Integrated Circuit With Power Monitor

The present invention relates to electronic semiconductor devices and methods of fabrication, and, more particularly, to semiconductor devices useful for conversion between analog and digital signals and fabrication methods integrating both bipolar and field effect devices.

Digital processing and transmission of electrical signals has become commonplace even for basically analog information. Examples range from handheld digital voltmeters to the transition beginning in the 1960s of the public long distance telephone network from analog transmission to pulse code modulation (PCM) digital transmission. Application of digital methods to analog information requires an analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion, and the linearity, resolution, and speed of such conversion depends upon the application. For example, digital voltmeters usually call for A/D conversion with good linearity and resolution (18-bits) but which may be slow (1 Hz); whereas, video applications demand high speed (30 million samples and conversions per second) but tolerate low resolution (8-bits) and poor linearity. Intermediate; requirements of 12-bit resolution, good linearity, and 3 Msps (million samples per second) speed appear in applications such as medical imaging with ultrasound, robotic control, high speed data acquisition, process control, radar signal analysis, disk drive head control, vibration analysis, waveform spectral analysis, and so forth. Multichannel information acquisition with arrays of A/D converters leads to another requirement: small aperture jitter so that synchronism of the channels can be maintained.

Well known types of A/D converters include the successive approximations converter which produces a digital output by a succession of trial-and-error steps using a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and the flash converter which compares an input signal to multiple reference levels simultaneously and outputs a digital version of the closest reference level in a single step. The successive approximations converter provides high resolution and linearity but with low conversion speed, and the flash supplies high speed at the cost of resolution and linearity. Note that a flash converter with n-bit resolution typically has a voltage divider with 2.sup.a taps and 2.sup.n comparators, and this becomes unwieldy for high resolution. See, however, copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 696,241, filed May 6, 1991 and assigned to the assignee of the present application. A compromise between these two types is the two-step flash A/D converter which uses a first coarse flash conversion to find the most significant bits and then reconstructs an analog signal from first flash output and subtracts this from the input signal to create an error signal from which a second flash conversion finds the least significant bits. Generally see Grebene, Bipolar and MOS Analog Integrated Circuit Design (Wiley-Interscience 1984), page 871. It is desirable that A/D converters combine still higher speed and resolution with lower noise.

Methods of fabrication used for various semiconductor devices include the combination of bipolar transistors with CMOS transistors (BiCMOS), with analog portions of the integrated circuit using mainly bipolar transistors for their low noise and digital portions using mainly CMOS transistors for their high packing density. See for example R. Haken et al, "BiCMOS Processes for Digital and Analog Devices," Semiconductor International 96 (June 1989). However, improved BiCMOS fabrication methods are needed to achieve higher speed and resolution with lower noise on a monolithic circuit.

The present invention provides a monolithic two-step flash A/D converter with high speed and resolution and a BiCMOS method of fabrication applicable to such converters and other integrated circuits.

The present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings which are schematic for clarity.

FIGS. 1-2 illustrate applications of a preferred embodiment analog-to-digital converter;

FIG. 3 is a functional block circuit diagram of the preferred embodiment;

FIGS. 4-5 are flow and timing diagrams for the operation of the preferred embodiment;

FIGS. 4-10 show aspects of the timing controller of the preferred embodiment;

FIGS. 11-12 show aspects of the power up reset of the preferred embodiment;

FIGS. 13 and 14 show aspects of alternate embodiments.

FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an ultrasound analysis system 100 which includes a sound generator 102, sound detector 104, first preferred embodiment analog-to-digital converter 106, digital signal processor 108, and video display 110. System 100 generates high frequency (100 KHz) sound waves that penetrate object 120, and these waves reflect from interior structures of object 120 to be detected by detector 104. Converter 106 converts the detected analog signal to a digital form for signal processing by DSP 108, and video display 110 presents the results on a CRT. Mechanically the scanning sound generator 102 and detector 104 over the surface of object 120 provide reflection information to reconstruct an image of the interior structure. Use of system 100 for human medical diagnosis or analysis demands relatively high speed operation for patient convenience and relatively high resolution for image reconstruction.

Converter 106 is a 12-bit, subranging (half-flash or two-step) converter with digital error correction which samples an analog input in the range of -2.5 volts to +2.5 volts at a sampling rate of 3 Msps (million samples per second) and with an input bandwidth of 30 MHz. 12-bit resolution implies that the least significant bit of output corresponds to a 1.22 mV input interval. An input bandwidth of 30 MHz means that converter 106 can track video signals and that an array of converters 106 with sequential clocking can provide video digitization; see FIG. 2 which shows n converters 106 clocked by sequential commands CONV1, CONV2, . . . CONVn. This array gives an effective sampling rate of 3n MHz.

