Ultra-Wideband Direct RF Receiver Analog Front-End

The challenge to continue increasing the RF sampling ADC sample rate and bandwidth, to enable next generation ultra-wideband applications, does not lie only with the converter core. While time-interleaving can enhance the sample rate, the same cannot be said about the bandwidth, which should be extended by the front end preceding the ADC, while maximizing the spectral purity and limiting the excess power consumption. This chapter first revisits the problem of extending the bandwidth beyond several tens of GHz and discusses the major challenges along with a prior art overview. Furthermore, a new ultra-wideband highly integrated analog front end is introduced, and its innovative performance-advancing features are discussed in detail. Finally, the experimental verification of the prototype front end in 16nm FinFET CMOS, including the complete measurement setup, measured results, and a state-of-the-art comparison, is presented and discussed.