All Digital, Background Calibration for Time-Interleaved and Successive Approximation Register Analog-to-Digital Converters

The growth of digital systems underscores the need to convert analog information to the digital domain at high speeds and with great accuracy. Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) calibration is often a limiting factor, requiring longer calibration times to achieve higher accuracy. The goal of this dissertation is to perform a fully digital background calibration using an arbitrary input signal for A/D converters. The work presented here adapts the cyclic Split-ADC calibration method to the time interleaved (TI) and successive approximation register (SAR) architectures. The TI architecture has three types of linear mismatch errors: offset, gain and aperture time delay. By correcting all three mismatch errors in the digital domain, each converter is capable of operating at the fastest speed allowed by the process technology. The total number of correction parameters required for calibration is dependent on the interleaving ratio, M. To adapt the Split-ADC method to a TI system, 2M+1 half-sized converters are required to estimate 3(2M+1) correction parameters. This thesis presents a 4:1 Split-TI converter that achieves full convergence in less than 400,000 samples. The SAR architecture employs a binary weight capacitor array to convert analog inputs into digital output codes. Mismatch in the capacitor weights results in non-linear distortion error. By adding redundant bits and dividing the array into individual unit capacitors, the Split-SAR method can estimate the mismatch and correct the digital output code. The results from this work show a reduction in the non-linear distortion with the ability to converge in less than 750,000 samples

New iterative framework for frequency response mismatch correction in time-interleaved ADCs: Design and performance analysis

This paper proposes a new iterative framework for the correction of frequency response mismatch in time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters. Based on a general time-varying linear system model for the mismatch, we treat the reconstruction problem as a linear inverse problem and establish a flexible iterative framework for practical implementation. It encumbrances a number of efficient iterative correction algorithms and simplifies their design, implementation, and performance analysis. In particular, an efficient Gauss-Seidel iteration is studied in detail to illustrate how the correction problem can be solved iteratively and how the proposed structure can be efficiently implemented using Farrow-based variable digital filters with few general-purpose multipliers. We also study important issues, such as the sufficient convergence condition and reconstructed signal spectrum, derive new lower bound of signal-to-distortion-and-noise ratio in order to ensure stable operation, and predict the performance of the proposed structure. Furthermore, we propose an extended iterative structure, which is able to cope with systems involving more than one type of mismatches. Finally, the theoretical results and the effectiveness of the proposed approach are validated by means of computer simulations. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Architectural Improvements Towards an Efficient 16-18 Bit 100-200 MSPS ADC

As Data conversion systems continue to improve in speed and resolution, increasing demands are placed on the performance of high-speed Analog to Digital Conversion systems. This work makes a survey about all these and proposes a suitable architecture in order to achieve the desired specifications of 100-200MS/s with 16-18 bit of resolution. The main architecture is based on paralleled structures in order to achieve high sampling rate and at the same time high resolution. In order to solve problems related to Time-interleaved architectures, an advanced randomization method was introduced. It combines randomization and spectral shaping of mismatches. With a simple low-pass filter the method can, compared to conventional randomization algorithms, improve the SFDR as well as the SINAD. The main advantage of this technique over previous ones is that, because the algorithm only need that ADCs are ordered basing on their time mismatches, the absolute accuracy of the mismatch identification method does not matter and, therefore, the requirements on the timing mismatch identification are very low. In addition to that, this correction system uses very simple algorithms able to correct not only for time but also for gain and offset mismatches

An identification of the tolerable time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter timing mismatch level in high-speed orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems

High-speed Terahertz communication systems has recently employed orthogonal frequency division multiplexing approach as it provides high spectral efficiency and avoids inter-symbol interference caused by dispersive channels. Such high-speed systems require extremely high-sampling time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters at the receiver. However, timing mismatch of time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters significantly causes system performance degradation. In this paper, to avoid such performance degradation induced by timing mismatch, we theoretically determine maximum tolerable mismatch levels for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing communication systems. To obtain these levels, we first propose an analytical method to derive the bit error rate formula for quadrature and pulse amplitude modulations in Rayleigh fading channels, assuming binary reflected gray code (BRGC) mapping. Further, from the derived bit error rate (BER) expressions, we reveal a threshold of timing mismatch level for which error floors produced by the mismatch will be smaller than a given BER. Simulation results demonstrate that if we preserve mismatch level smaller than 25% of this obtained threshold, the BER performance degradation is smaller than 0.5 dB as compared to the case without timing mismatch

