Digital background gain error correction in pipeline ADCs

This paper presents a new digital technique for background calibration of gain errors in pipeline ADCs. The proposed algorithm estimates and corrects both the MDAC gain error of the stage under calibration and the global gain error associated to the uncalibrated stages without interruption of the conversion and without reduction of the dynamic rate. It is based on the use of a stage with two input-output characteristics, depending on the value of a digital noise signal.