Ultra Wide Band Sigma-Delta modulator in CMOS090

Abstract: Today the frequency spectrum is full of wireless standards. The most common technique being used is the frequency modulation. To take advantage of this and the technology improvement a new wireless communication standard is being developed. This standard is using a low power impulse modulation method, allowing it to overlap with other standards. The proposed standard called IEEE802.15.3a is applied at an Ultra Wide Band and has potential to be used both in interchip and intrasystem communication, since it allows a very high data density. In this thesis the analog to digital converter is designed, which is one part of a communication system. Although the signal bandwidth is very wide the converter is designed as a Sigma-Delta modulator, which is most suitable for low-speed applications. Its main advantages over high-speed converters are less area and less power consumption. The goal of this project is to investigate if the CMOS090 process technology will be sufficient for reaching a signal-to-noise ratio, SNR, of 30 dB in a signal band of 264 MHz. The main limiting factor during the design of the modulator is the excess feedback delay. This delay degrades the SNR and can even make the system unstable. At a feedback delay of 83 ps and a sampling frequency of 6.336 GHz, the maximum SNR achieved was 27 dB. At this high frequency the modulator is close to instability. Hence, to ensure stability a maximum sampling frequency of 4.224 GHz is chosen, achieving a SNR of 19 dB. The effect of the feedback delay can be reduced either by using a different structure or by using compensation methods, either of them would probably allow a SNR above 30 dB.