IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION A N D MEASUREMENT, VOL. 40. NO. 5 .

OCTOBER 1991 83 I

Analysis of Mismatch Effects Among A/D Converters

in a Time-Interleaved Waveform Digitizer
Antonio Petraglia, Student Member, IEEE, and Sanjit K. Mitra, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract-High-speed A/D conversion can be achieved by em-

ploying a parallel array of M A/D converters interleaved in
time, each working at 1/Mth of the sampling rate. Theoreti-
cally, the resolution of the structure is given by the resolution
of the AID converters in the array (subconverters). In practice,
however, mismatches among the subconverters lead to a de-
crease in the resolution. In this paper we analyze the effect of digital
output
such mismatches in terms of a signal-to-noise ratio defined as
the ratio between the energy of the input analog signal and the
energy of the error signal due exclusively to these mismatches.

I. INTRODUCTION

D IGITAL processing of analog signals has become an

attractive and often convenient economic alternative
in many applications due to the rapid advances in digital
VLSI circuit technology. However, in a number of appli-
cations such as storage of real time signals, wide dynamic
range digital audio, radar signal-processing systems, dig-
ital time-base correction, and digital enhancement of im-
ages, the conversion of analog signals to digital forms re-
quires analog-to-digital (AID) converters with resolution
in the range of 8 - 10 bits, operating at sample rates of
II
20 MHz and above. The most popular approaches for 1

A/D conversion are the successive approximation and the

x
I

flash or parallel AID conversion schemes. The latter is

more suitable for high-speed applications, since the con-
version occurs in a single clock cycle.
An alternative approach for achieving high-speed con-
version is the time-interleaved A/D converter [3], which
has been implemented utilizing both bipolar silicon and
GaAs MESFET technologies [4]. It is realized with a
time-multiplexed array of lower speed A/D converters
(subconverters) as shown in Fig. 1. Although any type of
converter can be utilized in the array, by using successive
approximation converters the speed of a flash converter
with the same resolution can be easily obtained with con-
siderable savings in the die area. An 8-b converter, for
Manuscript received September 10, 1990; revised April 22, 1991. This
work was supported in part by CoordenaCio de AperfeiCoamento de Pes-
soal de Nivel Superior, CAPES, Brazil, and in part by a University of
California MICRO grant with matching support from the Rockwell Inter-
national Corp.
A . Petraglia is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93016, on leave from
the Department of Electronic Engineering, Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro, 21945, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
S. K. Mitra is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engi-
neering, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93016.
IEEE Log Number 9 102 155.
4M-1
I
(b)
Fig. 1. Time-interleaved AID converter using a two-rank SIH architec-
ture. (a) Structure. (b) Clock waveforms.
instance, implemented with an array of four successive
approximation subconverters would use about one fifth of
the die area required by an 8-b flash converter, for a fixed
sampling rate [3]. In practice, however, several other as-
pects have to be considered in order to guarantee a good
performance of a time-interleaved A/D converter.
One of the problems of this approach is that it requires
a very accurate analog demultiplexer at its input in order
to convert a single high-speed signal into M low-speed
analog sampled-and-held signals [ 5 ] . This is due to the
time uncertainty (jitter) of the sample-and-hold (S/H) cir-
cuit preceding each subconverter when switching from
sampling to the hold mode, leading to a corresponding
uncertainty in the stored value. It has been shown [6] that
for a time-interleaved array with sampling time offset er-
rors that are independent and identically distributed ran-
dom variables having zero mean and standard deviation
U , and a sinusoidal input with frequency fo, a decrease of

