A Design Methodology for Fully Reconfigurable Delta-Sigma Data Converters

This paper presents a design methodology for fully reconfigurable low-voltage Delta-Sigma converters as for instance used in next-generation wireless applications. The design methodology first finds the power-optimized noise transfer functions for the different standards at system level and then translates them into optimal granularities of programmability and circuit parameters such as resistance and capacitance values for the integrators. Reconfiguration is done in the passive component arrays, modulator orders, number of quantizer bits and transconductance for optimal power consumption. This gives the design the best trade-off between power and performance for every configuration mode.