Electromechanical-Filter-Based Bandpass Sigma-Delta Modulator

This brief proposes an electromechanical-filter-based continuous-time (CT) bandpass (BP) sigma-delta modulator for wideband digitization at high intermediate frequency (>70 MHz). Both the mechanically coupled microelectromechanical system and the longitudinally coupled surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters can be employed as loop filters. The advantages of the electromechanical filter are its low power consumption and accurate center frequency without the need for tuning. As a proof of concept, a fourth-order BP sigma-delta modulator is demonstrated with a 110-MHz SAW filter. Realized in a 0.35-mu m SiGe hetero-junction-bipolar-transistor bipolar complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology, the prototype chip is clocked at 440 MHz and achieves 65-dB DR and 60-dB SNDR over 1 MHz, as well as 58-dB DR and 53-dB SNDR over the 3.84-MHz signal band. The total power consumption is 57 mW under a 3-V supply.