A cascaded continuous-time ΣΔ modulator with 67-dB dynamic range in 10-MHz bandwidth

This paper presents the design of a 2-2 cascaded continuous-time sigma-delta modulator. The cascaded modulator comprises two stages with second-order continuous-time resonator loopfilters, 4-bit quantizers, and feedback digital-to-analog converters. The digital noise cancellation filter design is determined using continuous-time to discrete-time transformation of the sigma-delta loopfilter transfer functions. The required matching between the analog and digital filter coefficients is achieved by means of simple digital calibration of the noise cancellation filter. Measurement results of a 0.18-mum CMOS prototype chip demonstrate 67-dB dynamic range in a 10-MHz bandwidth at 8 times oversampling for a single, continuous-time cascaded modulator. Two cascaded modulators in quadrature configuration provide 20-MHz aggregate bandwidth. Measured anti-alias suppression is over 50 dB for input signals in the band from 150 to 170 MHz around the sampling frequency of 160 MHz.