A 77.3-dB SNDR 62.5-kHz Bandwidth Continuous-Time Noise-Shaping SAR ADC With Duty-Cycled G_m-C Integrator

This article presents a first-order continuous-time (CT) noise-shaping successive-approximation-register (NS-SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Different from other NS-SAR ADCs in literature, which are discrete-time (DT), this ADC utilizes a CT Gm-C integrator to realize an inherent anti-aliasing function. To cope with the timing conflict between the DT SAR ADC and the CT integrator, the sampling switch of the SAR ADC is removed, and the integrator is duty cycled to leave 5% of the sampling clock period for the SAR conversion. Redundancy is added to track the varying ADC input due to the absence of the sampling switch. A theoretical analysis shows that the 5% duty-cycling has negligible effects on the signal transfer function (STF) and the noise transfer function. The output swing and linearity requirements for the integrator are also relaxed thanks to the inherent feedforward path in the NS-SAR ADC architecture. Fabricated in 65-nm CMOS, the prototype achieves 77.3-dB peak signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) in a 62.5-kHz bandwidth while consuming 13.5μ W, leading to a Schreier figure of merit (FoM) of 174.0 dB. Moreover, it provides 15-dB attenuation in the alias band.