SAR ADC

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CDAC intuition

The charge redistribution capacitor network is used to sample the input signal and serves as a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for creating and subtracting reference voltages

sampling charge \[ Q = V_{in} C_{tot} \] conversion charge \[ Q = -C_{tot}V_c + V_{ref}C_\Delta \] That is \[ V_c = \frac{C_\Delta}{C_{tot}}V_{ref} - V_{in} \]

CDAC is actually working as a capacitive divider during conversion phase, the charge of internal node retain (charge conservation law)

assuming \(\Delta V_i\) is applied to series capacitor \(C_1\) and \(C_2\)

cap_divider.drawio \[ (\Delta V_i - \Delta V_x) C_1 = \Delta V_x \cdot C_2 \] Then \[ \Delta V_x = \frac{C_1}{C_1+C_2}\Delta V_i \]

\(V_x= V_{x,0} + \Delta V_x\)

CDAC settling accuracy

cdac-tau.drawio \[\begin{align} V_x(s) &= \frac{C_1+C_2}{RC_1C_2}\cdot \frac{1}{s+\frac{C_1+C_2}{RC_1C_2}}\cdot V_i(s) \\ &= \frac{1}{\tau}\cdot \frac{1}{s+\frac{1}{\tau}}\cdot \frac{1}{s}\\ &= \frac{1}{\tau}\cdot \tau(\frac{1}{s} - \frac{1}{s+\frac{1}{\tau}})=\frac{1}{s} - \frac{1}{s+\frac{1}{\tau}} \end{align}\]

inverse Laplace Transform is \(V_x(t) = 1 - e^{-t/\tau}\)

\[\begin{align} V_y(s) &= V_x\frac{C_1}{C_1+C_2} \\ &= \frac{C_1}{C_1+C_2} \left(\frac{1}{s} - \frac{1}{s+\frac{1}{\tau}}\right)\\ \end{align}\]

inverse Laplace Transform is \(V_y(t) = \frac{C_1}{C_1+C_2}\left(1 - e^{-t/\tau}\right)\)

\(V_x(t)\) and \(V_y(t)\) prove that the settling time is same

\(\tau = R\frac{C_1C_2}{C_1+C_2}\), which means usually worst for MSB capacitor (largest) > both \(\tau\) and \(\Delta V\) are the maximum

A popular way to improve the settling behavior, again, is to employ unit-element DACs that statistically reduce the switching activities, which, unfortunately, exhibits unnecessary complications to the power, area and speed tradeoffs of the design

CDAC Energy Consumption

\[ E_{Vref} = \int P(t)dt = \int V_{ref} I(t) dt = V_{ref}\int I(t)dt = V_{ref}\cdot \Delta Q \]

image-20240922093524720

Given \(V_{c,0}=\frac{1}{2}V_{ref}-V_{in}\) and \(V_{c,1}=\frac{3}{4}V_{ref}-V_{in}\) \[\begin{align} Q_{b0,0} &= \left(V_{ref} - V_{c,0} \right)\cdot 2C = \left(\frac{1}{2}V_{ref}+V_{in} \right)\cdot 2C \\ Q_{b1,0} &= (0 - V_{c,0})\cdot C = \left(-\frac{1}{2}V_{ref}+V_{in} \right)\cdot C \\ Q_{b0,1} &= \left(V_{ref} - V_{c,1} \right)\cdot 2C = \left(\frac{1}{4}V_{ref}+V_{in} \right)\cdot 2C \\ Q_{b1,1} &= \left(V_{ref} - V_{c,1} \right)\cdot C = \left(\frac{1}{4}V_{ref}+V_{in} \right)\cdot C \end{align}\]

Therefore \[ E_{Vref} = V_{ref}\cdot (Q_{b0,1}+Q_{b1,1} - Q_{b0,0}-Q_{b1,0}) = \frac{1}{4}C V_{ref}^2 \]

CDAC total energy change \[\begin{align} \Delta E_{tot} &= \frac{1}{2}\cdot 2C \cdot (U_{2c,1}^2 - U_{2c,0}^2) + \frac{1}{2}\cdot C \cdot (U_{c,1}^2 - U_{c,0}^2) + \frac{1}{2}\cdot C \cdot (U_{c1,1}^2 - U_{c1,0}^2) \\ &= \left(-\frac{3}{16}V_{ref}^2 - \frac{1}{2}V_{ref}V_{in} - \frac{3}{32}V_{ref}^2+\frac{3}{4}V_{ref}V_{vin} + \frac{5}{32}V_{ref}^2-\frac{1}{4}V_{ref}V_{in}\right)C \\ &= -\frac{1}{8}CV_{ref}^2 \end{align}\]

alternative method

CapEnergy.drawio \[ \Delta E_{tot} = \frac{1}{2}\cdot\frac{3}{4}C\cdot V_{ref}^2 - \frac{1}{2}\cdot C\cdot V_{ref}^2 = -\frac{1}{8}CV_{ref}^2 \]

