Low-Resolution All-Digital RF Transceivers: Concepts, Innovations, Challenges, and Future Directions

Journal article, 2026

All-digital RF transceivers are reshaping wireless system design by moving digital signal processing closer to the antenna. This article presents the core principles of all-digital transmitter and receiver architectures and surveys recent enabling innovations, including advances in data converters, digital front-ends, and system integration. While covering the general landscape of all-digital transceivers (ADTs), this article places particular emphasis on 1-bit [pulse-width modulation (PWM)/delta-sigma modulation (DSM)] and low-resolution multilevel (e.g., 4-level pulse-amplitude modulation, PAM4) architectures as drivers for scalability. Key challenges are examined, together with tradeoffs that impact practical deployments. Extensions to emerging applications, such as multiple antennas for phased arrays and distributed multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO), and operation at higher carrier frequencies, are highlighted as drivers of ongoing research. Finally, the article outlines future directions in reconfigurable architectures and algorithm-hardware codesign that will influence the role of ADT in beyond-5G and 6G.