A Comparison of All-Digital Transmitter Architectures for Cellular Handsets

Abstract

In this paper, an overview of different RF transmitter architectures, based on the RF-DAC implementation is given. The evolution of different types of architectures is displayed with the explanation of the main advantages and limitations and/or challenges of each architecture in usage for today's and future cellular handset-applications. The block diagrams of each architecture are shown and the most important parameters are compared across the different implementations. Additionally, the impact of a non-ideal 50% duty-cycle of the RF LO on the spectrum of the RF signal, generated by the RF-DAC is shown.