Low-distortion bandpass Σ-Δ modulator for wireless radio receivers

A low-distortion bandpass sigma-delta modulator is proposed. It was found that the key to improving linearity is to add a feedforward signal path in a double-delay resonator bandpass structure. The proposed technique improves the tonal behaviour even at low oversampling ratio and can be applied for any order of modulator. Based on the proposed architecture, a fourth-order single-bit sigma-delta modulator can achieve a dynamic range of 84 dB and a spurious free dynamic range of 98 dB at 10.71 MHz with a signal bandwidth of 200 kHz, making it ideal for a narrowband IF-sampled wireless receiver designed for compliance with GSM/GPRS standards.