A 12-bit SAR ADC integrated on a multichannel silicon drift detector readout IC

A 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) addressed to Silicon-Drift Detectors (SDDs) multichannel readout ASICs for X- and gamma-ray applications is presented. Aiming at digitizing output multiplexed data from the upstream analog filters banks, the converter must ensure 11-bit accuracy and a sampling frequency of about 5 MS/s. The ADC architecture is the charge-redistribution (CR) successive-approximation register (SAR). A fully differential topology has also been chosen for better rejection of common-mode noise and disturbances. The internal DAC is made of binary-scaled capacitors, whose bottom plates are switched by the SAR logic to perform the binary search of the analog input value by means of the monotonic switching scheme. The A/D converter is integrated on SFERA, a multichannel ASIC fabricated in a standard CMOS 0.35 μm 3.3 V technology and it occupies an area of 0.42 mm2. Simulated static performance shows monotonicity over the whole input–output characteristic. The description of the circuit topology and of inner blocks architectures together with the experimental characterization is here presente