A 2-bit, 3.1 GS/s, band-pass DSM receiver for active antenna systems

This paper presents a radio frequency (RF) continuous-time band-pass delta sigma modulator (CT BP DSM) receiver realized in a 180 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. It also provides an introduction to active antenna systems (AAS) for cellular infrastructure base stations, which is the target application for this RF integrated circuit (IC). The internal quantizer and feedback digital to analog converter (DAC) resolution of the CT BP DSM is 2 bit. Without applying DAC linearization techniques such as trimming or dynamic element matching being utilized, measured performance parameters include an SNR and SNDR in 35 MHz bandwidth of 56.7 and 53.7 dB, respectively. IIP3 and noise figure are −6.6 dBm and 10 dB, respectively. No image reception is noticeable within a measurement dynamic range of 83 dB. When driven by single-carrier and three-carrier W-CDMA signals, adjacent channel leakage ratio (ACLR) is −62.6 and −52.1 dB, respectively, making the design also suitable as a modulator for a class-S power amplifier