Mechanical Engineering (Mechatronics) Department

Cairo Branch

Student Report

Name Mohamed Adam, Osama Mamdouh Helal

ID 181044790, 18105551

Course Code/Name EC534

Assignment Number/Title Final project

Lecturer/Tutor DR. Safa Gasser

Submission Date/Week 14th week

Semester and Academic
Spring 2022
year

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Mark
 ABSTRACT

In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC, A/D, or A-to-D) is a system

that converts an analog signal, such as a sound picked up by a microphone or
light entering a digital camera, into a digital signal. An ADC may also provide
an isolated measurement such as an electronic device that converts an analog
input voltage or current to a digital number representing the magnitude of the
voltage or current. Typically the digital output is a two's complement binary
number that is proportional to the input, but there are other possibilities. In this
report we will discuss one of the most commonly used ADC (flash type)

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1- Introduction
Flash Type ADC is based on the principle of comparing analog input
voltage with a set of reference voltages.
To convert the analog input voltage into a digital signal of n-bit output,
(2^n – 1) comparators are required where (N equals to number of bits)
The figure below shows an example of flash type ADC with 7 bits

Figure 1

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2- Discussion and Conclusion
Flash type ADC produces an equivalent digital output for a corresponding
analog input in no time. Hence, flash type ADC is the fastest ADC.The
circuit diagram of a 3-bit flash type

Figure 2

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The 3-bit flash type ADC consists of a voltage divider network, 7
comparators and a priority encoder.
The working of a 3-bit flash type ADC is as follows.
 The voltage divider network contains 8 equal resistors. A reference
voltage VR is applied across that entire network with respect to the
ground. The voltage drop across each resistor from bottom to top with
respect to ground will be the integer multiples (from 1 to 8) of
VR8VR8.
 The external input voltage Vi is applied to the non-inverting terminal
of all comparators. The voltage drop across each resistor from bottom
to top with respect to ground is applied to the inverting terminal of
comparators from bottom to top.
 At a time, all the comparators compare the external input voltage with
the voltage drops present at the respective other input terminal. That
means, the comparison operations take place by each comparator
parallelly.
 The output of the comparator will be ‘1’ as long as Vi is greater than
the voltage drop present at the respective other input terminal.
Similarly, the output of comparator will be ‘0’, when, Vi is less than
or equal to the voltage drop present at the respective other input
terminal.
 All the outputs of comparators are connected as the inputs of priority
encoder. This priority encoder produces a binary code (digital output),
which is corresponding to the high priority input that has ‘1’.
 Therefore, the output of priority encoder is nothing but the binary
equivalent (digital output) of external analog input voltage, Vi. The
flash type ADC is used in the applications where the conversion speed
of analog input into digital data should be very high

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 The following figure shows 2- bit flash type ADC

Figure 3

The three op-amps are used as comparators. The non-inverting inputs of all the
three comparators are connected to the analog input voltage. The inverting
terminals are connected to a set of reference voltages (V/4), (2V/4) and (3V/4)
respectively which are obtained using a resistive divider network and power
supply +V.
The output of the comparator is in positive saturation(i.e. logic 1), when voltage
at non-inverting terminal is greater than voltage at inverting terminal and is in
negative saturation otherwise.
The following table shows the comparator outputs for different ranges of analog
input voltages and their corresponding digital outputs.

Figure 4

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Consider first condition, where analog input voltage VA is less than (V/4). In
this case, the voltage at the non-inverting terminals of all the three comparators
is less than the respective voltages at inverting terminals and hence the
comparator outputs are C1C2C3 = 000.
This comparator outputs are applied to the further coding circuit to get the
digital outputs as B1B0 = 00
Similarly the digital outputs are calculated for other three conditions also.
Advantages:
1)It is the fastest type of ADC because the conversion is performed
simultaneously through a set of comparators, hence referred as flash type ADC.
Typical conversion time is 100ns or less.
2)The construction is simple and easier to design.

Disadvantages:
1)It is not suitable for higher number of bits.
2)To convert the analog input voltage into a digital signal of n-bit output, (2n –
1) comparators are required. The number of comparators required doubles for
each added bit.

3- Comparator used (LM393)

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The LM393 is a dual differential comparator; this means that it accepts 2 inputs
for comparison.
It compares these voltage inputs and determines which is the larger value.
Based on this, electronic decisions can be made based on which input is greater
and which is smaller. Thus, a comparator is very useful in circuits where we
measure levels and want our circuit to act a certain way based on whether the
level of an input is greater or smaller than a certain threshold.
In this circuit, we will make it so that a photoresistor controls the voltage
divider circuit. When the circuit is exposed to bright light, the output device will
be off. When the circuit is exposed to darkness, the output device will turn on.
This circuit exploits the principle of a voltage comparator. If the voltage at the
inverting terminal is higher than at the noninverting terminal, the output turns
on. Vice versa, if the voltage at the inverting terminal is less than at the
noninverting terminal, the output is off.
For this circuit, we will use a simple LED as the output device.

Components Needed
 LM393 IC
 Photoresistor
 33KΩ Resistor
 330Ω Resistor
 Potentiometer
 LED
 3 'AA' batteries or DC power supply

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4- References

Tangel, Ali, and Kyusun Choi. "“The CMOS Inverter” as a comparator in ADC
designs." Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing 39.2 (2004): 147-155.

Mukherjee, Sagar, et al. "A low power, high speed, IF range flash type ADC designed with the
concept of TMCC and binary counter." 2012 Annual IEEE India Conference (INDICON).
IEEE, 2012.

Megha, R., and K. A. Pradeepkumar. "Implementation of low power flash ADC by reducing
comparators." 2014 International Conference on Communication and Signal Processing.
IEEE, 2014.

Payra, A., et al. "Design of a self-regulated flash type ADC with high resolution." (2015): 102-
5.

Reddy, M. Subba, and S. Tipu Rahaman. "An effective 6-bit flash ADC using low power
CMOS technology." 2013 15th International Conference on Advanced Computing
Technologies (ICACT). IEEE, 2013.

Sarojini Mandal, Dr JK. "Design of 3-bit low power flash type ADC." International Journal of
Advanced Research in Computer Engineering & Technology (IJARCET) 3.4 (2014).