A 4th Order Continuous-Time ΔΣ ADC with VCO-Based ...
Transcript of A 4th Order Continuous-Time ΔΣ ADC with VCO-Based ...
A 4th Order Continuous-Time ΔΣ ADC with VCO-Based Integrator and Quantizer
ISSCC 2009, Session 9.5
Matt Park1, Michael H. Perrott2
1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA2 SiTime Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA, USA
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Motivation
A highly digital receive path is very attractive for achieving multi-standard functionalityA key issue is achieving a wide bandwidth ADC with high resolution and low power- Minimal anti-alias requirements are desirable for simplicity
Continuous-Time Sigma-Delta ADC structureshave very attractive characteristics for this space
LNA
ADC
AnalogAnti-Alias
Filter
DigitalChannel
Filter
ADC
cos(wot)
sin(wot)
I
Q
SampleClock
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A Basic Continuous-Time Sigma-Delta ADC Structure
Sampling occurs at the quantizer after filtering by H(s)Quantizer noise is shaped according to choice of H(s)- High open loop gain required to achieve high SNR
DAC
H(s)
clock
IN OUT
Multi-LevelQuantizer
We will focus on achieving an efficient implementationof the multi-level quantizer by using a ring oscillator
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Input: analog tuning of ring oscillator frequencyOutput: count of oscillator cycles per Ref clock period
Ring Oscillator
Register
Reset
Ref
Count
Out
Ref
Count
Counters
Out 15 30
Vtune
Vtune
OscillatorPhases
12 21
Alon, Stojanovic, HorowitzJSSC 2005
Kim, Cho, ISCAS 2006
Similar approaches:
Application of Ring Oscillator as an ADC Quantizer
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VCO-Based Quantizer Also Shapes Delay Mismatch
Barrel shifting through delay elements- Mismatch between delay elements is first order shaped
Enable
Enable
Enable
Enable
Measurement 1
Measurement 2
Measurement 3
Measurement 4
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Benefits of VCO-based Quantization
Much more digital implementation- No resistor ladder or differential gain stages
Offset and mismatch is not of critical concernMetastability behavior is improved
A
A
IN
A
CLK
Vdd
N
1
1
0
N-Stage Ring Oscillator
N-bit Register
Pre-Amp Comparator
N-Stage
Resistor
Ladder
IN
CLK
110 01
Buffer
Vdd
Implementation is high speed, low power, low area
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VCO
1- z-1
Quantizer
First Order
Difference
Ref
Vtune Out
2πKv
s1- z-1
T
1
T
Vtune Out
VCO Sampler
VCO
Noise
Quantization
Noise
First Order
Difference
ff
-20 dB/dec
Output
Noise
f
20 dB/dec
VCO Kv
Nonlinearity
Frequency Domain Model of VCO Quantizer
VCO modeled as integrator and Kv nonlinearitySampling of VCO phase modeled as scale factor of 1/TQuantizer modeled as addition of quantization noise
Key non-idealities:- Quantization noise
- First order shaped!- VCO noise- VCO Kv nonlinearity
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Example SNDR with 20 MHz BW (1 GHz Sample Rate)
105 106 107 108-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
Frequency (Hz)
Am
plitu
de (d
B)
Simulated ADC Output Spectrum
2πKv
s1- z-1
1
T
Vtune Out
VCO Sampler
VCO
Noise
Quantization
Noise
First Order
Difference
ff
-20 dB/dec
Output
Noise
f
20 dB/dec
VCO Kv
Nonlinearity
Conditions SNDR
Ideal 68.2 dB
VCO Thermal Noise 65.4 dB
VCO Thermal + Nonlinearity 32.2 dB
VCO Kv nonlinearity iskey SNDR bottleneck
Kvco: ± 5% linearityVCO noise:-100
dBc/Hz@ 10 MHz
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Reducing the Impact of Nonlinearity using Feedback
Place VCO-based quantizer within a continuous-time Sigma-Delta ADC structure- Quantizer nonlinearity suppressed by preceding gain
stage
Iwata, Sakimura, TCAS II, 1999Naiknaware, Tang, Fiez, TCAS II, 2000
VCO-based
Quantizer
Gain and
Filtering
DAC
Vtune
Ref
In Out
Peak SNDR limited by Kv non-linearity to 67 dB (20 MHz BW)10
A Second Order Continuous-Time Sigma-Delta ADC
DOUT
VIN
973 MHz
IDAC1 IDAC2
Vtune
VA V
B
VCO-based Quantizer & Barrel-Shift
DEM
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Straayer, PerrottVLSI 2007
Third order noise shaping with a second order structure!
