A New Noise Shaping Approach for Sigma-Delta Modulators Using Two-Stage Feed-Forward Delays and Hybrid MASH-EFM

Abstract

Sigma-delta modulators use a noise-shaping technique to curtail the noise power in the band of interest during digital-to-analog conversion. Error feedback modulator employs an efficient noise transfer function for time varying inputs than any other sigma-delta modulators. However, the efficiency of the conventional noise transfer function degrades and the quantizer saturation issue provokes when the input signal reaches to full scale. This work proposes a new noise transfer function which is a combination of transfer functions of two-stage Feed-forward delays and a novel Hybrid multi-stage noise shaping-error feedback sigma-delta modulator. The noise transfer function of two-stage Feed-forward delays mitigates the concern of quantizer saturation. The noise transfer function offered by the Hybrid multi-stage noise shaping-error feedback architecture provides sustainable solutions to limit cycles and idle tones. The simulation concludes that the proposed noise-shaping approach obtains comparatively high signal-to-quantization noise ratio than the conventional error feedback modulators. Other performance parameters like spurious-free dynamic range, effective number of bits and signal-to-noise plus distortion ratio are also significantly improved.