High performance front-end signal processing: system design aids

Front-end signal processing now encompasses the vast frequency range DC to 100 GHz and the challenge is to implement the operational circuitry in integrated form. Fortunately there appears to be a speed/accuracy product which applies: such that when great accuracy is required it is often in the lower frequency range where digital processing can dominate; similarly, the very high-frequency RF front-ends require an analogue process, which may not demand incredible accuracy but has yet to be realised in some monolithic form. The functions range from gain stages through filtering, group-delay equalisation, decimation, interpolation, frequency-changing, to signal converters and combinations of some or all of these operations. It is likely that some of these functions will be integrated within one chip, for example the single chip radio receiver or within a chip set for more sophisticated applications. It is probable that integrated circuit implementations will have the overall functional performance without necessarily reflecting the individual block function associated with conventional design