Digitally assisted pipeline ADCs

The continued reduction of integrated circuit feature sizes and commensurate improvements in device performance are fueling the progress to higher functionality and new application areas. For example, over the last 15 years, the performance of microprocessors has increased 1000 times. Analog circuit performance has also improved, albeit at a slower pace. For example, over the same period the speed/resolution figure-of-merit of analog-to-digital converters improved by only a factor 10. Of the many reasons for this disparity between analog and digital circuit
performance advances, accuracy requirements stand out as a critical constraint in most analog circuits while being virtually absent in digital designs. Thermal noise, linearity, and matching are distinctly analog circuit problems and require design tradeoffs that invariably lower achievable performance. For example, linearity requirements are usually met with highgain feedback loops. Unfortunately, this solution also lowers circuit speed and results in elevated noise, reduced signal range, and increased power dissipation.

Từ khóa: Digitally assisted pipeline ADCs, integrated circuit, device performance, vi xử lý, mạch tích hợp, kỹ thuật thiết kế