0.13u CMOS IC
How Do We Overcome Kv Nonlinearity to Improve SNDR?
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Voltage-to-Frequency VCO-based ADC (1st Order Σ−Δ)
In prior work, VCO frequency is desired output variable- Input must span the entire non-linear voltage-to-frequency
(Kv) characteristic to exercise full dynamic range- Strong distortion at extreme ends of the Kv curve
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Proposed Voltage-to-Phase Approach (1st Order Σ−Δ)
VCO output phase is now the output variable- Small perturbation on Vtune allows large VCO phase shift- VCO acts as a CT integrator with infinite DC gain
13High SNDR requires higher order Σ−Δ …
Proposed 4th Order Architecture for Improved SNDR
Goal: ~80 dB SNDR with 20 MHz bandwidth- Achievable with 4th order loop filter, 4-bit VCO-based quantizer- 4-bit quantizer: tradeoff resolution versus DEM overhead
Combined frequency/phase feedback for stability/SNDR14
Schematic of Proposed Architecture
Opamp-RC integrators- Better linearity than Gm-C, though higher power
Explicit DWA
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Schematic of Proposed Architecture
Passive summation performed with resistors- Low power- Must design carefully to minimize impact of parasitic pole
Explicit DWA
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Schematic of Proposed Architecture
DEM explicitly performed on phase feedback- NRZ DAC unit elements
DEM implicitly performed on frequency feedback- RZ DAC unit elements (Note: Miller, US Patent (2004))
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Behavioral Simulation (available at www.cppsim.com)
VCO Kv non-linearityDevice noiseAmplifier finite gain, finite BWDAC and VCO unit element mismatch
Key Nonidealities
VCO nonlinearity is not the bottleneck for achievable SNDR!
0.1 1.0 10.0 100.0-200
-180
-160
-140
-120
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20FFT PLOT
ANALOG INPUT FREQUENCY (MHz)
AM
PL
ITU
DE
(d
B)
Only VCO Kv
Non-Linearity:
SNDR ~ 95 dB
Selected Noise,
Non-Linearity:
SNDR ~ 85 dB
20 MHz Bandwidth
85 dB SNDR!
Circuit Details
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en0 en1 en2 en4
en0 en1 en2 en4
VCO Integrator Schematic
15 stage current starved ring-VCO - 7 stage ring-VCO
shown for simplicity- Pseudo differential
control- PVT variation
accommodated by enable switches on PMOS/NMOS
Rail-to-rail VCO output phase signals (VDD to GND)
Straayer, VLSI 2007
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VCO Quantizer Schematic
Phase quantization with sense-amp flip-flop - Single
phase clocking
Rail-to-rail quantizer output signals (VDD to GND)
Nikolic et al, JSSC 200021
outm outp
inp inm
clk
clk
clk
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
Phase Quantizer, Phase and Frequency Detector
Phase OutputFrequency Output
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
d
d
q
q
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Highly digital implementation- Phase sampled &
quantized by SAFF- XOR phase and
frequency detection with FF and XOR
Automatic DWA for frequency detector output code- Must explicitly
perform DWA on phase detector output code
iout,m
iout,p
Retiming
Flip-Flop
Low-Swing
Buffer
Current DAC
Unit-Element
clk
