Analysis and Design of Voltage-Controlled Oscillator Based Analog-to-Digital Converter

A voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) based analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is a time-based architecture with a first-order noise-shaping property, which can be implemented using a VCO and digital circuits. This paper analyzes the performance of VCO-based ADCs in the presence of nonidealities such as jitter, nonlinearity, mismatch, and the metastability of D flip-flops. Based on this analysis, design criteria for determining parameters for VCO-based ADCs are described. In addition, a digital calibration technique to enhance the spurious-free dynamic range degraded by the nonlinearity is also introduced. To verify the theoretical analysis, a prototype chip is implemented in a 0.13-¿m CMOS process. With a 500-MHz sampling frequency, the prototype achieves a signal-to-noise ratio ranging from 71.8 to 21.3 dB for an input bandwidth of 100 kHz-247 MHz, while dissipating 12.6 mW and occupying an area of 0.078 mm².