Implementation and Evaluation of a RF Receiver Architecture Using an Undersampling Track-and-Hold Circuit

Today's radio frequency receivers for digital wireless communication are getting more and more complex. A single receiver unit should support multiple bands, have a wide bandwidth, be flexible and show good performance. To fulfil these requirements, new receiver architectures have to be developed and used. One possible alternative is the RF undersampling architecture. This thesis evaluates the RF undersampling architecture, which make use of an undersampling track-and-hold circuit with very wide bandwidth to perform direct sampling of the RF carrier before the analogue-to-digital converter. The architecture’s main advantages and drawbacks are identified and analyzed. Also, techniques and improvements to solve or reduce the main problems of the RF undersampling receiver are proposed.