Comparison of transient and PNOISE simulation techniques for the design of a dynamic comparator

This paper presents an alternative method for noise analysis of dynamic comparator circuits. The conventional method utilizes Cadence's transient analysis tool and curve fitting techniques to determine an approximation for the thermal noise contribution of comparator circuits. This method is time consuming and can be impractical when optimizing device sizes. Instead, the alternative method uses PSS and PNOISE simulation tools which greatly reduces the simulation time required. The alternative method also allows users to consider flicker noise in addition to thermal noise. Using the PNOISE method, the simulation time was approximately 14 times smaller than observed when modeling the noise in a double tail latch comparator using the transient noise method [3].