Digital-to-analog converter effects on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing performance

The effects of digital-to-analog converter (DAC) static errors on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system performance are investigated. A behavioral model of an OFDM block that exists in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system architecture is combined with a behavioral model of a transmit DAC typically found in an LTE signal chain. The effects of DAC non-idealities such as resolution, gain error, and integral non-linearity (INL) are correlated to OFDM system performance parameters such as error vector magnitude (EVM) and bit error rate (BER). MATLAB simulations show that DAC non-idealities can cause up to 25% normalized EVM and up to 5 dB BER increase at 30 dB energy per bit to noise power spectral density ratio (E_b/N₀).