6: ADC ARCHITECTURES

There are mainly four types of ADC architectures:

Flash-type, Pipeline, Successive approximation, Oversampled ADCs.

The ADC has a continuous, infinite-valued signal as its input. The input transitions determine the amount of INL and DNL associated with the converter.

Flash-type

Figure : Block diagram of a Flash ADC

Flash or parallel converters have the highest speed of any type of ADC. As shown in Fig., they utilize one comparator per quantization level (2N - 1) and 2N resistors (a resistor string DAC). The reference voltage is divided into 2N values, each of which is fed into a comparator. The input voltage is compared with each reference value and results in a thermometer code at the output of the comparators. A thermometer code will exhibit all zeros for each resistor level if the value of VIN is less than the value on the resistor string, and ones if VIN is greater than or equal to voltage on the resistor string.

A simple 2N-1, N digital thermometer decoder circuit converts the compared data into an N-bit digital word. The obvious advantage of this converter is the speed with which one conversion can take place. Each clock pulse generates an output digital word. The disadvantage of this is doubling of area with each bit of increased resolution. For example, an 8-bit converter requires 255 comparators, but a 9-bit ADC requires 511. Flash converters have traditionally been limited to 8-bit resolution

Another disadvantages of the Flash ADC are the power requirements of the 2N-1 comparators. The speed is limited by the switching of the comparators and the digital logic. Problem: Design a 3-bit Flash converter, listing the values of the voltages at each resistor tap, and draw the transfer curve for VIN = 0 to 5 V. Assume VREF = 5 V. Construct a table listing the values of the thermometer code and the output of the decoder for VIN =1.5, 3.0, and 4.5 V.

Accuracy Issues for the Flash ADC Accuracy is dependent on the matching of the resistor string and the input offset voltage of the comparators. The voltage on the i-th tap of the resistor string was found to be where VI ideal is the voltage at the i-th tap if all the resistors had an ideal value of R. The term, Rk is the value of the resistance error (difference from ideal) due to the mismatch.

The switching point for the i-th comparator, Vsw,i then becomes where Vos,i, is the input referred offset voltage of the i-th comparator. The INL for the converter can then be described as

The worst-case INL will be assumed to be occur at the middle of the string

where it is assumed that the maximum positive mismatch occurs in all the resistors in the lower half of the string and the maximum negative mismatch occurs in the upper half (or vice versa) and that the comparator at the i-th tap contains the maximum offset voltage, |Vos,i|max,

Problem: If a 10-bit Flash converter is designed, determine the maximum offset voltage of the comparators which will make the INL less than 1/2 LSB. Assume that the resistor string is perfectly matched and VREF = 5 V. The offset voltage be (i.e. * Vref/2N) Therefore equal to 1/2 LSB.

The DNL calculation for the Flash converter is calculated Using the definition of DNL,

The maximum DNL will occur assuming Ri is at its maximum, Vos,I is at its maximum positive value, and Vos,i-1 is at its maximum negative voltage. Thus,

The Two-Step Flash ADC