In many of the next generation ADCs I can see that optiional Digital Downconverters are available. Can you provide some insight as to the benefits of using these?
Answer: In many Electronic Surveillance systems digital down converters are used to interrogate narrow band signals that were detected as part of the signal detection analysis. In the next generation ADCs DDCs are incorporoated and these do provide a number of advantages. In particular they offer the potential to save a lot of power, ensuring that only the required data is passed between the ADC and the FPGA. However, it is proably debatable as to how useful these are in a Elecyronic Surveillance system as when the DDCs are used the system would not have the benefit of doing wideband surveillance at the same time. In addtion with JESD204B there is only so much decimation that can be implemented, in that there is a minumum lane rate that can be sued and decimating beyond this woudl not have any power advantages.
