The Zoom ADC
An Evolving Architecture
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Abstract
Zoom ADCs combine a coarse SAR ADC with a fine delta-sigma modulator (?SM) to efficiently obtain high energy efficiency and high dynamic range. This makes them well suited for use in various instrumentation and audio applications. However, zoom ADCs also have drawbacks. The use of over-ranging in their fine modulators may limit SNDR, large out-of-band interferers may cause slope overload, and the quantization noise of their coarse ADC may leak into the baseband. This chapter presents an overview of recent advances in zoom ADCs that tackle these challenges while maintaining high energy efficiency. Prototypes designed in standard 0.16 µm technology achieve SNDRs over 100 dB in bandwidths ranging from 1 to 24 kHz while consuming only hundreds of µWs.