A 13.5-mW 185-Msample/s ΔΣ modulator for UMTS/GSM dual-standard IF reception

A system-oriented approach for the design of a UMTS/GSM dual-standard ΔΣ modulator is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of achieving intermediate frequency (IF) around 100 MHz, high dynamic range, and low power consumption at the same time. The circuit prototype implements 78 MHz IF for GSM and 138.24 MHz for wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), which are set to be 3/4 of the analog-to-digital converter sampling rate. A two-path IF sampling and mixing topology with a low-pass ΔΣ modulator, run at half the sampling rate, is used. Implemented in 0.25-μm CMOS, the circuit achieves dynamic range and peak signal-to-noise and distortion ratio for GSM of 86 and 72 dB, respectively. The corresponding values for WCDMA are 54 and 52 dB, respectively. Optimization is performed at all stages of design to minimize power consumption. The complete circuit consumes less than 11.5 mW for GSM and 13.5 mW for WCDMA at 2.5-V supply, of which 8 mW is due to the analog part