data
D
DB
Q
QB iout,p
iout,m
am
ap
Vinp
VDD
VSS
Vinm
Vinp
Vbias,n
Vcasc,n
VinmVinp
i ou
t,m
i ou
t,p
(same cell for Vinm)Low-swing buffers- Keeps switch
devices in saturation
- Fast “on” / Slow “off” reduces glitches at DAC output
- Uses external Vdd/Vss
Resistor degeneration minimizes 1/f noise
Main Feedback DAC Schematic
Yan et alJSSC 2004
Bit-Slice of Minor Loop RZ DAC
RZ DAC unit elements transition every sample period- Breaks code-dependency of transient mismatch (ISI)- Uses full-swing logic signals for switching
PMOS Drivers
NMOS Drivers
up
dump,p
clk
clkb
VDD
datab
clkb
data
clkVDD
dump,n
inp
inm
inp
up
outp outm
inm
Vcasc,n
Vbias,n
Vcasc,p
Vbias,p
dump,n
dump,p
vcm
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Opamp Schematic
Modified nested Miller opamp- 4 cascaded gain stages, 2
feedforward stages- Behaves as 2-stage Miller near
cross-over frequencies- Opamp 1 power is 2X of
opamps 2 and 3 (for low noise)
Parameter ValueDC Gain 63 dBUnity-Gain Frequency 4.0 GHzPhase Margin 55°Input Referred Noise Power (20 MHz BW)
11 uV (rms)
Power (VDD = 1.5 V) 22.5 mW
Mitteregger et al, JSSC 2006
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Gm Gm
Gm
inm
inp
Vcm Vcm
Vcm
Vbp
VbnVcm
outp
outm
DEM Architecture (3-bit example)
Achieves low-delay to allow 4-bit DEM at 900 MHz- Code through barrel shift propagates in half a sample period
Therm. to Binary
Barrel Shift8 8
5 2 3 65 2 3 6
3 3
Accumulator
clk
NRZDACInputs
PhaseQuantizerOutput
See also:Yang
ISSCC 2008
Die Photo (0.13u CMOS)
Die photo courtesy of Annie Wang (MTL)
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Active area0.45 mm2
Sampling Freq900 MHz
Input BW20 MHz
Supply Voltage1.5 V
Analog Power69 mW
Digital Power18 mW
SNDR (20MHz)SNR (20MHz)
0-10-20-30-40-50-60-70-80
0
20
40
60
80
100
-20
SN
DR
/SN
R (
dB
)
Ma
gn
itu
de
(d
B)
0
20
40
60
80
100
-20
-40
Input Amplitude (dBFS)0.1 1.0 10.0 100.0
Frequency (Hz)
100,000 pt. FFT
Peak SNDR = 78.1 dBPeak SNR = 81.2 dB
Measured Results
78 dB Peak SNDR performance in 20 MHz- Bottleneck: transient mismatch from main feedback DAC
Architecture robust to VCO Kv non-linearity
28Figure of Merit: 330 fJ/Conv with 78 dB SNDR
Transient DAC mismatch is likely the key bottleneck
Behavioral Model Reveals Key Performance Issue
Amplifier nonlinearity degrades SNDR to 81 dB DAC transient mismatch degrades SNDR to 78 dB- DEM does
not help- Could be
improved with dual RZ structure0.1 1.0 10.0 100.0
-200
-180
-160
-140
-120
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20FFT PLOT
ANALOG INPUT FREQUENCY (MHz)
AM
PL
ITU
DE
(d
B)
Only VCO Kv
Non-Linearity:
SNDR ~ 95 dB
Selected Noise,
Non-Linearity:
SNDR ~ 78 dB
20 MHz Bandwidth
Conclusion
VCO-based quantization is a promising component to achieve high performance Σ−Δ ADC structures- High speed, low power, low area implementation- First order shaping of quantization noise and mismatch- Kv non-linearity was a limitation in previous approaches
Demonstrated a 4th-order CT ΔΣ ADC with a VCO-based integrator and quantizer- Proposed voltage-to-phase conversion to avoid
distortion from Kv non-linearity- Achieved 78 dB SNDR in 20 MHz BW with 87 mW power
Key performance bottleneck: transient DAC mismatch
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