A 120nm low power asynchronous ADC

ISBN 1-59593-137-6This paper discusses the development of a new kind of low power processing chain which dynamically adapts sampling frequency to signals. Thus, the design of an Asynchronous Analog-to-Digital Converter (A-ADC) is tackled. Its principle is based on a non-uniform sampling scheme and asynchronous technology, that allow significant activity and power savings. A test chip targetting 10-bit speech applications has been fabricated using the 120nm CMOS process from STMicroelectronics. The power consumption is lower than 180µW leading to a Figure of Merit two times better than those of classical Nyquist converters recently published