0018-945619111000-0831$01.00 0 1991 IEEE

r
R32 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION A N D MEASUREMENT, VOL. 40, NO. 5 . OCTOBER 1991
one effective bit of resolution results from an octave in-
crease of either ~7 orfo. To solve this problem, Poulton er
al. [4] proposed a two-rank S/H structure (shown in Fig.
l(a)) in which, during the sample-to-hold transition time
occurring at the second S/H, its input signal is held con-
stant by the first S/H. Another solution has been recently
proposed in [ 6 ] ,where an algorithm has been derived for
estimating the sampling time offsets at each S/H, and then
an automatic calibration procedure has been described
based on this algorithm.
A second major problem with the time-interleaved ar-
chitecture arises due to mismatches among the subcon-
verters creating aliasing distortion in the resulting digital
output [3]. While these mismatches can be reduced by
using laser-trimming technology [7], [8], it is important
to evaluate analytically such distortions in order to prop-
erly specify the performance to be achieved with the
structure. In this paper we use multirate building blocks
[9] to advance an equivalent representation for the array
of mismatched subconverters, and develop an error anal-
ysis to evaluate the distortion introduced by such mis-
matches. Specifically, we obtain the spectrum of the error
signal which is then used in the derivation of a signal-to-
noise ratio.
11. MODELFOR THE SUBCONVERTERS
The achievable performance of an A/D converter is al-
ways limited by the properties of the technology used in
its implementation, despite the particular approach used.
In the context of MOS technology, for example, thermal
noise associated with the switch resistances places an ul-
timate limit on the dynamic range of the A/D converters,
while factors such as parasitic capacitances and overdrive
recovery are responsible for limiting comparator delay
time [ 11. Other factors limiting the precision of A/D con-
verters include problems of charge injection from MOS
switches, offsets in operational amplifiers, component
mismatching, etc.
Less important to our analysis, the quantization error is
inherent to any A/D converter due to the finite number of
discrete levels used to encode the incoming analog signal.
In a time-interleaved converter, where subconverters hav-
ing resolution of 8 b or more are used, a more severe
distortion is introduced by the other errors cited above as
we show in the next section. Throughout this paper we
neglect quantization errors and express the input-output
relation as
where Vk and xk denote the input and output samples of
the kth subconverter, and ak and bk are obtained from the
straight line that best fits its quantization characteristic,
as in Fig. 2. Observe that these parameters may also in-
corporate the gain and offset introduced by the S/H’s pre-
ceding the corresponding subconverter. We refer to uk and
bk as gain and offset errors, respectively, of the kth sub-
converter.
xk
Fig. 2. Model for the kth AID subconverter.
Many factors contribute to the randomness of the errors
ak and bk in a single A/D converter, namely, mismatches
among the passive elements, comparator gain and offset,
temperature, etc. In the analysis developed in the next
several sections, the gain errors akare assumed to be time-
invariant, independent, and identically distributed ran-
dom variables, having a Gaussian probability density
function with zero mean and variance a i . The offset errors
bk are assumed to have similar distribution, with zero
mean and variance 0;.
111. GAINA N D OFFSETERROREFFECTS
An equivalent representation for the time-interleaved
A/D converter is as shown in Fig. 3, where the input u ( t )
is a sampled-and-held signal which results from the first
S/H in Fig. l(a). The analog down-samplers represent the
second-rank S/H with the clock waveforms of Fig. l(b).
The input and output sequences (uk(rzT)} and ( u k ( n T ) )
are related, in terms of their z-transforms, by [9]
.I M - l
V(z) = -
M /=o
c
U(z”MW-‘ )
where W = e-J2n/M.The digital up-samplers together with
the output delays and adders represent the multiplexer.
Each up-sampler inserts M - 1 zero-valued equally
spaced samples between every two of its consecutive in-
put samples. Its input-output relationship is defined by
[91
Y k ( Z ) = Xk(ZM). (3)
Considering initially the effects of gain errors alone, we
assume b, = 0 in (1). Effects of offset errors alone can be
obtained as a particular case, when the input u ( n T ) is a
dc signal [3]. Thus, from ( l ) ,
Xdz) = (1 + Uk)V,(Z) (4)
so that combining (2)-(4) we obtain, for the kth path:
Y,(z) = -
1 + Uk
M- I
c u,(zw-‘).
M /=o
Also, from Fig. 3 we have
PETRAGLIA AND MITRA: ANALYSIS OF MISMATCH EFFECTS AMONG AID CONVERTERS 833

variables with variances a 2 = a i / 2 M . Now, if we use a

transformation of variables to display A/ in the polar form
A / = r/eje’, for 1 # 0, then r, and 0, have Rayleigh and
uniform distributions, respectively, and their probability
density functions are given by

and
1
Fig. 3 . Equivalent representation of interleaved A / D structure used in the
error analysis.
fs(e,) = %, o I e, I2n (13)

f o r l = 1, 2, . . , M - 1. In writing down (12) and (13)

and we made use of the fact that the real and imaginary parts
of (1 1) are uncorrelated random variables. In summary,
each of the M - 1 aliased components has its magnitude
scaled by rl and its phase added by e/. The mean and
Using (5)-(7) we finally arrive at variance of the magnitudes are, respectively,

