Fully Digital Second-order Level-crossing Sampling ADC for Data Saving in Sensing Sparse Signals

Abstract: This paper presents a fully integrated second-order level-crossing sampling data converter for real-time data compression and feature extraction. Compared with level-sampling ADCs which sample at fixed voltage levels, the proposed circuits updates tracking thresholds using linear extrapolation, which forms a second-order level-crossing sampling ADC that has sloped sampling levels. The computing is done digitally and is implemented by modifying the digital control logic of a conventional SAR ADC. The system selects only the turning points in the input waveform for quantization. The output of the proposed data converter consists of both the digital value of the selected sampling points and the timestamp between the selected sampling points. The main advantages are data savings and power savings for the data converter and the following digital signal processing or communication circuits, which are ideal for low-power sensors. The test chip was fabricated using a 180nm CMOS process. The proposed ADC saves 30% compared to a conventional SAR ADC and achieves a compression factor of 6.17 for tracking ECG signals.