A three-bit threshold inverter quantization based CMOS flash ADC

This paper presents a simple and upfront design of a three-bit threshold inverter quantization (TIQ) based flash analog to digital converter (ADC) chip. This TIQ based ADC does not require any on-chip or off-chip reference voltage as needed in other ADCs. Switching voltage of an inverter can be set to a required input voltage by optimizing the width-ratio of the nMOS and pMOS transistors in CMOS technology. The chip was implemented and simulated in Cadence Virtuoso and the layout design of the ADC chip was accomplished in Cadence Layout Suite in AMI's C5 process.