could someone suggest or post a brief tutorial/article/application note which compares different receiver architectures (e.g. direct conversion vs superheterodyne)?
Please consider that I would avoid reading a complete RF book (I already got the Nezami book on the subject): what I am looking for is a description of the architectures which focuses on the comparison of the available technologies, giving advices on how the design should be carried on and the trade off in choosing one particular architecture.
I think that to compare receiver architectures it is necessary to know them and reading just one book is not enough to make right decision. When you try to cut the corners and find quick solution you almost unavoidable will get opposite result. Only good RF System analysis can show what is the best for this particular application.
Thank you alexandr22061986 for the link.
RF-OM: I agree with you about studying but what I need now is a simple guide to have a quick overview as a starting point. Actually I am not directy involved in HW design (I am a embedded SW developer), but I would like to acquire some notions about this topic just to be able to understand main topics of such a kind of design.
Well. You may try this book, I upload it a few weeks ago:
There you will find the very short review, but it is good enough for the first quick look. It is definitely not enough for receiver design as well as any other single book, but for your case it is probably the best.
Probably the fastest way is to use good RF system simulator. You may setup some receiver block diagram and play with it and with block's parameters. It allows to see results and learn them quickly.
If you like you can download Ansoft Designer - Student Version for free and there you can experiment in software with some of the system simulators that you have learnt about in the preceeding texts and applications notes