This article presents a two-times interleaved, loop-unrolled SAR analog-to-digital converter (ADC) operational from 300 down to 4.2 K. The 6-8-bit resolution and the sampling speed up to 1 GS/s are targeted at digitizing the multi-channel frequency-multiplexed input in a spin-qubit reflectometry readout for quantum computing. To optimize the circuit for the altered device behavior at cryogenic temperatures, a modified common-mode switching scheme is adopted as well as a flexible calibration. The design is implemented in 40-nm CMOS technology and achieves 36.2-dB signal to noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) for Nyquist input at 4.2 K while maintaining a Walden figure of merit (FOM textsubscript W) of 200 pJ/conv-step (for a 10.8-mW power consumption), including the clock receiver, and 15 pJ/conv-step (for a 0.8-mW power consumption) for just the core ADC. With these specifications, the ADC can support the simultaneous readout of 20 qubit channels with a power consumption of 0.5 mW/qubit, thus advancing toward the full integration of the cryogenic readout for future large-scale quantum processors.

This paper reports the experimental characterization and modelling of a stand-Alone StrongARM comparator at both room temperature (RT) and cryogenic temperature (4.2 K). The observed 6-dB improvement in the comparator input noise at 4.2 K is attributed to the reduction of the thermal noise and to the suppressed shot noise in the MOS transistors becoming dominant at cryogenic temperature. The proposed model is employed in the design of a loop-unrolled 2\times time-interleaved 1-GSa/s 7b SAR ADC for spin-qubit readout. As predicted by the comparator model, the ADC is noise-limited at RT to a SNDR of 38.2 dB at Nyquist input, while this improves to 41.1 dB at 4.2 K, now limited by distortion, thus resulting in the state-of-The-Art FoMw for cryo-CMOS ADC of 20.9 fJ/conv-step.