A Metastability Error Detection and Reduction Technique for Partially Active Flash ADCs

作者：Yang Xiaochen^*; Cui Guoping; Zhang Yang; Ren Jiajun; Liu Jin^*

来源：IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS II-EXPRESS BRIEFS, 2016, 63(4): 331-335.

DOI：10.1109/TCSII.2015.2504942

• analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
• metastability
• metastability detector (MD)

A metastability error detection and reduction technique for partially active analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) is presented. It detects the metastability condition by comparing the coarse ADC output with a predefined voltage level. The metastability of the proposed comparator-based and prior logic gate-based metastability detectors (MDs) is analyzed. The metastable probability of the MD is shown to be critical for reducing the ADC metastability rate. A 5-b partially active flash ADC with the proposed MD is fabricated in 0.13-mu m CMOS. Measurement results show that the proposed technique reduces the ADC metastability error rate significantly, from 10(-6) to 10(-12), which is consistent with the theoretical analysis.

• 出版日期2016-4