Nonlinear models and algorithms for RF systems digital calibration

Focusing on the receiving side of a communication system, the current trend in pushing the digital domain ever more closer to the antenna sets heavy constraints on the accuracy and linearity of the analog front-end and the conversion devices. Moreover, mixed-signal implementations of Systems-on-Chip using nanoscale CMOS processes result in an overall poorer analog performance and a reduced yield. To cope with the impairments of the low performance analog section in this "dirty RF" scenario, two solutions exist: designing more complex analog processing architectures or to identify the errors and correct them in the digital domain using DSP algorithms. In the latter, constraints in the analog circuits' precision can be offloaded to a digital signal processor. This thesis aims at the development of a methodology for the analysis, the modeling and the compensation of the analog impairments arising in different stages of a receiving chain using digital calibration techniques. Both single and multiple channel architectures are addressed exploiting the capability of the calibration algorithm to homogenize all the channels' responses of a multi-channel system in addition to the compensation of nonlinearities in each response. The systems targeted for the application of digital post compensation are a pipeline ADC, a digital-IF sub-sampling receiver and a 4-channel TI-ADC. The research focuses on post distortion methods using nonlinear dynamic models to approximate the post-inverse of the nonlinear system and to correct the distortions arising from static and dynamic errors. Volterra model is used due to its general approximation capabilities for the compensation of nonlinear systems with memory. Digital calibration is applied to a Sample and Hold and to a pipeline ADC simulated in the 45nm process, demonstrating high linearity improvement even with incomplete settling errors enabling the use of faster clock speeds. An extended model based on the baseband Volterra series is proposed and applied to the compensation of a digital-IF sub-sampling receiver. This architecture envisages frequency selectivity carried out at IF by an active band-pass CMOS filter causing in-band and out-of-band nonlinear distortions. The improved performance of the proposed model is demonstrated with circuital simulations of a 10th-order band pass filter, realized using a five-stage Gm-C Biquad cascade, and validated using out-of-sample sinusoidal and QAM signals. The same technique is extended to an array receiver with mismatched channels' responses showing that digital calibration can compensate the loss of directivity and enhance the overall system SFDR. An iterative backward pruning is applied to the Volterra models showing that complexity can be reduced without impacting linearity, obtaining state-of-the-art accuracy/complexity performance. Calibration of Time-Interleaved ADCs, widely used in RF-to-digital wideband receivers, is carried out developing ad hoc models because the steep discontinuities generated by the imperfect canceling of aliasing would require a huge number of terms in a polynomial approximation. A closed-form solution is derived for a 4-channel TI-ADC affected by gain errors and timing skews solving the perfect reconstruction equations. A background calibration technique is presented based on cyclo-stationary filter banks architecture. Convergence speed and accuracy of the recursive algorithm are discussed and complexity reduction techniques are applied

Design of Energy-Efficient A/D Converters with Partial Embedded Equalization for High-Speed Wireline Receiver Applications

As the data rates of wireline communication links increases, channel impairments such as skin effect, dielectric loss, fiber dispersion, reflections and cross-talk become more pronounced. This warrants more interest in analog-to-digital converter (ADC)-based serial link receivers, as they allow for more complex and flexible back-end digital signal processing (DSP) relative to binary or mixed-signal receivers. Utilizing this back-end DSP allows for complex digital equalization and more bandwidth-efficient modulation schemes, while also displaying reduced process/voltage/temperature (PVT) sensitivity. Furthermore, these architectures offer straightforward design translation and can directly leverage the area and power scaling offered by new CMOS technology nodes. However, the power consumption of the ADC front-end and subsequent digital signal processing is a major issue. Embedding partial equalization inside the front-end ADC can potentially result in lowering the complexity of back-end DSP and/or decreasing the ADC resolution requirement, which results in a more energy-effcient receiver. This dissertation presents efficient implementations for multi-GS/s time-interleaved ADCs with partial embedded equalization. First prototype details a 6b 1.6GS/s ADC with a novel embedded redundant-cycle 1-tap DFE structure in 90nm CMOS. The other two prototypes explain more complex 6b 10GS/s ADCs with efficiently embedded feed-forward equalization (FFE) and decision feedback equalization (DFE) in 65nm CMOS. Leveraging a time-interleaved successive approximation ADC architecture, new structures for embedded DFE and FFE are proposed with low power/area overhead. Measurement results over FR4 channels verify the effectiveness of proposed embedded equalization schemes. The comparison of fabricated prototypes against state-of-the-art general-purpose ADCs at similar speed/resolution range shows comparable performances, while the proposed architectures include embedded equalization as well

