An apparatus and method for carrier frequency estimation include a carrier frequency estimator having: a frequency input terminal disposed to receive a frequency-domain input signal comprising a plurality of symbols; a plurality of candidate pipelines, each comprising a frequency adder coupled to the frequency input terminal, a bit converter coupled to the frequency adder, a multi-bit buffer coupled to the bit converter; and a correlator coupled to the multi-bit buffer, respectively; and a candidate pipeline selector coupled to the correlators.

An electronic device may include digital circuitry to operate via digital signals and analog circuitry to operate via analog signals. The electronic device may also include a fractal digital to analog converter (DAC) to convert a digital signal into an analog signal. The fractal DAC may include a unit cell array having a branching data path and multiple unit cells disposed in a fractal pattern. The fractal DAC may also include multiple decision units disposed within the unit cell array on the branching data path. Each decision unit may receive an incoming signal representative of at least a portion of the digital signal and direct each decision unit output to different branches of the unit cell array. The unit cells may be enabled based at least in part on the decision unit outputs to generate the analog signal.

An analog to digital converter (ADC) device includes ADC circuits, a calibration circuit, and a skew adjusting circuit. The ADC circuits convert an input signal according to interleaved clock signals, in order to generate first quantized outputs. The calibration circuit performs at least one calibration computation according to the first quantized outputs to generate second quantized outputs. The skew adjusting circuit determines calculating signals, to which the second quantized outputs correspond in a predetermined interval, and averages the calculating signals to generate a reference signal, and compares the reference signal with each of the calculating signals to generate detecting signals, and determines whether the detecting signals are adjusted or not according to a signal frequency to generate adjusting signals, in order to reduce a clock skew in the ADC circuits.

An analog to digital converter (ADC) device includes ADC circuits, a calibration circuit, and a skew adjusting circuit. The ADC circuits are configured to convert an input signal according to interleaved clock signals to generate first quantized outputs. The calibration circuit is configured to perform at least one calibration operation according to the first quantized outputs to generate second quantized outputs. The skew adjusting circuit further includes a first adjusting circuit. The first adjusting circuit is configured to analyze adjacent clock signals according to part of the second quantized outputs to generate adjusting information. The skew adjusting circuit is configured to analyze time difference information within even-numbered sampling periods of the clock signals according to the second quantized outputs and the adjusting information to generate adjustment signals. The adjustment signals are configured to reduce clock skews of the ADC circuits.

An analog to digital converter (ADC) device includes ADC circuits, a calibration circuit, and a skew adjusting circuit. The ADC circuits convert an input signal according to interleaved clock signals, in order to generate first quantized outputs. The calibration circuit performs at least one calibration computation according to the first quantized outputs to generate second quantized outputs. The skew adjusting circuit determines calculating signals, to which the second quantized outputs correspond in a predetermined interval, and averages the calculating signals to generate a reference signal, and compares the reference signal with each of the calculating signals to generate detecting signals, and determines whether the detecting signals are adjusted or not according to a signal frequency to generate adjusting signals, in order to reduce a clock skew in the ADC circuits.

The present disclosure relates to a time-interleaved ADC circuit. The time-interleaved ADC circuit comprises an input for an analog input signal, a first ADC bank comprising a first plurality of parallel time-multiplexed ADCs, wherein the first plurality of parallel time-multiplexed ADCs is configured to subsequently generate a first plurality of samples of the analog input signal during a first time interval, a first buffer amplifier coupled between the input and the first ADC bank. The time-interleaved ADC circuit further comprises a second ADC bank comprising a second plurality of parallel time-multiplexed ADCs, wherein the second plurality of parallel time-multiplexed ADCs is configured to subsequently generate a second plurality of samples of the analog input signal during a second time interval, wherein the first and the second time intervals are subsequent time intervals, a second buffer amplifier coupled between the input and the second ADC bank. The first ADC bank has associated therewith a first dummy sampler, wherein the ADC circuit is configured to activate the first dummy sampler before the start of the first time interval. The second ADC bank has associated therewith a second dummy sampler, wherein the ADC circuit is configured to activate the second dummy sampler before the start of the second time interval.

An analog to digital converter (ADC) device includes ADC circuits, a calibration circuit, and a skew adjusting circuit. The ADC circuits convert an input signal according to interleaved clock signals, in order to generate first quantized outputs. The calibration circuit performs at least one calibration computation according to the first quantized outputs to generate second quantized outputs. The skew adjusting circuit determines maximum value signals, to which the second quantized outputs correspond in a predetermined interval, and averages the maximum value signals to generate a reference signal, and compares the reference signal with each of the maximum value signals to generate detecting signals, and determines whether the detecting signals are adjusted or not according to a signal frequency to generate adjusting signals, in order to reduce a clock skew in the ADC circuits.

An error correction method and a time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter (TIADC) are provided. The method is applied to a TIADC that includes a plurality of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and the method includes: determining whether a current value of a codeword of a first ADC in the plurality of ADCs is within a preset range; when the current value of the codeword of the first ADC is not within the preset range, adjusting a plurality of codewords that are in a one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of ADCs; and controlling a clock frequency division circuit to generate, by using a plurality of adjusted codewords, a plurality of sampling clocks that are in a one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of ADCs. In embodiments of this application, a sampling time-period skew existing between ADCs may be adjusted by adjusting codewords corresponding to the ADCs.

An analog-to-digital converting system includes multiple stages of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and a skew calibration circuit. The multiple stages of ADCs are configured to sample a test signal according to multiple interleaved clock signals, respectively, so as to respectively generate multiple stages of quantized outputs. The analog-to-digital converting system has a sampling frequency resulting from operations of the multiple stages of ADCs. The test signal has a first frequency and the sampling frequency is N times the first frequency, and N is an odd number larger than 1. The skew calibration circuit is configured to sequentially analysis, for every N stages, the multiple stages of quantized outputs to generate multiple digital codes. The skew calibration circuit is further configured to calibrate a time skew of the analog-to-digital converting system according to a comparison result between the multiple digital codes and a reference code.

A receiver circuit includes an interleaved ADC, a first delay circuit, a second delay circuit, a first processing channel, a second processing channel, and an interleaving ADC timing error detector circuit. The interleaved ADC includes a first ADC and a second ADC in parallel. The first delay circuit delays a first clock signal provided to the first ADC. The second delay circuit delays a second clock signal provided to the second ADC. The first processing channel processes data samples provided by the first ADC, and includes a first slicer. The second processing channel processes data samples provided by the second ADC, and includes a second slicer. The interleaving ADC timing error detector circuit controls delay of the first delay circuit and the second delay circuit based on an output signal of the first slicer, and an output signal or an input signal of the second slicer.