A new mixed analog-digital architecture for high-frequency narrow bandwidth channel digitization

This paper describes a new mixed analog-digital structure suitable for the monolithic implementation of narrowband bandpass filtering and analog-to-digital conversion operations on a single chip. The architecture is based on the combined concepts of N-path filtering and time-interleaved A/D conversion and can be implemented with either predominant digital or mainly analog processing. The comparative advantages of both forms of implementation are discussed from the viewpoints of the ease of integration and robustness against nonideal effects of the required building blocks. Functional simulations performed for a system with 4 MHz center frequency, 150 kHz bandwidth and 12-bit resolution illustrate the operation of the proposed architecture as well as the effects of the main sources of errors