Architectural selection of A/D converters

Abstract

A method for the architectural selection of analog to digital (AD) converters based on a generic figure of merit is described. First a figure of merit for the power consumption is introduced. This figure of merit includes both target specifications and technology data and has five generic parameters. The values of these generic parameters can be estimated by analyzing the different converter structures or by means of a fitting procedure using data from published designs.It is shown that the generic parameters have different values for different types of converters. Therefore the trade-off between speed, resolution, power dissipation and technology parameters depends on the type of converter. It is shown that the calculated figures of merit of the published designs, together with the calculated global trade-off comprise a surface in the (5 dimensional) design space. This surface makes it possible to accurately predict the power consumption and select the best converter solution for a certain target application. This can then serve as a first step in data converter synthesis or as a power estimator during high-level system design exploration.

Analog and mixed signal circuit and system ontology

“…power consumption) or to find out feasibility of the circuit topologies. For example, in [9] data about the implementations is used to model the power consumption of the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) as a function of performance parameters and in [10] a guidelines for selecting ADC topology based on achieved performance were derived. Again in [11], [12], [13], [14] a very extensive review of ADC implementation domain and statements about the future possibilities were given.…”