Nested Digital Background Calibration of a 12-bit Pipelined ADC Without an Input SHA

To reduce power dissipation, the input sample-and-hold amplifier (SHA) is eliminated in a pipelined analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with nested background calibration. The nested architecture calibrates the pipelined ADC with an algorithmic ADC that is also calibrated. Without an input SHA, a timing difference between the sampling instants of the two ADCs creates an error that interferes with calibration of the pipelined ADC. This problem is overcome with digital background timing compensation. It uses a differentiator with fixed coefficients to build an adaptive interpolator. With a 58-kHz sinusoidal input, the 12-bit 20-Msample/s pipelined ADC achieves a signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) of 70.2 dB, a spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 80.3 dB, and an integral nonlinearity (INL) of 0.75 least significant bit (LSB). With a 9-MHz input, the SNDR is 64.2 dB, and the SFDR is 78.3 dB. About 2 million samples or 0.1 s are required for convergence. The prototype occupies 7.5 mm² in 0.35-mum CMOS and dissipates 231 mW from 3.3 V, which is 23 mW less than in a previous prototype with the input SHA.