An embedded 240-mW 10-b 50-MS/s CMOS ADC in 1-mm/sup 2/

A distributed-gain preamplifier uses averaging to improve resolution by 4 b in differential nonlinearity (DNL) and 2 b in integral nonlinearity (INL) in a flash analog-to-digital converter (ADC). Fabricated in a 0.5-/spl mu/m, triple-metal, single-poly CMOS process, the circuit measures 1.4 mm/spl times/1.4 mm including a bandgap and a sample-and-hold (SH), while the ADC itself occupies 1-mm/sup 2/. At a conversion rate of 50-MS/s the ADC dissipates 170 mW, the SH dissipates 70 mW, and the untrimmed ADC-plus-SH exhibits 54 dB S/(N+D) with a 12-MHz 90% full-scale input.