Direct Digital Synthesis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Direct Digital Synthesis - Research Paper Example Direct digital synthesis is about storing waveform data points in digital format, and then recreating them with the use of digital to analog converters from the stored data. Essentially, the speed with which the synthesizer is able to regenerate the waveform is correlated with the waveform frequency. Digital techniques for mapping waveform data point into digital formats for storage and retrieval and are at the heart of DDS systems. In essence the basic components of a DDS system are the phase accumulator, the waveform map, the digital to analog converter or DAC, and the low pass filter, which sums up the DDS process from the mapping of the waveform signal into digital data, to the recreation of the analog waveform via the use of a DAC and a low pass filter to perfect the waveform. The illustration below details this simplified DDS system [1]: An even more simplified version of the DDS architecture shrinks it into two essential components, the phase generator/accumulator, which is time discrete, and the phase-to-waveform converter, for recreating the appropriate output signal of the DDS [2]: In the image above, the low pass filters and the waveform map that is part of the previous diagram are assumed to be present in the background, as peripheral components [1] [2]. On the other extreme is a more detailed diagram representing the basic functions of a DDS system, that expands on the first diagram above, and includes the waveform map and low pass filter [3]: The idea behind DDS is that waveforms of various kinds are easily implementable and can be easily recreated from digitally stored waveform data, and the freedom that this gives to designers includes that whereas in the past, more and more complex analog components were needed to recreate more and more complex waveforms, in the case of DDS systems all that is needed is stored digital data.