Design Techniques for High-Performance SAR A/D Converters

The design of electronics needs to account for the non-ideal characteristics of the device technologies used to realize practical circuits. This is particularly important in mixed analog-digital design since the best device technologies are very different for digital compared to analog circuits. One solution for this problem is to use a calibration correction approach to remove the errors introduced by devices, but this adds complexity and power dissipation, as well as reducing operation speed, and so must be optimised. This thesis addresses such an approach to improve the performance of certain types of analog-to-digital converter (ADC) used in advanced telecommunications, where speed, accuracy and power dissipation currently limit applications. The thesis specifically focuses on the design of compensation circuits for use in successive approximation register (SAR) ADCs. ADCs are crucial building blocks in communication systems, in general, and for mobile networks, in particular. The recently launched fifth generation of mobile networks (5G) has required new ADC circuit techniques to meet the higher speed and lower power dissipation requirements for 5G technology. The SAR has become one of the most favoured architectures for designing high-performance ADCs, but the successive nature of the circuit operation makes it difficult to reach ∼GS/s sampling rates at reasonable power consumption. Here, two calibration techniques for high-performance SAR ADCs are presented. The first uses an on-chip stochastic-based mismatch calibration technique that is able to accurately compute and compensate for the mismatch of a capacitive DAC in a SAR ADC. The stochastic nature of the proposed calibration method enables determination of the mismatch of the CAPDAC with a resolution much better than that of the DAC. This allows the unit capacitor to scale down to as low as 280aF for a 9-bit DAC. Since the CAP-DAC causes a large part of the overall dynamic power consumption and directly determines both the sizes of the driving and sampling switches and the size of the input capacitive load of the ADC and the kT/C noise power, a small CAP-DAC helps the power efficiency. To validate the proposed calibration idea, a 10-bit asynchronous SAR ADC was fabricated in 28-nm CMOS. Measurement results show that the proposed stochastic calibration improves the ADC’s SFDR and SNDR by 14.9 dB, 11.5 dB, respectively. After calibration, the fabricated SAR ADC achieves an ENOB of 9.14 bit at a sampling rate of 85 MS/s, resulting in a Walden FoM of 10.9 fJ/c-s. The second calibration technique is a timing-skew calibration for a time-interleaved (TI) SAR ADC that calibrates/computes the inter-channel timing and offset mismatch simultaneously. Simulation results show the effectiveness of this calibration method. When used together, the proposed mismatch calibration technique and the timing-skew calibration technique enables a TI SAR ADC to be designed that can achieve a sampling rate of ∼GS/s with 10-bit resolution and a power consumption as low as ∼10mW; specifications that satisfy the requirements of 5G technology

Time-Interleaved Analog-to-Digital-Converters: Modeling, Blind Identification and Digital Correction of Frequency Response Mismatches

Analog-to-digital-conversion enables utilization of digital signal processing (DSP) in many applications today such as wireless communication, radar and electronic warfare. DSP is the favored choice for processing information over analog signal processing (ASP) because it can typically offer more flexibility, computational power, reproducibility, speed and accuracy when processing and extracting information. Software defined radio (SDR) receiver is one clear example of this, where radio frequency waveforms are converted into digital form as close to the antenna as possible and all the processing of the information contained in the received signal is extracted in a configurable manner using DSP. In order to achieve such goals, the information collected from the real world signals, which are commonly analog in their nature, must be converted into digital form before it can be processed using DSP in the respective systems. The common trend in these systems is to not only process ever larger bandwidths of data but also to process data in digital format at ever higher processing speeds with sufficient conversion accuracy. So the analog-to-digital-converter (ADC), which converts real world analog waveforms into digital form, is one of the most important cornerstones in these systems.The ADC must perform data conversion at higher and higher rates and digitize ever-increasing bandwidths of data. In accordance with the Nyquist-Shannon theorem, the conversion rate of the ADC must be suffcient to accomodate the BW of the signal to be digitized, in order to avoid aliasing. The conversion rate of the ADC can in general be increased by using parallel ADCs with each ADC performing the sampling at mutually different points in time. Interleaving the outputs of each of the individual ADCs provides then a higher digitization output rate. Such ADCs are referred to as TI-ADC. However, the mismatches between the ADCs cause unwanted spurious artifacts in the TI-ADC’s spectrum, ultimately leading to a loss in accuracy in the TI-ADC compared to the individual ADCs. Therefore, the removal or correction of these unwanted spurious artifacts is essential in having a high performance TI-ADC system.In order to remove the unwanted interleaving artifacts, a model that describes the behavior of the spurious distortion products is of the utmost importance as it can then facilitate the development of efficient digital post-processing schemes. One major contribution of this thesis consists of the novel and comprehensive modeling of the spurious interleaving mismatches in different TI-ADC scenarios. This novel and comprehensive modeling is then utilized in developing digital estimation and correction methods to remove the mismatch induced spurious artifacts in the TI-ADC’s spectrum and recovering its lost accuracy. Novel and first of its kind digital estimation and correction methods are developed and tested to suppress the frequency dependent mismatch spurs found in the TI-ADCs. The developed methods, in terms of the estimation of the unknown mismatches, build on statistical I/Q signal processing principles, applicable without specifically tailored calibration signals or waveforms. Techniques to increase the analog BW of the ADC are also analyzed and novel solutions are presented. The interesting combination of utilizing I/Q downconversion in conjunction with TI-ADC is examined, which not only extends the TI-ADC’s analog BW but also provides flexibility in accessing the radio spectrum. Unwanted spurious components created during the ADC’s bandwidth extension process are also analyzed and digital correction methods are developed to remove these spurs from the spectrum. The developed correction techniques for the removal of the undesired interleaving mismatch artifacts are validated and tested using various HW platforms, with up to 1 GHz instantaneous bandwidth. Comprehensive test scenarios are created using measurement data obtained from HW platforms, which are used to test and evaluate the performance of the developed interleaving mismatch estimation and correction schemes, evidencing excellent performance in all studied scenarios. The findings and results presented in this thesis contribute towards increasing the analog BW and conversion rate of ADC systems without losing conversion accuracy. Overall, these developments pave the way towards fulfilling the ever growing demands on the ADCs in terms of higher conversion BW, accuracy and speed