Overview 

We live in an analog world, surrounded by digital devices. In the physical world, things are all analog. For example, temperature, radio waves, and heartbeat signals are continuous on amplitude. On the other hand, in the digital world, there are only ones and zeros. So, it is obvious that we need something that could convert these analog parameters to a digital value for a computer to understand it. This something is called ADC or Analog to Digital Converter. 

Purpose

SAR ADC and Delta Sigma ADC are getting a lot of attention in term of data converter. While the former is designed for high resolution, low power applications (5G, biotechnology, …), the latter is an adaptive solution for flexible bandwidth purposes (RF communication standards such as WCDMA, LTA, and LTA CA). SAR-assisted Delta-Sigma ADC is a structure that have the advantage of both SAR and Delta-sigma ADC.

Development Direction 

Project "SAR-assisted Delta-Sigma ADC for IOT applications" focus on designing an ADC circuit with a wide bandwidth of 20 MHz. In addition, in order to achieve high SNDR with ultra low power, SAR-assisted technique is used.

Knowledge Related 

• Basic understanding of signal processing: sampling, quantization, evaluation parameters (SNR, SFDR, …).

• SAR and Delta Sigma ADC designs: capacitive DAC and current steering DAC, comparator, integrator, ...

• Software: MATLAB/Simulink, Cadence, Altium Designer, ...

• Test and measurement equipment: FPGA, Signal Generator, Logic Analyzer, ...

Poster