Digital Radiometer Performance

This work investigates the performance of an all-digital, total-power radiometer (TPR), consisting of RF, mixer, and IF stages followed by an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Square-law detection and smoothing is performed in a digital computer. A figure of merit, the degradation factor, is defined which compares the digital TPR with an ideal analog TPR. Exact results are obtained which include the effects of saturation, finite step size, and finite sampling rate of the ADC. A good approximation is developed which compares favorably with the exact results under certain conditions. The use of a general digital filter for smoothing is considered. A new parameter, the ?equivalent summation number?, is shown to be analogous to the equivalent integration time of an analog TPR.