Error Detection and Correction of Mismatch Errors in M-Channel TIADCs Based on Genetic Algorithm Optimization

In order to achieve higher system performance, a digital calibration technique for the sub-channel mismatches of time-interleaved ADCs (TIADCs) is proposed in this paper. The sine-fit-based estimation algorithm is introduced to estimate the channel mismatches and a calibration algorithm is proposed to compensate for the mismatches. Subsequently, the genetic algorithm (GA) is firstly utilized to detect the mismatch errors of the outputs of sub-channels after frequency domain filtering. The detected offset error and gain error are then corrected by performing the calibration algorithm, and the time errors are corrected by fractional delay filters based on Farrow structure. The spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) is enhanced from 19.69 dB to 108.12 dB, and the signal to noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) is enhanced from 16.02 dB to 97.63 dB. The proposed technique is further validated on the FPGA. Compared with existing calibration techniques, the proposed technique has the advantages of simple algorithm structure, low hardware resource consumption, and high calibration accuracy and can be applied to the calibration of high-resolution (18-bit) TIADCs for low-frequency inputs.

Time-Interleaved SAR ADC with Background Timing-Skew Calibration for UWB Wireless Communication in IoT Systems

Ultra-wideband (UWB) wireless communication is prospering as a powerful partner of the Internet-of-things (IoT). Due to the ongoing development of UWB wireless communications, the demand for high-speed and medium resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) continues to grow. The successive approximation register (SAR) ADCs are the most powerful candidate to meet these demands, attracting both industries and academia. In particular, recent time-interleaved SAR ADCs show that multi-giga sample per second (GS/s) can be achieved by overcoming the challenges of high-speed implementation of existing SAR ADCs. However, there are still critical issues that need to be addressed before the time-interleaved SAR ADCs can be applied in real commercial applications. The most well-known problem is that the time-interleaved SAR ADC architecture requires multiple sub-ADCs, and the mismatches between these sub-ADCs can significantly degrade overall ADC performance. And one of the most difficult mismatches to solve is the sampling timing skew. Recently, research to solve this timing-skew problem has been intensively studied. In this paper, we focus on the cutting-edge timing-skew calibration technique using a window detector. Based on the pros and cons analysis of the existing techniques, we come up with an idea that increases the benefits of the window detector-based timing-skew calibration techniques and minimizes the power and area overheads. Finally, through the continuous development of this idea, we propose a timing-skew calibration technique using a comparator offset-based window detector. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed technique, intensive works were performed, including the design of a 7-bit, 2.5 GS/s 5-channel time-interleaved SAR ADC and various simulations, and the results prove excellent efficacy of signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 40.79 dB and 48.97 dB at Nyquist frequency, respectively, while the proposed window detector occupies only 6.5% of the total active area, and consumes 11% of the total power.

An Improved All-Digital Background Calibration Technique for Channel Mismatches in High Speed Time-Interleaved Analog-to-Digital Converters

The time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters (TIADCs), performance is seriously affected by channel mismatches, especially for the applications in the next-generation communication systems. This work presents an improved all-digital background calibration technique for TIADCs by combining the Hadamard transform for calibrating gain and timing mismatches and averaging for offset mismatch cancellation. The numerical simulation results show that the proposed calibration technique completely suppresses the spurious images due to the channel mismatches at the output spectrum, which increases the spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) and signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) by 74 dB and 43.7 dB, respectively. Furthermore, the hardware co-simulation on the field programmable gate array (FPGA) platform is performed to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed calibration technique. The simulation and experimental results clarify the improvement of the proposed calibration technique in the TIADC’s performance.

