is any nonzero integer. The amplitude of the spectral components is given by
sin

(+)

F/Ho,

/Hn\

(7)

( 2 . )
Table 1 indicates the level of the largest spurious signal when a sinusoidal signal, of frequency w,, is represented by an ideal phase quantisation system of n bits.* H,, is the number of the largest harmonic present. F(w,) is the amplitude of the fundamental component, whilst F(H,,,w) is
'WORDSWORTH, G. B.: 'The spectral effects of phase quantisation', personal communication

.
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the amplitude of the largest harmonic. The quantisation noise performance of the direct digital down-conversion and frequency division systems are the same as For the single-sideband case.

Table 1 Peak spurious signal for a range of phase quantisation schemes

n,
bits 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

H m
-1 -3

F(%)
0.6366 0.9003 0.9745 0.9936 0.9984 0.9996 0.9999 1.oooo

F(Hd3
0.6366 0.3001 0.1392 0.0662 0.0322 0 . 0159 0.0079 0,0039

ratio, dB

Spurious signal levels We noted above that spurious signals are generated by the quantisation of correlated signals. In addition there are further sources of spurious signals in DRFM systems: modulation/demodulation errors multiple simultaneous signal performance rn out-of-band signals aliased into the system bandwidth. For the double-sideband system the major source of spurious signals is modulation/ demodulation errors, of which the most important are: rn phase error between the I and Q channels rn gain inbalance between the two channels rn local oscillator leakage rn DC offsets in the I and Q channels. These errors create two types of spurious signal: local oscillator leakage and DC offsets create a spurious signal at the centre frequency of the DRFM, whilst gain and phase error create a spurious signal that is a frequency reversed image of the input signal.5 The modulation/demodulation errors present in a phase-sampling system will depend on the design of the modulatar and demodulator. For a system based on a quadrature demodulator they will be similar to those of the double-sideband system. The primary source of spurious signals in phase sampling and direct frequency division systems is likely to be the simultaneous reception of multiple signals. The probability distribution of the resulting spurious signals is difficult to predict in either case and will probably need to be estimated for each DRFM application by computer modelling. All the DRFM architectures are liable to the generation of spurious signals by large out-of-band signals being aliased into the system bandwidth. This is primarily a function of filter performance rather than DRFM design.

-7
-15 -31 -63 -127 -255

0.0 -9.5 -16.9 -235 -29.8 -36.0 -42.1 -48.1

Signal distortion Variation of the frequency and phase response of the DRFM system across the system bandwidth will result in distortion of the received signals. This is particularly important for ECM systems since the effect on a radar system will be the formation of paired echoes? i.e. weak echoes before and after the generated false target.10 6 Simulation results To illustrate some of the points that have been discussed a number of computer simulations were carried out. The waveforms which would be obtained by a DRFM were simulated directly at
I

baseband and their spectrum obtained by using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). 1024 samples were simulated in each case and the frequencies of the input signals were chosen so that they fell in the centre of the FFT bins, thus eliminating window effects. Fig. 7 indicates the performance of an ideal double-sideband system with four bits in each channel. The input signal is sinusoidal at near peak level. It can be seen that quantisation has created a structure of spurious signals at odd harmonics of the input frequency, aliased into the bandwidth of the system. Fig. 8 is a more realistic indication of the performance of a

J
5

7 Pulse spectrum illustrating the performance of an ideal double-sideband system

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b
/

3.5

Pulse spectrum illustrating the performance of a double-sidebandsystem with demodulation errors

8

double-sideband system, again with four bits in each channel. a and b are sinusoidal input signals with a near peak level and b 10 dB below. c and d are image signals caused by a small (1 dB) gain imbalance between the I and Q channels. The remaining background signals are due to quantisation noise. Perhaps the most interesting feature of this figure is the degree to which the quantisation noise has been decorrelated by the presence of the second input signal and the spurious signals due to demodulation errors. Fig. 9 indicates the performance of an ideal four-bit phase quantisation system with the same input signals (a and b) as in the previous figure. The smaller input signal has been suppressed by 5.7 dB and there is a complex structure of spurious signals. Fig. 10 indicates the performance of a four-bit phase system using a phase look-up table, based on the doublesideband system of Fig. 8. The received signals and the largest spurious signals are almost identical with those of the ideal Four-bit system. However, the presence of the quantisation noise in the I and Q channel signals has had the effect of partially destroying the structure of the remaining spurii. c is a suppressed version of the image of received signal a and d is a suppressed version of the I channel offset.

