High-speed analog-to-digital converters using nanometer CMOS technology

Data converters are essential gateways leading an analog signal into a digital format. Data converters are more and more important for electrical and optical communication systems where the analog signals must be transformed in analog at the very beginning of the processing chain. The use of advanced modulation schemes lead to a pressing request for power efficient A/D converters operating with a data-rate in the range of ten of GS/s. This is normally satisfied by the use of time interleaved high-speed data converters, typically implemented with the SAR algorithm. Notice that the necessities of high-speed are often accompanied by the need of low power consumption, or, more frequently, low-power is itself a key performance so that speed and resolution become trade-off elements together with silicon area and cost.