A new successive approximation architecture for high-speed low-power ADCs

A new high-speed successive approximation analog-to-digital converter (ADC) architecture is presented. Two-bits extraction in each clock cycle is the key idea to double the conversion speed. Generating reference levels for three comparators with only two digital-to-analog converter (DACs), is another novelty of the new architecture. The proposed DAC structure allows a substantial reduction in overall control logic complexity. A 10-bit 40 Ms/S successive approximation ADC was designed based on the proposed architecture in 0.35μm CMOS technology. The simulation results show that the proposed architecture introduces 7% reduction in power consumption over conventional architecture. Furthermore, chip area for the new ADC is 40% less than what otherwise would be needed by an ADC using conventional architecture.