A flash analog to digital converter on stainless steel foil substrate

• Published in: Solid-state electronics Vol. 54; no. 4; pp. 410 - 416
• Main Authors: Jamshidi-Roudbari, Abbas, Kuo, Po-Chin, Hatalis, Miltiadis K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.04.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Analog to Digital Converter; Analog to digital converters; Applied sciences; Circuit properties; Comparator circuits; Design engineering; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Flexible circuit; Foils (structural shapes); Polysilicon; Semiconductor devices; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Signal convertors; Stainless steels; Steel foil; TFT; Thin film transistors; Transistors; Flexible circuit; Polysilicon; TFT; Analog to Digital Converter; Steel foil; High performance; Polycrystal; Mixed signal circuit; DA converter; Non linear phenomenon; Digital signal; AD converter; Flexible structure; Stainless steel; Sampling rate; Silicon; Thin film transistor; Comparator circuit; Integrodifferential equation
• ISSN: 0038-1101; 1879-2405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sse.2009.10.020

In an effort to increase the integration level of large area digital and mixed-signal systems on flexible substrate, we designed and successfully fabricated and characterized a 3-bit flash analog to digital converter on stainless steel foil substrate. High quality laser crystallized polysilicon Thin Film Transistors (TFT) as well as carefully designed comparator circuit made it possible for a high performance flash ADC with maximum sampling rate of 3Ms/s to be developed on stainless steel foil substrate. Both Integral and Differential Non-Linearity were extracted to be less than or equal to 0.25th of a Least Significant Bit (LSB), which makes it possible to increase the number of bits to 5-bits while keeping the same design structure and operating voltages. The same 3-bit design can also be used along with a 3-bit digital to analog converter in a two-step flash ADC structure to implement a 6-bit converter.