This article describes a discrete-time zoom analog-to-digital converter (ADC) intended for audio applications. It uses a coarse 5-bit SAR ADC in tandem with a fine third-order delta-sigma modulator (Δ Σ M) to efficiently obtain a high dynamic range. To minimize its over-sampling ratio (OSR) and, thus, its digital power consumption, the modulator employs a 2-bit quantizer and a loop filter notch. In addition, an extra feed-forward path minimizes the leakage of the SAR ADC's quantization noise into the audio band. The prototype ADC occupies 0.27 mm² in a 0.16-μm technology. It achieves 109.8-dB DR, 106.5-dB SNDR, and 107.5-dB SNR in a 20-kHz bandwidth while dissipating 440 μW. It also achieves state-of-the-art energy efficiency, as demonstrated by a Schreier FoM of 186.4 dB and an SNDR FoM of 183.6 dB.

This paper presents a dynamic zoom analog-to-digital converter for use in low-bandwidth (<1 kHz) instrumentation applications. It employs a high-speed asynchronous successive approximation register (SAR) ADC that dynamically updates the references of a fully differential Δ Σ ADC. Compared to previous zoom ADCs, faster reference updates relax the loop filter requirements, thus allowing the adoption of energy-efficient amplifiers. Fabricated in a 0.16-μm CMOS process, the prototype occupies 0.26 mm² and achieves 119.1-dB peak signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), 118.1-dB peak signal-to-noise-and-distortion-ratio (SNDR), and 120.3-dB dynamic range (DR) in a 1-kHz bandwidth while consuming 280 μW. This results in a Schreier figure of merit (FoM) of 185.8 dB.

This article presents a continuous-time zoom analog to digital converter (ADC) for audio applications. It employs a high-speed asynchronous SAR ADC that dynamically updates the references of a continuous-time delta-sigma modulator (CTDSM). Compared to previous switched-capacitor (SC) zoom ADCs, its input impedance is essentially resistive, which relaxes the power dissipation of its reference and input buffers. Fabricated in a 160-nm CMOS process, the ADC occupies 0.27 mm² and achieves 108.1-dB peak SNR, 106.4-dB peak signal to noise and distortion ratio (SNDR), and 108.5-dB dynamic range in a 20-kHz bandwidth while consuming 618 μW. This results in a Schreier figure of merit (FoM) of 183.6 dB.

To minimize the area of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) for multichannel applications and break the SNDR limitation caused by DAC-induced nonlinearity, a more area-efficient mismatch error shaping (MES) scheme is proposed in noise shaping (NS) successive-approximation (SAR) ADC. By employing a switched-capacitor (SC) voltage divider, the proposed method makes the flash ADC and data weighted averaging (DWA) digital circuits in the original MES method obsolete. Therefore, the complexity of the architecture is highly reduced, and the area is significantly reduced to 0.037 mm ² . In addition, the power consumption for the MES implementation is significantly decreased by more than 7.3%. The proposed SAR ADC is fabricated in GF 40-nm CMOS technology. The measurements show that the proposed MES technique improves the SFDR from 64 to 102 dB and decreases the THD from -63.6 to -95.7 dB. The SNR and SNDR in a 20-kHz bandwidth are 91.6 and 90.2 dB, respectively. The power consumption is 383.4 μW with a 1.1-V power supply at a 16-MS/s sampling rate.

This article presents a 28-W class-D amplifier for automotive applications. The combination of a high switching frequency and a hybrid multibit Δ ΣM-PWM scheme results in high linearity over a wide range of output power, as well as low AM-band EMI. As a result, only a small (150-kHz cutoff frequency), and thus low-cost, LC filter is needed to meet the CISPR-25 EMI average limit (150 kHz-30 MHz) with 10-dB margin. At 28-W output power, the proposed amplifier achieves 91% efficiency while driving a 4-Ω load from a 14.4-V supply. It attains a peak THD+N of 0.00077% (-102.2 dB) for a 1-kHz input signal.