Y(z) = z-(M-I)U(z) + z-‘M-”A 0 U ( z ) + Z - ( M - l ’ L ( z ) r

where
M- 1
L(z) = c
I= 1 u(zW-‘)A,
and
.I M-l
A, = - C a k ~ ‘ k
M k=O
f o r l = 0, 1, * , M - 1. The right side of (8) contains
three terms: The first one is a delayed digital version of
the input analog signal, and except for the delay, it is the
desired output. The second and third terms represent error
signals that are added to the correct output, and are due
to the random errors ak. The error introduced by the sec-
ond term AO is not a serious problem since it only adds a
constant bias to the output. As (10) indicates, AO is the
arithmetic mean of the gain errors and, therefore, has a
Gaussian distribution with a zero mean and a variance
CT:/M.
The third term represents aliasing and is much more
difficult to correct. To analyze the effect of L ( z ) in the
general case, we first observe that A , is a complex random
variable and thus can be rewritten as
CTL
and U; = (1 - 7r/4);. (14)
(8)
So, for example, if CT,= 0.01 and M = 4, each of the
three aliased components generated by the time-inter-
(9)
leaved array is expected to have a magnitude of 20 log,,
pr = -47.3 dB (independently of the resolution of the
subconverters used!). It is interesting to note that as the
degree of interleaving M increases, the number of aliased
components increases, but both the mean and the variance
of their magnitudes decrease according to the equations
for pr and CT: above.
As an illustrative example and with the purpose of ver-
ifying the analysis, we present the results of some simu-
lations that were carried out with an array of unmatched
subconverters having gain mismatches only (no offset
mismatches) with U, = 0.002. The model of each sub-
converter incorporates quantization effects as shown in
Fig. 4 [ 111, where Qk is an ideal quantizer. In all cases
the input is a single sinewave with a normalized frequency
of 149/ 1024. The resulting frequency spectra computed
with a 1024-point FFT are shown in Fig. 5 , and was ob-
tained by averaging over 200 independent trials of the ex-
periment for three different values of M : M = 2, M = 4,
and M = 8. The dashed line corresponds to the theoretical
mean value given by 20 loglop,..
The distortion introduced by offset errors alone can be

A -
-
1
c akcos ( z k )
M-l
k=O
+ j -M1 Mk - =’ ax
~
sin (5,) obtained as a particular case of (9) and (10) when the in-
put is a dc signal. Accordingly, the output spectrum en-
compasses spectral lines located at 2wk/M, for k = 0, 1,
. . . , M - I , as we show briefly. Let us assume that the
(1 1)
analog input signal is zero, i.e., u ( t ) = 0, V t . In this case
f o r l = 1, 2, . . , M - 1. Again, assuming that the uk’s the only input to each digital up-sampler is the offset in-
are uncorrelated Gaussian random variables and identi- troduced by the preceding A/D converter. In other words,
cally distributed with variances ai, both real and imagi- a sequence of constant sample values, bk, is the input of
nary parts in (1 1) are thus zero mean Gaussian random the kth digital up-sampler. As a result, the output of the
 834 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INSTRUMENTATION AND MEASUREMENT. VOL. 40. NO. 5, OCTOBER 1991

which is similar to (10) corresponding to the gain mis-

matches.

Fig. 4. Model for the kth A I D subconverter used in the simulations. IV. SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO(SNR)
In the previous section we obtained the spectrum of the
signal resulting from an array of subconverters having gain
and offset mismatches. Many dynamic parameters have
been defined in the literature to specify, in the frequency
domain, the performance of an AID converter [2]. In this
section we evaluate the ratio between the energy of the
input signal and the energy contained in the error signal
formed by the aliased terms due to gain mismatches and
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 the spectral lines resulting from offset mismatches. This
0 ~ " " " " ' " " ' ~ " " ~ ""1
3 M=4
error can be obtained from (8) as the difference between
9 bits - the output and the desired signal:
P)
a u,=o.o02 -
2
.A
-50 - - E(z) = z ~ - I Y ( z -
) U(Z). (17)
4

2
4-100
Thus the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is given by

0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

SNR = 10 log10 (4,/4,) (18)
where 4, is the input signal energy
.
lo
m P27l
0,=0.002 I
-50 4, =
n = -m
(u(nT)I2= g IU(eJw)12dw (19)

and is the average signal error energy

- 100
0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Normalized Frequency ( w / 2 7 ~ )
Fig. 5. Frequency spectra of an array of M AID converters having gain
0.5
4, = E c
[ n =m - m

where E { * 1 denotes expectation, and the sequence

Ie(nT)I*
1 (20)

mismatches, obtained by averaging over 200 independent 1024-point

FFT's. The dashed lines are theoretical mean values (see text). The input
is a single sinewave with a normalized frequency of 149/1024.
( e ( n T ) ] is the inverse z-transform of E(z). We empha-
size at this point that SNR does not include quantization
noise. Observe also that, for a sinusoidal input, which we
consider later in this section as a particular case, SNR
reduces to the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) [2], one

;;.... ...

