Next generation high-speed sigma-delta ADC architectures

June 13, 2012 // By Maury Wood, Heribert Geib, Lucien Breems and Muhammed Bolatkale

A promising architecture for next generation high-speed Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs) is the so-called sigma-delta (ΣΔ) converter architecture.

NXP Semiconductors has contributed to sigma-delta converter research and development since 1952, when the paper “Delta Modulation, a Method of PCM

Transmission Using the One Unit Code” appeared in the Philips Research Report.

The first commercial sigma-delta (or delta-sigma) data converters were introduced to the market in the early to mid-1990s. They were a huge success, for a number of reasons. They almost entirely eliminated the external analog anti-aliasing and anti-image filters required by legacy Nyquist converters. This significantly reduced the Bill of Materials (BOM) costs, and improved system phase linearity. And unlike their predecessors, the new sigma-delta converters did not require the laser trimming of resistor ladders, thereby significantly reducing both die and test manufacturing costs.

Read the full article on page 20 of our June digital edition.

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