Homodyne , hetrodyne and superhetrdyne- regarding

[curious_mind]

I could not find detail rationale about the limitations of homodyne and hetrodyne receivers and transitions to superhterodyne receivers thereafter. Require help in understanding the same. I also read that in software defined radios, homodyne concept is again used. Why this is so?

 

[FvM]

The distinction is between hetero- and homodyne receivers. Superheterodyne is just a synonym of heterodyne in the field of radio receivers.

A different term used for homodyne receivers is direct conversion or zero-IF receiver. It involves a more complex hardware than classical heterodyne receiver by requiring the local oscillator being phase-locked to the carrier, but also excellent performance and support of different demodulation methods in one design. See a brief description https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_conversion_receiver