28 October 2009
TI claims fastest 12bit a/d converter at 1Gsample/s
Texas Instruments has introduced a pipelined 12bit a/d converter capable of sampling at 1Gsample/s. Claimed as an industry first, the device is said to effectively double the amount of signal bandwidth that can be captured in a single data converter.
Called the ADS5400, the part has a signal to noise ratio of 59dBFS and spurious free dynamic range of 75dBc in the first Nyquist. For frequencies beyond 1GHz, the part has an snr of 58dBFS and an sfdr of 70dBc.
Heinz-Peter Beckemeyer, pictured, TI's marketing director EMEA for analogue and embedded processing, noted: "It's the first time a device like this has been launched and it has been characterised to 2GHz. It's like an rf component."
However, TI has had to take advantage of a more exotic process in order to provide the performance levels. Rather than manufacturing the ADS5400 on cmos, like other devices in the company's portfolio, the part has been designed for manufacture on TI's BiCom3 bipolar SiGe process.
According to Beckemeyer, developing the part has required a 'big jump'. "It's been achieved by the combination of the design team's expertise and the process technology. Achieving this level of performance hasn't been easy."
Apart from higher performance levels, this suits the part to higher temperature applications and to high radiation environments.
Essentially replacing the ADS5463 and ADS54RF63 12bit a/d converters – running at 500 and 550Msample/s respectively – the ADS5400 is aimed at such applications as high performance radar and defence.
Author
Graham Pitcher
Supporting Information
Websites
http://www.ti.com
Companies
Texas Instruments
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