Analysis and implementation of six-port software-defined radio receiver platform

With recent advances in semiconductor processing technology and the development of reconfigurable devices, high bit-rate software-defined radio (SDR) has become practical for commercial applications. This paper proposes an SDR receiver platform based on a new substrate integrated waveguide six-port structure. This SDR receiver platform operates from 22 to 26 GHz and it is designed to be robust, low cost, and suitable for different communication schemes. In this study, the receiver is demonstrated to support quadrature phase-shift keying and 16 quadrature amplitude modulation schemes. System-level simulation is made and prototype circuits are fabricated to evaluate the system performance. It is found that the combination of SDR and six-port technology can provide a great flexibility in system configuration, a significant reduction in system development cost, and also a high potential for software reuse. The proposed receiver shows a possible application of universal direct demodulator for future SDR terminals in various wireless communication systems.