Embedded analog-to-digital converters

Systems-on-chips (SoCs) have become a reality in the past decade. Several dozens of different functional blocks are being integrated on a single die, reaching transistor counts of up to half a billion. From the analog portion of an SoC the data converters are probably among the most challenging blocks, often limiting system performance and dominating power dissipation. However, requirements regarding yield, die-size, scalability, noise immunity, power and the fact that logic is almost for free, cause distinct differences between embedded data converters and their stand-alone, usually general purpose, counterparts. This paper describes these differences and provides an overview of the state-of-the art in analog-to-digital conversion.