Tunable mismatch shaping for quadrature bandpass delta-sigma data converters

Quadrature bandpass delta-sigma data converters are widely used in low-IF receiver applications where high linearity is required over a narrow bandwidth. A quadrature delta-sigma modulator with multibit quantization requires a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for each of the in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) paths. Device mismatch errors in the DAC can seriously degrade overall converter performance by adding I/Q path-mismatch and distortion. Mismatch noise shaping is an established technique for overcoming these limitations in a complex DAC, but usually anchors the signal band to a fixed frequency location. In order to apply mismatch shaping to applications that require tunable signal band locations, this paper presents a technique that allows the center frequency of the mismatch noise shaping transfer function through the complex DAC to be adjustable over the entire Nyquist range.