A low-offset cascaded time amplifier with reconfigurable inter-stage connection

Abstract

This study demonstrates the design and testing of a reconfigurable cascaded time amplifier (TA) that enables a reduction in the output offset. By testing the polarity of the output offset time caused by process variations in each stage and then reconfiguring the inter-stage connections, we find that the total output offset time can be reduced dramatically. The results of a SPICE simulation of a 65-nm CMOS match well with the theoretical estimates and show the effectiveness of this proposed testing structure and reconfigurable inter-stage connection technique.