A novel frequency based current-to-digital converter with programmable dynamic range

This work describes a novel frequency based current to digital converter, which is fully realizable on a single chip. This project affords an extremely low power converter technology that is also very space efficient. The converter is completely asynchronous which yields ultra-low power during standby operation (approximately 5 nW). The input current range is programmable, and the minimum detectable current could reach the range of picoampere or even lower. System structure, operational principle, and chip test results are given in this paper.