A time-to-digital converter utilizes both coarse and fine quantizers and addresses mismatch by using redundant bits in the coarse time representation and the fine time representation. The redundant bits are compared and if the redundant bits are the same, no mismatch correction is required but if the redundant bits are different a correction is applied to correct the redundant portion of the coarse time information. The redundant portion includes the most significant bit generated by the fine quantizer and the least significant bit of the coarse quantizer. The correction adds to or subtracts from the redundant information.

The present invention is a system and method for providing a modified Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC) for use in a time-interleaved successive-approximation-register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the DAC including grouping of capacitance electrodes by Bit in a DAC, thereby reducing parasitic capacitances, and substantially improving power efficiency and speed to operate at GHz frequencies.

The present invention is a system and method for providing a modified Digital-to-Analog converter (DAC) for use in a time-interleaved successive-approximation-register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC), the DAC including grouping of capacitance electrodes by Bit in a DAC, thereby reducing parasitic capacitances, and substantially improving power efficiency and speed to operate at GHz frequencies.

A system can include an analog input port; a digital output port; and a successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The SAR ADC can include a voltage comparator V.sub.d having a first input, a second input, and an output; a first plurality of capacitors C.sub.p[0:n] that are coupled with the analog input port and each have a top plate and a bottom plate; a second plurality of capacitors C.sub.n[0:n] that are coupled with the analog input port and each have a top plate and a bottom plate; and a SAR controller coupled between the output of the voltage comparator V.sub.d and the digital output port.

A self-calibrating Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) performs radix error calibration using a Successive-Approximation Register (SAR) to drive test voltages onto lower-significant capacitors. The final SAR code is corrected by performing LSB averaging on LSB averaging capacitors and then accumulated, and the measurement repeated many times to obtain a digital average measurement. An ideal radix or ratio of the measured capacitor's capacitance to a unit capacitance of an LSB capacitor is subtracted from the digital average measurement to obtain a measured error that is stored in a Look-Up Table (LUT) with the ideal radix. Radix error calibration is repeated for other capacitors to populate the LUT. During normal ADC conversion, the SAR code obtained from converting the analog input is applied to addresses the LUT, and all ideal radixes and measured errors for 1 bits in the SAR code are added together to generate an error-corrected digital value.

An image sensor may contain an array of imaging pixels arranged in rows and columns. Each column of imaging pixels may be coupled to a column line which is used to read out imaging signals from the pixels. The column line may be coupled to an analog-to-digital converter for converting analog imaging signals from the pixels to digital signals. The analog-to-digital converter may be implemented as a charge sharing successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The SAR ADC may include a comparator coupled to a feedback digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The comparator may have a non-zero comparator offset. The feedback DAC may include capacitors that are scaled using a sub-radix-2 sizing scheme to help improve tolerance to the comparator offset while enabling resolutions of up to 10-bits or more.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatus for performing background noise estimation using a circular histogram noise figure (CHNF) in an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) circuit with redundancy. The estimated noise may be used to reduce the noise (e.g., comparator noise) in the ADC circuit. One example ADC circuit generally includes at least one of a comparator or a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and at least one digital feedback input. The at least one digital feedback input is coupled to the at least one of the comparator or the DAC and is configured to adjust at least one parameter of the at least one of the comparator or the DAC based on at least a portion of an output of the ADC circuit.

The present disclosure relates to a high-speed and low-power successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter (SAR ADC) and an analog-to-digital conversion method. Binary redundancy reassembly is performed to improve a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) capacitor array included in the SAR ADC such that the total number of capacitors included in a capacitor sub-array of the DAC capacitor array is greater than the number of precision bits of the SAR ADC, and the total number of unit capacitors included in all capacitors when the total number of capacitors included in the capacitor sub-array is greater than the number of precision bits of the SAR ADC is equal to the total number of unit capacitors included in all capacitors when the total number of capacitors included in the capacitor sub-array is equal to the number of precision bits of the SAR ADC.

A system can include an analog input port; a digital output port; and a successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The SAR ADC can include a voltage comparator V.sub.d having a first input, a second input, and an output; a first plurality of capacitors C.sub.p[0:n] that are coupled with the analog input port and each have a top plate and a bottom plate; a second plurality of capacitors C.sub.n[0:n] that are coupled with the analog input port and each have a top plate and a bottom plate; and a SAR controller coupled between the output of the voltage comparator V.sub.d and the digital output port.

An image sensor may contain an array of imaging pixels arranged in rows and columns. Each column of imaging pixels may be coupled to a column line which is used to read out imaging signals from the pixels. The column line may be coupled to an analog-to-digital converter for converting analog imaging signals from the pixels to digital signals. The analog-to-digital converter may be implemented as a charge sharing successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The SAR ADC may include a comparator coupled to a feedback digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The comparator may have a non-zero comparator offset. The feedback DAC may include capacitors that are scaled using a sub-radix-2 sizing scheme to help improve tolerance to the comparator offset while enabling resolutions of up to 10-bits or more.