Online digital offset mismatch compensation for high-speed time-interleaved ADC in real-time optical OFDM receiver

The time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter (TI-ADC) is a good option to realize high-speed data conversion for both single-carrier and multi-carrier optical communication systems. Offset mismatch is one of its drawbacks, which causes distortion in the sampled data and degrades the bit error rate (BER) performance of communication systems. In this article, a low-complexity online digital offset mismatch compensation (OMC) scheme based on time-domain averaging is proposed and implemented with a commercial off-the-shelf field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip for high-speed optical OFDM communications. The proposed OMC scheme is experimentally demonstrated in real-time direct-detection optical OFDM receiver with a 5 GS/s TI-ADC. The experimental results show that the BER performance can be improved by more than an order of magnitude, by using the proposed OMC scheme, for both 16- and 64-QAM modulation formats. The receiver sensitivity can be improved by more than 5-dB in terms of the received optical power at the BER of 1e-3. What's more, the real-time measured BER performance is similar to that of by using offline DSP approaches and has good stability during the measurement period. Numerical simulations are performed under additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel to fully verify the performance of the OMC scheme. It exhibits that the error floor in BER performance can be eliminated by using the OMC scheme and a negligible signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) penalty can be achieved compared with that of offset mismatch-free case.

Calibration for Sample-And-Hold Mismatches in M-Channel TIADCs Based on Statistics

Time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter (TIADC) is a good option for high sampling rate applications. However, the inevitable sample-and-hold (S/H) mismatches between channels incur undesirable error and then affect the TIADC’s dynamic performance. Several calibration methods have been proposed for S/H mismatches which either need training signals or have less extensive applicability for different input signals and different numbers of channels. This paper proposes a statistics-based calibration algorithm for S/H mismatches in M-channel TIADCs. Initially, the mismatch coefficients are identified by eliminating the statistical differences between channels. Subsequently, the mismatch-induced error is approximated by employing variable multipliers and differentiators in several Richardson iterations. Finally, the error is subtracted from the original output signal to approximate the expected signal. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method, the selection of key parameters and the advantage to other methods.

Automatic Calibration Method of Channel Mismatches for Wideband TI-ADC System

Time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter (TI-ADC) technology can increase the sampling rate without changing resolution. But, the dynamic performance of TI-ADC system is seriously deteriorated by channel mismatches. Under the condition of large bandwidth, gain mismatch and timing mismatch vary with the frequency, which cannot be regarded as fixed values. To improve the dynamic performance of the TI-ADC system, an automatic calibration method of channel mismatches for wideband TI-ADC system is proposed in this article. Frequency-dependent channel mismatches are estimated by the algorithm based on sine fitting, and compensated by the means based on perfect reconstruction. The entire sampling and calculation process is automated and tedious operation is simplified. A 6.8-GS/s 12-bit wideband TI-ADC system is implemented. This sampling system can achieve SNDR (signal-to-noise and distortion ratio) above 49 dB and SFDR (spurious-free dynamic range) above 57 dB for an input signal from 100 MHz to 3300 MHz. The proposed calibration method improves the SNDR over 10 dB and the SFDR over 15 dB. The dynamic performance of the sampling system is close to that of its sub-ADC.

Real-time self-adaptive calibration method for high speed acquisition system

The main factors that enable capture of complex and transient signals in real-time are improved sampling rates and processing speeds. The time-interleaved architecture is an effective method that allows systems to break through the speed bottleneck of single analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and go beyond the state-of-the-art process technology limit. However, the performance of the acquisition system may be reduced because of the offset, gain, and time mismatch errors that occur in time-interleaved ADC systems. To correct these errors, this paper first proposes a self-adaptive correction algorithm and then introduces real-time solutions for this algorithm. Finally, the proposed calibration method is implemented in a digital phosphor oscilloscope. Simulations and experimental testing indicate that this system shows good real-time performance and provides a high dynamic performance with an effective number of bits of 7.3 bits and a signal-to-noise ratio of 45.5574 dB.

