A generalized graphical model to specify A/D resolution from receiver front-end

Abstract

The conventional way to define the specifications of each block in the wireless receiver (RX) chain is budget link. It excludes the analog baseband and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) generally. Based on the budget link methodology, this paper presents a new generalized graphical model (GGM) to analyze the specifications of ADC on both noise and linearity aspects, which also establish a bridge between wireless standard and hardware performance estimation. Using such method, the ADC's requirement could be optimized from the wireless receiver (RF) front end. Meanwhile it enables the trade-off between the RF and ADC. The ADC's main specifications such as signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and signal-to-distortion ratio (SDR) are emphasized in this paper. The demonstrated capability of this method is illustrated by deriving the main specifications of a Bluetooth receiver.