High-Precision, Mixed-Signal Mismatch Measurement of Metal–Oxide–Metal Capacitors

This brief presents a high-precision, mixed-signal mismatch measurement technique for metal-oxide-metal capacitors. The proposed technique incorporates a switched-capacitor op amp within the measurement circuit to significantly improve the measurement precision while relaxing the resolution requirement on the backend analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The proposed technique is also robust against multiple types of errors. A detailed analysis is presented to quantify the sensitivity improvement of the proposed technique over the conventional one. In addition, this brief proposes a multiplexing technique to measure a large number of capacitors in a single chip and a new layout to improve matching. A prototype fabricated in 180 nm technology demonstrates the ability to sense capacitor mismatch standard deviation as low as 0.045% with excellent repeatability, all without the need of a high-resolution ADC.