An 8-b, 40 msamples/s switched-current-mode track-and-hold circuit on a BiCMOS sea-of-gates array

A fully differential track-and-hold circuit based on the switched-current processing has been integrated on a fully complementary 1.2 μm-6 GHz BiCMOS sea-of-gates array. It is based on a BiCMOS switched-current memory cell which uses MOS transistors to store the analog information and bipolar transistors to implement the switch. This improves the speed achievable and the distortion compared to a CMOS-only switched-current memory cell. A differential configuration is also presented which made it possible to improve performances such as the hold mode feedthrough (<-67 dB @ 10 MHz) or the pedestal error. The acquisition time for a full scale step is 22 ns, in order to reach the final value within 0.1%. It achieves 8-b precision at a sample-rate of 40 MHz under Nyquist condition, a full scale track-mode bandwidth of 150 MHz and a consumption of 80 mW for a surface of 0.44 mm²