A 12-bit 20-Msample/s pipelined analog-to-digital converter with nested digital background calibration

A 12-bit 20-Msample/s pipelined analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is calibrated in the background using an algorithmic ADC, which is itself calibrated in the foreground. The overall calibration architecture is nested. The calibration overcomes the circuit nonidealities caused by capacitor mismatch and finite operational amplifier (opamp) gain both in the pipelined ADC and the algorithmic ADC. With a 58-kHz sinusoidal input, test results show that the pipelined ADC achieves a peak signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) of 70.8 dB, a peak spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 93.3 dB, a total harmonic distortion (THD) of -92.9 dB, and a peak integral nonlinearity (INL) of 0.47 least significant bit (LSB). The total power dissipation is 254 mW from 3.3 V. The active area is 7.5 mm² in 0.35-μm CMOS.