ABSTRACT
In multi-standard transceivers a programmable
decimation filter is required to perform channel
select filtering at baseband since the channel
bandwidths, sampling rates, and CNR require-
ments are different. This paper presents a low
power fifth-order comb decimation filter with
programmable decimation ratios (16 and 8) and
sampling rates (12.8 MHz and 44.8 MHz) for
GSM and DECT applications. The non-recur-
sive architecture for comb filter is employed and
low power VLSI implementation techniques are
developed.
INTRODUCTION
Recent research on radio frequency (RF) com-
munication transceivers focuses on both higher
integration and multi-standard operation. High-
er integration can be obtained by optimizing re-
ceiver architectures to eliminate the off-chip
components. The receiver architectures that per-
forms channel select filtering on chip at base-
band are preferred since digital signal
processing techniques can be easily applied to
adapt to multiple communication standards. Fig.
1 shows the wide-band intermediate frequency
with double conversion (WIF) architecture [1]
which can be used to implement a multi-stand-
ard (DECT and GSM) receiver. The WIF archi-
tecture needs a high dynamic range
oversampling sigma-delta (SD) analog-to-digit-
al (A/D) converter that can adapt to the different
requirements from the multi-standards. The dy-
namic range of a SD A/D converter can be easily
adjusted by selecting different oversampling ra-
tios. Therefore a decimation filter with program-
mable decimation ratios is needed in the A/D
converter.
While the sampling rate and resolution of
oversampling SD A/D converters are typically
determined by their analog modulators, the
power consumption is governed largely by the
digital decimation filters [2]. It is possible to at-
tenuate the quantization noise and undesired
channels with a single filter and then decimate to
the Nyquist rate, but this approach consumes
much power. By decimating in multiple stages,
the complexity of the filters is reduced, and sub-
sequent filters operate at lower sampling rates,
further reducing the power consumption [3]. In
multi-stage decimation filters it has been shown
in [4] that the comb filter is an efficient way to
decimate the output of the analog modulator to
four times the Nyquist rate. Fig. 2 shows a multi-
stage decimation filter suitable for GSM and
DECT applications. To meet the system require-
ments, a fifth-order comb decimation filter (6-bit
input) with programmable decimation ratios
16(GSM) / 8(DECT), and sampling rates 12.8
MHz(GSM) / 44.8 MHz(DECT) is needed.
Since the comb filter operates at the high sam-
pling rate its power consumption is large. Hence
low power implementation of the comb filter is
very important.
The non-recursive architecture [5] for comb
filters has lower power consumption compared
with Hogenauer’s cascaded-integrator-comb
(CIC) architecture [3] especially when the filter
orders and decimation ratios are high. In this
paper the non-recursive architecture is
employed to design the comb filter. Low power
techniques have been developed for VLSI
implementation of the non-recursive architec-
ture.
Low-Power Implementation of a Fifth-Order Comb Decimation Filter for
Multi-Standard Transceiver Applications
Yonghong Gao and Hannu Tenhunen
Electronic System Design Laboratory, Royal Institute of Technology
Electrum 229, Isafjordsgatan 22, SE-164 40 Kista, Stockholm, Sweden
gaoyh@ele.kth.se