A 400-MHz input flash converter with error correction

An 8-b, 200-megasample/s flash converter with 400-MHz analog bandwidth and error correction circuitry is described. A cascoded input stage and a dense bipolar process make the wide bandwidth possible. Errors arising from high input slew rate and comparator metastability are reduced by means of the circuitry and the latching stages respectively. The final defense against errors is the second rank error suppression. Measured frequency and error rate performance are examined.<
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