Calibration of Time-Interleaved Errors in Digital Real-Time Oscilloscopes

A channel mismatch calibration method is proposed for use in time-interleaved digital real-time oscilloscope (DRTO) applications. Linear equations are derived using Fourier transforms of the separated signals from each of the time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters (TIADCs). Thus the errors in the TIADCs can be easily calibrated by inversion of a matrix, as opposed to most previous work where additional filters are employed. The calibration accuracy of the proposed method is limited only by the noise produced after the TIADC circuitry, while other methods depend on the filter design. A transfer function measurement method is then proposed for application to commercially available DRTOs. Two-tone signals are measured using DRTOs from various suppliers to validate the proposed method. The occurrence of signals at spurious frequencies is considerably reduced, as demonstrated by the calibrated results.

Compensation of multi-channel mismatches in high-speed high-resolution photonic analog-to-digital converter

We demonstrate a method to compensate multi-channel mismatches that intrinsically exist in a photonic analog-to-digital converter (ADC) system. This system, nominated time-wavelength interleaved photonic ADC (TWI-PADC), is time-interleaved via wavelength demultiplexing/multiplexing before photonic sampling, wavelength demultiplexing channelization, and electronic quantization. Mismatches among multiple channels are estimated in frequency domain and hardware adjustment are used to approach the device-limited accuracy. A multi-channel mismatch compensation algorithm, inspired from the time-interleaved electronic ADC, is developed to effectively improve the performance of TWI-PADC. In the experiment, we configure out a 4-channel TWI-PADC system with 40 GS/s sampling rate based on a 10-GHz actively mode-locked fiber laser. After multi-channel mismatch compensation, the effective number of bit (ENOB) of the 40-GS/s TWI-PADC system is enhanced from ~6 bits to >8.5 bits when the RF frequency is within 0.1-3.1 GHz and from ~6 bits to >7.5 bits within 3.1-12.1 GHz. The enhanced performance of the TWI-PADC system approaches the limitation determined by the timing jitter and noise.

Estimation of channel mismatches in time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters based on fractional delay and sine curve fitting

This paper proposes an algorithm to estimate the channel mismatches in time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter (TIADC) based on fractional delay (FD) and sine curve fitting. Choose one channel as the reference channel and apply FD to the output samples of reference channel to obtain the ideal samples of non-reference channels with no mismatches. Based on least square method, the sine curves are adopted to fit the ideal and the actual samples of non-reference channels, and then the mismatch parameters can be estimated by comparing the ideal sine curves and the actual ones. The principle of this algorithm is simple and easily understood. Moreover, its implementation needs no extra circuits, lowering the hardware cost. Simulation results show that the estimation accuracy of this algorithm can be controlled within 2%. Finally, the practicability of this algorithm is verified by the measurement results of channel mismatch errors of a two-channel TIADC prototype.

Theoretical and experimental analysis of channel mismatch in time-wavelength interleaved optical clock based on mode-locked laser

We demonstrate a theoretical model of channel mismatch effect in a mode-locked laser based time-wavelength interleaved optical clock generation system. The channel mismatch effect includes clock timing mismatch, amplitude mismatch, and pulse shape mismatch. An explicit expression of this model is derived for 2-channel simple system and a numerical simulation of multiple-channel complicated system is carried out. In comparison with the experimental measurement, the feasibility of the theoretical model is verified for calibration and compensation of the channel mismatches.

Coherent time-stretch transformation for real-time capture of wideband signals

Time stretch transformation of wideband waveforms boosts the performance of analog-to-digital converters and digital signal processors by slowing down analog electrical signals before digitization. The transform is based on dispersive Fourier transformation implemented in the optical domain. A coherent receiver would be ideal for capturing the time-stretched optical signal. Coherent receivers offer improved sensitivity, allow for digital cancellation of dispersion-induced impairments and optical nonlinearities, and enable decoding of phase-modulated optical data formats. Because time-stretch uses a chirped broadband (>1 THz) optical carrier, a new coherent detection technique is required. In this paper, we introduce and demonstrate coherent time stretch transformation; a technique that combines dispersive Fourier transform with optically broadband coherent detection.