Analog-to-Digital Converters

Abstract

Nowadays, data converters are considered one of the most relevant blocks in electronics, having a large amount of applications. In the last years, a fast trend in different fields, such as in digital processing and in semiconductor industry, boosted the performance of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and of digital-to-analog converters (DACs).In this chapter a concise historical perspective and a brief background related to ADCs is given. The main architectures are referred, emphasizing the operation mode of successive approximation ADCs (SAR-ADCs) and of sigma-delta ( †) ADCs, taking into account their current relevance. Additionally, and given the purpose of this book, the usage of thin film technologies in circuits is analyzed, especially when they are applied in ADCs.