Choosing Between Terminal and Independently Based Gain and Offset Error in the ADC Histogram Test

Maintaining the accuracy of a sensor system across various operating conditions has always been a challenge, especially for those operating in harsh surroundings such as a radiation environment. Concerning frequency-based sensor interfaces, supply voltage drifts and gain shift of the voltage-to-frequency converter (VFC) are critical design issues. These manifest as gain, offset, and linearity errors at the system level and therefore require continuous correction mechanisms. In this paper, dynamic gain and offset error-compensated open-loop frequency-based sensor interface architectures with adaptive clock frequency are proposed, which result in a ratiometric digital output. To address the mismatch issue, two architectures, one with periodic swapping of the VFCs’ inputs and outputs, and the other with the use of a single analog-to-digital converter (ADC) as an analog front end, are developed. The concepts were demonstrated with implementations on a Zynq board (ZYBO). The results of the first architecture showed that for a 25% gain mismatch between the VFCs, the output gain error was reduced from around 7.4% to 0.79% and the offset error was reduced from around 11.8% to 0.01%. Additionally, for the second architecture, a maximum of 0.11% gain error and 0.1% offset error were recorded for an emulated ±25% supply drift.

A zero-crossing-based circuit (ZCBC) is a promising technique for low-power high-resolution pipeline analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). Unfortunately, operating ZCBC ADCs at high speeds near 1 GS/s is quite challenging due to the delay of the zero-crossing detector that introduces nonlinear gain and offset errors. To solve nonlinearity, we propose a ZCBC pipeline ADC that employs a passive resistor as a current source. Due to its inherent linearity, the resistor-based ZCBC eliminates the input dependency of the interstage gain and offset errors, allowing a simple calibration. Furthermore, a background offset calibration scheme is proposed to cope with the large offset that results from high-speed operation. A prototype ADC implemented in 65-nm CMOS achieves an SNDR/SFDR of 47.26/62.64 dB at 1 GS/s while consuming 46.52 mW from 1 V supply.

Static testing of ADCS using wavelet transforms

In this paper, a structure of the output response analyzer (ORA) circuit for analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) built-in self-test (BIST) is presented. The ADC static parameters, i.e., offset error, gain error, and nonlinearity errors, are directly obtained from the sine-wave histogram test. Then, the obtained static parameters are related to estimate the degradation of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) value. The appropriate approximations of the testing parameters reduce difficulties in designing the complete ORA circuit. In addition, the feature of reusable hardware in the calculation of sine-wave reference histograms and the computing capability of ADCs' parameters further improves the ORA design. This design is compact and easily to be adjusted by different setting. The developed ORA circuits are synthesized in a 0.18-μm technology to analyze the outputs of an 8-bit ADC to verify the designs.

A delta-sigma modulation analog-to-digital converter (ADC) has many benefits over the use of a pipeline ADC in a CMOS image sensor. This includes lower power, noise reduction, ease of maximizing the input range, and simpler signal routing for large arrays. Multiple delta-sigma modulation ADC is required in a CMOS image sensor, one for each pixel column. Any voltage threshold mismatch between ADCs will introduce gain and offset error in its transfer function, which will lead to fix pattern noise. Correcting these gain and offset error for every ADCs in the image sensor will require a complex digital signal processor. Therefore, a technique to minimize the effects of gain error in a delta-sigma modulation ADC for CMOS image sensor is discussed.

Testing high resolution DACs: A contribution to draft standard IEEE P1658

The behavior of the Analog-to-Digital converter (ADC) strongly affects the global performance of the modem communication systems in terms of metrological uncertainty. Due to errors in the manufacturing process, all ADCs in a time interleaved ADC system are not exactly identical. It means that gain and offset mismatch errors are introduced in the digital signal processing. These errors cause distortion in the sampled signal. In this paper we present a method based on T-Model neural network for compensation of the mismatch errors. The compensation can be working while the ADCs are still running. The method is also adaptive to slow changes of the errors parameters. Combining with prediction of signal based on chaotic neural network, we can reach obvious improvement for ADC system and save a large amount of calculating time. This method has been validated with simulations of a time interleaved ADC system.

Increase in manufacturing test cost is of paramount issue to chip suppliers, which has been primarily due to costly external testers and long test-time. This paper proposes a loopback-based self-test technique to cost-effectively predict the dynamic nonlinearities of on-chip segmented digital-to-analog-converter (DAC) and analog-to-digital-converter (ADC), by externally looping a DAC back to an ADC, through an external load board employing two parallel paths: a programmable-gain-amplifier (PGA) path and a bypass path for test purpose. A segmented DAC (or ADC) consists of coarse and fine DACs (or ADCs). Two loopback tests are sequentially performed. For the first loopback test, a clean and single-tone sinusoidal signal is applied to a coarse DAC, and it bypasses a fine DAC for test purpose. The obtained DAC output is then fed to a coarse ADC through a bypass path on the load board. Simultaneously, the DAC output is applied to a fine ADC through a PGA path, so that the DAC output signal can fit into the input full-scale range of the fine ADC. For the second loopback test, a sinusoid is fed to a fine DAC, and it bypasses a coarse DAC in this time. Similarly, the DAC output is then applied to a fine and a coarse ADCs through two paths on the load board, at the same time. For postprocessing in on-chip processor, the correlation equations between the dynamic nonlinearities of sub-DACs/ADCs and the aforementioned loopback responses are simultaneously solved to predict the dynamic nonlinearity for each of a DAC and an ADC. Simulation and hardware measurements verified that the proposed technique can be practically used for production testing, by showing less than 0.28-dB and 0.55-dB of the prediction errors, respectively.

