A 1-GHz 6-bit ADC system

A two-rank GaAs sample-and-hold (S/H) chip and four 250-MHz silicon digitizers form a 1-GHz 6-b analog-to-digital converter (ADC) system. The two rank S/H architecture avoids dynamic errors inherent to interleaved ADCs; accuracy exceeds 5.2 effective bits, up to 1-GHz input frequency. Special attention is paid to avoiding GaAs slow transient errors.