SAW-Less Digitally-Assisted Receivers

Today’s wireless devices, like our smartphones, are able to handle multiple standards and bands for different applications, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and data-voice communications. However, the cost of a modern transceiver is becoming mainly dominated by the large number of off-chip passive components, like Duplexers and SAW filters, needed to distinguish the desired signal among many interferences. Addressing the challenges that arise from the lack of RF filtering, a SAW-less architecture represents an interesting solution to reduce the platform complexity. This thesis proposes a feasible solution based on a SAW-less RF front-end able to meet the standard requirements and a digital system tailored to the RF path. The digital architecture, which represents the main topic of this thesis, is described in detail and experimentally tested to validate the proposed solutions.