The total energy decreases by \(-\frac{1}{8}CV_{ref}^2\), though \(V_{ref}\) provides \(\frac{1}{4}C V_{ref}^2\)

The charge redistribution change the CDAC energy

cap_redis_energy.drawio

\[ E_{c,0} = \frac{1}{2}CV^2 \] After charge redistribution \[ E_{c,1} = \frac{1}{2}\cdot 2C\cdot \left(\frac{1}{2}V\right)^2 = \frac{1}{4}CV^2 \]

That make sense, charge redistribution consume energy

Comparator input cap effect

image-20240907194621524 \[ -V_{in}\cdot 2^N C = V_c (2^N C + C_p) \] Then \(V_c = -\frac{2^N C}{2^N C + C_p}V_{in}\), i.e. this capacitance reduce the voltage amplitude by the factor

During conversion \[\begin{align} V_c &= -\frac{2^N C}{2^N C + C_p}V_{in} +V_{ref}\sum_{n=0}^{N-1} \frac{b_n\cdot2^n C}{2^N C + C_p} \\ &= \frac{2^N C}{2^N C + C_p}\left(-V_{in} + V_{ref}\sum_{n=0}^{N-1}\frac{b_n }{2^{N-n}} \right) \end{align}\]

That is, it does not change the sign

Comparator offset effect

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Synchronous SAR ADC

It also divides a full conversion into several comparison stages in a way similar to the pipeline ADC, except the algorithm is executed sequentially rather than in parallel as in the pipeline case.

However, the sequential operation of the SA algorithm has traditionally been a limitation in achieving high-speed operation

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  • a clock running at least \((N + 1) \cdot F_s\) is required for an \(N\)-bit converter with conversion rate of \(F_s\)
  • every clock cycle has to tolerate the worst case comparison time
  • every clock cycle requires margin for the clock jitter

The power and speed limitations of a synchronous SA design comes largely from the high-speed internal clock

Split Arrary CDAC

Split capacitor, double-array cap

attenuation capacitance \(C_a\)

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splitArray.drawio

\[\begin{align} \Delta V_{dac} &= \frac{1}{2}b_3+\frac{1}{4}b_2+\frac{1}{4}\left(\frac{1}{2}b_1+\frac{1}{4}b_0 \right) \\ &= \frac{1}{2}b_3+\frac{1}{4}b_2 + \frac{1}{8}b_1+\frac{1}{16}b_0 \end{align}\]

Asynchronous processing

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image-20250102225426799

The maximum resolving time reduction between synchronous and asynchronous case is two fold

reference

Andrea Baschirotto, "T6: SAR ADCs" ISSCC2009

Pieter Harpe, ISSCC 2016 Tutorial: "Basics of SAR ADCs Circuits & Architectures"

Mike Shuo-Wei Chen and R. W. Brodersen, "A 6-bit 600-MS/s 5.3-mW Asynchronous ADC in 0.13-μm CMOS," in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 41, no. 12, pp. 2669-2680, Dec. 2006

—. "Power Efficient System and A/D Converter Design for Ultra-Wideband Radio" [http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2006/EECS-2006-71.pdf]

—. "Asynchronous SAR ADC: Past, Present and Beyond" [https://viterbi-web.usc.edu/~swchen/index_files/async_sar_tutorial_chen_final.pdf]

C. -C. Liu, S. -J. Chang, G. -Y. Huang and Y. -Z. Lin, "A 10-bit 50-MS/s SAR ADC With a Monotonic Capacitor Switching Procedure," in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 731-740, April 2010 [https://sci-hub.se/10.1109/JSSC.2010.2042254]

L. Jie et al., "An Overview of Noise-Shaping SAR ADC: From Fundamentals to the Frontier," in IEEE Open Journal of the Solid-State Circuits Society, vol. 1, pp. 149-161, 2021 [pdf]

W. Liu, P. Huang and Y. Chiu, "A 12-bit, 45-MS/s, 3-mW Redundant Successive-Approximation-Register Analog-to-Digital Converter With Digital Calibration," in IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 46, no. 11, pp. 2661-2672, Nov. 2011 [https://sci-hub.st/10.1109/JSSC.2011.2163556]