Reference Design

Tracking Receiver System

A tracking receiver locates unknown signals, locks unto them and tracks them if their frequency changes.

Source: Pentek, Inc.
6/1/2007

This tracking receiver design uses the Pentek Model 6821 215 A/D converter VME board with 215 MHz max sampling. In particular, we use its 128 MB SDRAM to create a memory delay function.
Samples from the A/D are sent into a circular buffer inside the SDRAM and also to an FFT IP core implemented in one of the two Virtex-II Pro FPGAs of the Model 6821. The spectral peaks of the FFT indicate the signals of interest present in the input signal that we want to track.