Multi-nyquist zone analog-to-digital converter (ADC)

A multi-Nyquist zone receiver comprising:

• a bandpass filter having an antenna port to accept an analog input signal having a center frequency less than or equal to L Hertz (Hz), and a signal output to supply a filtered signal having a bandwidth of at least M Hz;
• a multi-Nyquist zone analog-to-digital converter (ADC) comprising:
• a first semiconductor substrate with a track-and-hold (T/H) stage having a signal input with an input bandwidth of at least L Hz to accept the filtered signal and an output to supply an analog output signal subsampled in a Qth Nyquist zone, where Q is an integer greater than 1, where each Nyquist zone has a bandwidth of M Hz, and where L≥Q×M;
• and,
• a second semiconductor substrate with a quantizer stage having a signal input to accept the analog output signal and an output to supply a digital output signal having a bandwidth of M Hz.

A signal distribution system comprising:

• an input sampling stage able to sample an analog input signal having a bandwidth of M Hertz, with a center frequency of greater than M Hertz and less than L Hertz, sampled at a frequency of P Hertz;
• a processing stage where the sampled analog input signal is distributed into N analog output signals, each with a bandwidth of (P/2) Hertz;
• an analog output stage with outputs to supply the N analog output signals, each with the bandwidth of (P/2) Hertz, where L≥M=N×(P/2);
• and,
• a quantizer stage having N signal inputs to accept the N analog output signals and an output to supply a digital output signal having a bandwidth of M Hz.

A multi-Nyquist zone analog-to-digital conversion method comprising:

• a track-and-hold (T/H) stage accepting an analog input signal having a bandwidth of M Hertz (Hz);
• the T/H stage sampling the analog input signal;
• the T/H stage supplying an analog output signal subsampled in one of Q Nyquist zones, where Q is an integer greater than 1 and each Nyquist zone has a bandwidth of M Hz;
• a quantizer stage quantizing the analog output signal;
• and,
• the quantizer stage supplying a digital output signal having a bandwidth of M Hz.