A subranging analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with reference-embedded comparators (RECs) is proposed. By adjusting the bias current and/or body voltage of the REC's input differential pair, the REC offset can be adjusted to a specific voltage equal to a reference voltage referred to henceforth as the embedded reference. For the ADC's coarse stage, RECs with wide-range embedded references are implemented by adjusting the bias currents using current source arrays to cover the full-scale input. By contrast, for the ADC's fine stage, RECs with narrow-range embedded references are implemented by adjusting the body voltage. In addition, the centers of the embedded references in the different ADC subranges are created by current source arrays, which are digitally scaled according to the coarse ADC's output codes. As a result, the reference-voltage-switching network used in conventional subranging ADCs is not required, and hence the speed of the ADC is increased. Moreover, to eliminate the effects of process variation, the bias currents and body voltages in the RECs are calibrated with an auxiliary resistor ladder. After the calibration, the resistor ladder is removed. Consequently, no resistor ladder is used during normal operation, which greatly saves power. A 3 mW 6-bit 4 GS/s REC-based subranging ADC is implemented in 28-nm CMOS technology. With a near Nyquist frequency input, the ADC achieves SNDRs of 31.8 dB and 30.7 dB at 3.6 GS/s and 4 GS/s, respectively. Moreover, at 3.6 GS/s, the ADC has a Walden Figure-of-Merit (FoM <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">W</sub> ) of 22.7 fJ/conv-step, which is the best compared with prior state-of-the-art 6-bit high-speed ADCs.

A low power 10-bit 250-k sample per second (KSPS) cyclic analog to digital converter (ADC) is presented. The ADC's offset errors are successfully cancelled out through the proper choice of a capacitor switching sequence. The improved redundant signed digit algorithm used in the ADC can tolerate high levels of the comparator's offset errors and switched capacitor mismatch errors. With this structure, it has the advantages of simple circuit configuration, small chip area and low power dissipation. The cyclic ADC manufactured with the Chartered 0.35 μm 2P4M process shows a 58.5 dB signal to noise and distortion ratio and a 9.4 bit effective number of bits at a 250 KSPS sample rate. It dissipates 0.72 mW with a 3.3 V power supply and occupies dimensions of 0.42 × 0.68 mm2.

A new BIST (Built-In Self-Test) method to test static parameters of a DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) is proposed in this paper. The BIST method employs a ramp generator and two voltage references to test static parameters of a DAC: offset error, gain error, INL (Integral Non-Linearity) and DNL (Differential Non-Linearity). The optimization of calculating static parameters and the components sharing can reduce the BIST circuitry. The simulation result shows that the method is able to detect the static errors with the simple BIST structure.

Usage of digital receivers in today's radar and electronic warfare applications is becoming more common. Analog to digital converters (ADC) used in digital receivers play a significant role in the performance of these receivers. Therefore, it is very important to obtain performance analysis of possible ADC's under different conditions such as different temperature etc. before making final decision of the ADC to be used in the digital receiver. It is obvious that it would be very helpful to get results of integration of different ADC's with the existing system and to test ADC's under different conditions that may not exist on data sheets. For this reason, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) based board is designed in order to gather digital output of ADC being evaluated and a graphical analysis software responsible for analyzing gathered digital output is developed. Developed infrastructure enables us to compare performances of different ADC's in the same system and in same conditions by replacing only the ADC to be analyzed.

A new digital background calibration technique to compensate the capacitor mismatch in pipelined analog-to-digital converters (ADC) is presented. A digital signal from the ADC output is constructed so as to transform the capacitor mismatch to global gain error. A simple modification to the conventional MDAC allows the ADC to toggle between different configurations to create a reference signal used to calibrate blindly the ADC. This method does not produce any limitation of the ADC in terms of speed or input dynamic range.

Improved computer-aided analog-to-digital converter (ADC) characterization methods based on the code density test and spectral analysis using the fast Fourier transform are described. The code density test produces a histogram of the digital output codes of an ADC sampling a known input. The code density can be interpreted to compute the differential and integral nonlinearities, gain error, offset error, and internal noise. Conversion-rate and frequency-dependent behavior can also be measured.

Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is becoming of utmost importance in an automotive environment. With the increased number of magnetic field sources near the ADC that can alter its behaviors significantly, we need to model how magnetic field affects the performance of the ADC. Therefore, in order to accurately evaluate the practical performance of the ADC and the considerable off-chip and on-chip effects that are highly complex, the chip-printed circuit board (PCB) comodeling, cosimulation, and coanalysis are required. In this study, a comodel of the magnetic field effects on an ADC is proposed. The proposed comodel includes three separate submodels: a model of the magnetic field coupling from the wireless power transfer (WPT) system input to the PCB integrated with ADC, a model of the noise coupling from the PCB to the ADC input, and a model of the ADC behavior from the ADC input to the ADC outputs. Considering the magnetic field coupling from the magnetic field source to the PCB, a new inductive transmission line model (I-TLM) method is developed. This method achieves fast, precise, and broadband estimation of the magnetic field effects in comparison to previous estimation methods. To validate the proposed comodel, an ADC is fabricated using a 0.13-μm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor process and is wire-bonded to the designed PCB for ADC. A PCB-level WPT system is designed and built as the magnetic field source. The performance factor of the ADC is measured by sweeping the WPT system input frequency from 100 kHz to 1 GHz to find out the critical WPT system frequency for the designed ADC with the chip-PCB hierarchical structure. The results estimated by the proposed model correlate well with the full 3-D electromagnetic field simulation and measurement. The proposed modeling procedure reduces the time and computation resource in the design of the chip, package, and PCB to achieve high-quality analog devices or mixed-mode systems, while also providing an intuitive understanding of the radiated noise effect.