Calibration Method Enabling Low-Cost SDR

A digital in-system calibration method is presented eliminating distortions caused by transceiver circuit imperfections such as quadrature imbalance, carrier feedthrough and receiver DC-offset. The method enables standard compliancy over multiple modes and multiple bands while using a low-cost Software Defined Radio (SDR). By using non-iterative algorithms and standard compliant calibration signals, the system remains operational during calibration. As the calibration does not require dedicated circuitry, there is no penalty in area or design effort and is thus applicable on most SDR. Implementation shows Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) performance improvements down to 1.8%.