Extremely Low Power Designs for A/D Conversion

The objective of this study is to develop high data rate, 100 MHz, A/D conversion electronics that reduces power compared to present techniques. Amain Electronics proposes an innovative analog to digital conversion approach originally developed for focalplanes which work at the pixel reducing noise bandwidth and power consumption. It has been shown to provide greater than 100 dB linear dynamic range, provide an offset free digital response and consume nanowatts of power. This approach eliminates the needfor analog sampling and multiplexing electronics and for the high speed A/D converters that contribute to increasing the noise problem. The proposed approach places a nanowatt Multiplexed Oversample A/D (MOSAD) at each sensor input, virtually eliminatingall sources of noise and non-linearity. MOSAD is a patented improvement of the well known sigma-delta A/D technology. It was specifically developed for large staring array sensor applications to provide low power on focal plane A/D conversion. MOSADfurther refines sigma-delta to allow the least amount of electronics to be placed at the sensor, providing high fill factor, high well capacity and small size. The circuitry is fully contained on the chip and expensive stacked or Z technology is notrequired.The proposed project will have potential for a wide range of Federal Government, commercial and consumer applications, including control sensors for monitoring, tactical system guidance, remote digital communication, digital building and appliancecontrol products for consumer and commercial use, as well as new applications where estremely low cost, low power and high sensitivity are needed, such as automobile safety systems, manpack health and status sensors and field scattered sensors.