Maximizing the Resolution of SAR ADC With Multisegmented DAC Using Improved MLE Calibration

Abstract

Successive approximation register analog to digital converters (SAR ADCs) offer an attractive energy-efficient solution but its signal-to-noise-distortion-ratio (SNDR) is degraded due to its sensitivity to parasitic capacitance and capacitors’ mismatch. In this article, we present an improved maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) algorithm, which offers a more robust estimator for statistical-based calibration technique that can be used across different resolutions of SAR ADC. The result has demonstrated that our proposed algorithm has further improved the SNDR up to 5.86 dB for a 12–20-bit SAR ADC with multisegmented digital-to-analog converter (DAC) compared to state-of-the-art algorithms.