Evaluating Direct RF Sampling Performance for RFSoC-based Radio-frequency Astronomy Receivers

Abstract

As the maximum RF input and output frequencies of the integrated data converters in RFSoC increase, it becomes practical to digitize and synthesize RF signals in the majority of C band directly without analogue up and down mixing circuits. The elimination of the mixer circuits can significantly simplify the architecture of the receivers or readouts for radio astronomy telescopes. For the systems with large bandwidth or high channel counts, direct sampling can dramatically reduce the size and cost of overall system. This paper with focus on summarising part of the preliminary characterization results for direct sampling with RFSoC data converters in higher order Nyquist zones.