A novel comparator-assisted switching strategy used in Successive Approximation Register ADC

Recently Successive Approximation Register (SAR) ADC is more and more important in low power and small layout area application field such as implantable medical system. SAR ADC has moderate speed, moderate resolution and very low power characteristics. Some researchers have focused on improving the efficiency and layout area of SAR ADC. This work proposes a novel comparator-assisted switching strategy. By this strategy, the capacitor array can be just one in eight of the counterpart one which is used in conventional switching strategy. And the power consumption is substantially reduced. This switching strategy can be used in implantable medical system.