b
/

Pulse spectrum Illustrating the performance of an ideal &bit phase-sampling system

Conclusions Digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) is a technique for the storage and reconstruction of RF and microwave signals based on the use of high-speed sampling and digital memory. This paper has discussed the fundamentals of DRFM technology and its main areas of application. The performance of a DRFM system is primarily determined by the system architecture the sampling frequency the number of quantisation bits. The most important performance criteria are the instantaneous bandwidth 0 the quantisation noise level the level of spurious signals the amount of signal distortion. rhe characteristics of a number of system architectures have been discussed. The most appropriate architecture for any particular application will depend on the nature of the RF environment in
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w h i c h t h e s y s t e m is t o be used and t h e performance levels required.

Acknowledgments The basic principle of t h e DRFM was invented by C h r i s Haynes of EM1 Electronics Ltd. i n 1974 and published as British Patent 1605203, I would like to t h a n k t h e d i r e c t o r of THORN EM1 C e n t r a l
R e s e a r c h Laboratories for p e r m i s s i o n to publish t h i s papcr

O /
-10

and many friends and colleagues for t h e i r contributions.

References I WEBBER. G., CULP, J., and ROBINSON, M: 'DRFM requirements demand innovative technology', Microwave J., February 1986, pp. 91-104 2 CLARK. D. G. D.: 'Dieital IF processing'. Militan Microwaves '88 Conf., 5th-7th July 1988, pp. 354-359 3 HEY-SHIPTON G. L.: 'Digital radio frequencv memories'. Milita; Mi&owaks '86 Conf., 24th-26th June 1986, Brighton, UK, pp. 293-6 4 CLARK. D. G. D.. and INGRAM. P M.: 'Thc use of digital RF memones in radar signal processing'. Radar '87, July 1987. ICE Coiif. Prrhl. 2x1, pp. 305-309 5 ROOME. S. J.: 'Analysis of quadrature detectors using complex envelope notation', I Proc. F, Radar & S i p u l P r u c r s , 1989, (2) pp. 95-100 6 WORDSWORTH. G. B., and CLARK, D. G. D.: 'Gigahertz bandwidth multibit phase sampling and reconstruction of microwavc signals'. 1986 IEEE MlT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Digest 0-3, pp. 371-374 7 MOORE, S . E., GILCHRIST. B. E.. and GALLI, J. G.: 'Microwave sampling effective lor ultrabroadband frequency conversion'. Microwave S)'st. Il'eua d; Cornmrrn. Ted?., February 1986, pp. 113126 8 BROWNE, J.: 'Frequencv halvcrs fortify front ends', Microwaves & RF, May
Y

-20 m
U
L

H
- 30 -40

- 50
2.5

II I'
10

3.0 frequency,GHz
I

Pulse spectrum illustrating the performance of a phase-sampledsystem based on the double-sidebandsystem of Fig. 8
1985. pp, 287-288 9 Wheeler, H. A.: 'The intcipretation of amplitude and phasc distortion in terms of paired echos', Proc. Inst. Radio Ell&, June 1939, pp. 359-385 I O DIFRANCO, J. V., and RUBIN, W. L.: 'Analysis of signal processing distonion in radar systems', I R E Truiis., April 1962, MIL-6. pp. 219-227
0 IEE 1990

First received 20th February and in relised Form 4th June 1990 Dr Roome was formerly with THORN EM1 Central Research Laboratories and is now vith Software Sciences Ltd.. Meudon Avenue, Farnborough GU14 7NB. UK. He is an IEE Member.

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