9:00-10:30

Speaker:
 

T-1 Low-Power ADCs with Time-Domain Techniques

Qiang Li
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Abstract：
This tutorial addresses the low-power ADC design perspectives with a focus on time-domain ADCs in nanometer CMOS technologies. The tutorial is divided into two parts. In the first part, the low-power ADC design perspectives will be overviewed, including the fundamentals, architectures and low-power considerations on the block level and circuit level. In the second part, the ADC design with time-domain signaling will be discussed, starting from an overview of state-of-the-art time-based ADCs, including TDC-based, VCDL-based and VCO-based. Unique properties of time-domain quantizers will be studied, i.e., intrinsic noise shaping in delta-sigma modulators, inherent coarse quantization in Nyquist converters, metastability, trade-off flexibilities, etc. The number of oscillation cycles (NOC) are analyzed and exploited as an additional design space without extra cost in speed, power, and noise. Design examples using NOC to enhance the performance, efficiency, calibration and PVT robustness of VCO-based ADCs will be discussed.

Bio：

Qiang Li

Qiang Li received the B.Eng. degree in Electrical Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China, in 2001, and the Ph.D. degree from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in 2007. He has been working on analog/RF design since 2001, with industrial and academic experiences in China, Singapore and Denmark. He is currently a full Professor at the Institute of Integrated Circuits and Systems (IICS), University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC). His research interests include low-voltage and low-power analog/RF circuits, data converters, and mixed-mode circuits for sensor and biomedical interfaces. Prof. Li serves/served as the Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSCS) and on the Board of Governors (BoG) of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS).