A 134-μW 99.4-dB SNDR Audio Continuous-Time Delta-Sigma Modulator With Chopped Negative-R and Tri-Level FIR-DAC

This article presents a low-power audio continuous-time delta-sigma modulator (CTDSM) that employs a chopped negative-R and a tri-level finite impulse-response (FIR) DAC. The noise of the first opamp is mitigated by using a negative-R at the virtual ground of the first integrator, and the negative-R is then chopped to remove the intrinsic 1/f noise of the negative-R. The highly linear feedback DAC is realized with a 6-tap tri-level FIR-DAC whose inter-symbol interference (ISI) is kept less than -120 dB. The CTDSM fabricated in 65-nm CMOS technology occupies an active area of 0.28 mm
²
. It achieves 99.4-dB SNDR, 101-dB SNR, 102.8-dB dynamic range (DR), and 110.2-dB SFDR in a 24-kHz bandwidth, while consuming only 134 μW. This corresponds to a state-of-the-art figure-of-merit (FoM) of 185.3 dB.