... 3 Z -

I
l
of the performance parameters often specified by the man-
ufacturers.
Neglecting quantization errors and assuming that offset
and gain errors are uncorrelated, we can calculate the con-
tribution of gain and offset errors separately and then add
them to obtain the overall signal error energy. So, if 4, is
the energy of the error signal E,(eJ") due to gain errors
U t-T+ only, then (8)-(10) and (17) give, on the unit circle:
Fig. 6 . Distortion introduced by offset errors alone M- 1

~ , ( ~ j "=) c A/U(ejb+2Tl/W).
/=0
(21)
time-interleaved converter is periodic with a period of M
samples (as shown in Fig. 6), whose Fourier transform Using the definition in (20) and Parseval's relation, it can
can be written as [lo] be shown [12] that the energy contained in the signal
e,(nT) is given by
4, = &,, (22)
meaning that the aliasing noise due to gain mismatches is
where 6 ( * ) is the Dirac delta function and B, is the lth proportional to the energy of the input analog signal, and
coefficient of the discrete Fourier series of the output, i.e. independent of the number of subconverters M . If now we
PETRAGLIA A N D MITRA: ANALYSIS OF MISMATCH EFFECTS AMONG AID CONVERTERS
consider offset errors alone, then a procedure similar to
the one adopted above for the derivation of [,, gives
Eh = 2xa;. (23)
The total signal error energy 4, is obtained by adding (22) output. Offset errors, on the other hand, are independent
and (23), and finally, from (18), the signal-to-noise ratio: of the input signal and have a smaller contribution to the
2nu;
SNR = - 10 log,, (U: +
7). (24) tio, defined as the ratio between the energy of the input
\ 41, /
Once U , and U,, are known for a specific technology, the
above equation can be used to predict the error introduced
in a time-interleaved A/D converter by mismatches among
the subconverters. In general, the energy of the input sig- the analog demultiplexer when converting a single high-
nal is relatively large, so that, in (24), the term corre-
sponding to gain error predominates as the most important
factor for the aliasing noise.
A . Sinusoidal Input
Due to the fact that sine waves can be generated with
very low distortion, even at high frequencies, they are
commonly used to specify and test the performance of
A/D converters [ 131. For a sinusoidal input having am-
plitude a,we use (24) to obtain
For a full-scale sine wave such that a* >> 2 a i / a t , the
signal-to-noise ratio can be approximated by
SNR z -20 log,, U,.
(26)
In order to compare this result with the ones reported in
[6] for the case of nonuniform sampling offsets due to
imprecisions in the multiplexer, we adopt the rule of
thumb by which one effective bit of resolution corre-
sponds to 6 dB of the SNR given above. Then (26) shows
that one effective bit of resolution is lost per “octave”
increase in the gain error standard deviation uo. Similar
correspondence has been reported in [6], when either the
sampling frequency or the sampling time offset standard
deviation has been increased by one octave.
Notice that in any case SNR is independent of the de-
gree of interleaving M . Although the number of aliased
components increases as M increases, the amplitudes of
the coefficients that scale these components decrease, as
noted in the previous section, such that SNR remains con-
stant.
V. CONCLUSION
The aliasing distortion due to mismatches among sub-
converters in a time-interleaved digitizer has been evalu-
835
ated. After fitting a straight line to the transfer character-
istic of each subconverter, gain and offset errors have been
defined to characterize such mismatches. As a conse-
quence of gain errors, aliased terms appear at the digital
aliasing distortion than gain errors. A signal-to-noise ra-
analog signal and the energy of the error signal due ex-
clusively to these mismatches, has been obtained. The
analysis has shown that the above distortion is compara-
ble to the one generated by nonuniform sample timing in
speed signal into several low-speed sampled-and-held sig-
nals. The results of the analysis can be used to specify the
degree of precision to be achieved in an actual monolithic
implementation.
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