A 4 Gsample/s 2 bits flash ADC with 2–4 GHz input bandwidth for radio astronomy application

D. Deschans , J.-B. Bégueret (1) , Y. Deval (1) , C. Scarabello , P. Fouillat (1) , G. Montignac , Alain Baudry (2, 3, 4)

1 IMS - Laboratoire de l'intégration, du matériau au système
2 L3AB - Laboratoire d'astrodynamique, d'astrophysique et d'aéronomie de bordeaux
3 OASU - Observatoire aquitain des sciences de l'univers
4 LAB - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux [Pessac]

This paper presents the design and the measurement results of a high speed A/D converter (ADC or digitizer) developed for radio-astronomy applications and especially for the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) project. This monolithic digitizer is implemented in a BiCMOS0.35 μmSiGe process for high frequencymixed-signal applications. The main characteristics of this circuit are a 2 bits resolution with 3 quantization levels (equivalent to 1.5 bits) with 4 Gsample/s rate, a wide input bandwidth from 2 GHz up to 4 GHz under full Nyquist condition. The adopted digitizer architecture is that of a conventional flash analog to digital converter structure. The overall chip dissipates 652 mW under ±1.25 V supply and the die area is 5.4 mm2.

Domaines: Cosmologie et astrophysique extra-galactique [astro-ph.CO]; Astrophysique [astro-ph]

D. Deschans, J.-B. Bégueret, Y. Deval, C. Scarabello, P. Fouillat, et al.. A 4 Gsample/s 2 bits flash ADC with 2–4 GHz input bandwidth for radio astronomy application. Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, 2006, 49, pp.31-38. ⟨10.1007/s10470-006-8693-5⟩. ⟨hal-00206668⟩