• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2009

This paper describes an implementation of the analog front end (AFE) incorporated with the image signal processing (ISP) unit in the SoC, dominating the performance of the CCD image sensor system. New schemes are exploited in the high-frequency sampling to reduce the sampling uncertainty apparently as the frequency increases, in the structure for the wide-range variable gain amplifier (VGA) capable of $0{\sim}36\;dB$ exponential gain control to meet the needed bandwidth and accuracy by adopting a new parasitic insensitive capacitor array. Moreover, the double cancellation of the black-level noise was efficiently achieved both in the analog and the digital domain. The proposed topology fabricated in a $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS process was proved in a full CCD camera system of 10-bit accuracy, dissipating 80 mA at 15 MHz with a 3.3 V supply voltage.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.8-16
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• 2010

This paper presents a design of the successive approximation ADC(SA-ADC) applicable to a midium-low speed analog-front end(AFE) for the maximum 15MS/s CCD image processing. SA-ADC is effective in applications ranging widely between low and mid data rates due to the large power scaling effect on the operating frequency variations in some other way of pipelined ADCs. The proposed design exhibits some distinctive features. The "differential capacitor-coupling scheme" segregates the input sampling behavior from the sub-DAC incorporating the differential input and the sub-DAC output, which prominently reduces the loading throughout the signal path. Determining the MSB(sign bit) from the held input data in advance of the data conversion period, a kind of the signed successive approximation, leads to the reduction of the sub-DAC hardware overhead by 1 bit and the conversion period by 1 cycle. Characterizing the proposed design in a 3.3 V $0.35-{\mu}m$ CMOS process by Spectre simulations verified its validity of the application to CCD analog front-ends.