A Digital Timing Mismatch Calibration Technique in Time-Interleaved ADCs

A digital calibration scheme is proposed to minimize the timing mismatch in time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters (TIADCs). First, the scheme is to subtract the outputs from adjacent channel ADCs and to utilize the expectations of the absolute value of the subtracted results to represent the actual sampling time interval. The timing mismatch is recognized by comparing these expectations. The obtained information is fed back to adjust variable delay buffers, thus reducing the timing mismatch. The application of this scheme to a 12-bit 1.6 GS/s four-channel TIADC is demonstrated. Simulation results show that with an input signal whose bandwidth is limited to the Nyquist frequency, the proposed timing mismatch calibration scheme is effective and capable of reducing the mismatch to the minimum. Compared with traditional calibration schemes, the proposed scheme is more feasible to implement and consumes less power and chip area.