Maxim Integrated Products Inc. has launched the MAX5879 multi-Nyquist RF digital-to-analog converter (RF DAC) that delivers a fully digital software-defined radio (SDR) transmitter, enabling a common hardware platform for multicarrier, multiband, and multistandard base stations.
Working with FPGA-based direct digital synthesis (DDS), the MAX5879 RF DAC architecture shifts the functions of the analog quadrature modulator and agile local oscillator (LO) used in current architectures into the digital domain. This eliminates in-phase and quadrature errors, and LO feedthrough, commonly associated with analog upconversion. The MAX5879 dramatically simplifies RF design and improves reliability for base station transmitters.
The MAX5879’s selectable frequency response modes support direct RF synthesis of common 3G/4G cellular bands in multiple Nyquist zones from 700 MHz to 2.8 GHz. A single MAX5879 RF DAC serves multiple standards such as multicarrier GSM, WCDMA and LTE without compromising dynamic performance. This allows designers to use a common hardware platform that cuts development time-to-market.