Software radio architecture can support multiple standards by performing analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion of the radio frequency (RF) signals and running reconfigurable software programs on the backend digital signal processor (DSP). A slight variation of this architecture is the software defined radio architecture in which the A/D conversion is performed on intermediate frequency (IF) signals after a single down conversion. The first part of this research deals with the design and implementation of a fourth order continuous time bandpass sigma-delta (CT BP Σ∆) ADC based on LC filters for direct RF digitization at 950 MHz with a clock frequency of 3.8 GHz. A new ADC architecture is proposed which uses only non-return to zero feedback digital to analog converter pulses to mitigate problems associated with clock jitter. The architecture also has full control over tuning of the coefficients of the noise transfer function for obtaining iii the best signal to noise ratio (SNR) performance. The operation of the architecture is examined in detail and extra design parameters are introduced to ensure robust operation of the ADC. Measurement results of the ADC, implemented in IBM 0.25 µm SiGe

Abstract—A very high-frequency operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) with a new feedforward-regulated cascode topology is demonstrated in this paper. Experimental results show a bandwidth of 10 GHz and a large transconductance of 11 mS. A theoretical analysis of the OTA is provided which is in very good agreement with the measured results. We also carry out a Monte Carlo simulation to determine the effect of transistor mismatches and process variations on the transconductance and input/output parasitic capacitances of the OTA. The linearity and intermodulation distortion properties of the OTA, which are of particular interest in microwave applications, are experimentally determined using a purpose-built single-stage amplifier. For high-frequency demonstration purposes we built a larger circuit: an inductorless microwave oscillator. The fabricated oscillator operates at 2.89 GHz and it has a significantly larger output