Converter 106 operates over a temperature range of -55 C. to +125 C. with integral and differential linearity error and full scale error all about or less than 1 bit. Converter 106 uses a combination of bipolar and CMOS (BiCMOS) devices together with polysilicon-polysilicon capacitors and nickel-chromium thin film resistors plus laser trimming. Most CMOS gate lengths are about 1 .mu.m and NPN emitters typically are about 2 .mu.m by 3 .mu.m with devices scaled to provide larger emitter areas. Also, matched devices may be split and laid out in symmetrical arrangements to help thermal balance and insensitivity.

Converter overview

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram of the first preferred embodiment converter, indicated generally by reference numeral 300, which includes analog signal input terminal 302, sample and hold block 304, 7-bit flash analog-to-digital converter block 306, most-significant-bin (MSB) latch 308, 7-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) block 310 (the DAC is trimmed to more than 14-bit accuracy), error amplifier 312, least-significant-bits (LSB) latch 314, subtractor 316, error correction block 318, output buffer 320, output port 322, overflow/underflow block OF/UF 324, voltage reference block 326 with output terminal 328, timing controller and oscillator block 330, conversion command input terminal 332, and analog switch 334. Converter 300 is a two-step subranging analog-to-digital converter which uses the same 7-bit flash converter for both the MSB and the LSB conversions. Correction of system errors makes use of MSB and LSB overlap. The 12-bit output uses a two's complement representation of negative numbers, so an input of 0 volts leads to an output of 1000 0000 0000, an input of -1.22 mV gives an output of 0111 1111 1111, and an input of -2.5 volts yields 0000 0000 0000. An input of +1.22 mV gives an output of 1000 0000 0001, and an input of +2.5 volts yields 1111 1111 1111.

Operation summary

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram for a conversion by converter 300 and FIG. 5 is a timing diagram (in nanoseconds) for the conversion flow which basically proceeds as follows. A falling edge of the convert command (CONV) input at terminal 332 begins the conversion process; see the bottom panel of FIG. 5. Just prior to the CONV command, sample and hold 304 was tracking (following) the input V.sub.in (t) at terminal 302, analog switch 334 was connecting the output of sample and hold 304 to flash converter 306, the comparators and encoder of flash converter 306 were following the sample and hold 304 output (which ideally is V.sub.in (t)) but without latching, DAC 310 was holding at a 0 volt output due to a fixed input, and error amplifier 312 was clamped to a 0 volt output. The CONV command at time t.sub.0 switches sample and hold 304 into the hold mode and with a fixed output equal to V.sub.in (t.sub.0). This switching requires a settling time of about 30 nanoseconds (nsec) due to charge injection by the switch; see the HLDSTTL pulse in the second panel from the bottom of FIG. 5. For simplicity, V.sub.in (t.sub.0) will be called V.sub.in. At the end of the HLDSTTL pulse, the first flash convert clock FLASH1 rises to latch the comparators of flash converter 306 which have been following the essentially constant output V.sub.in of sample and hold 304. The comparators ideally are outputting a quantization of V.sub.in to the encoder which has been encoding this quantization as a 7-bit number; see the FLASH1 pulse in the third from bottom panel of FIG. 5. After about 28 nsec to allow settling by the latching circuitry of flash converter 306, the FLASH1 pulse falls low to store the 7-bit output in MSB latch 308 (not shown in FIG. 4 but incorporated in Digital Subtractor and Error Correction). This 7-bit output is the binary encoding of the quantized version of the input signal V.sub.in with quantization levels separated by about 39 mV. Because the final 12-bit output of converter 300 will be a binary encoding of the quantized version or V.sub.in with quantization levels separated by 1.22 mV (39 mV divided by 32), this 7-bit output contributes only to the seven most significant bits of the final 12-bit output. Note that an output of 0000000 from flash converter 306 corresponds to an input signal of about -2.5 volts, whereas an input signal of about 0 volts will lead to an output of 1000000 and an input of about +2.5 volts will yield an output of 1111111.

Next, the rising edge of the 80 nsec DAC settling pulse (DACSTTL pulse in the fourth from bottom panel of FIG. 5) performs three tasks: (1) it puts the 7-bit output of flash converter 306 stored in MSB latch 308 into DAC 310, which reconstructs the quantization of V.sub.in from the 7 bits, this reconstruction is denoted V.sub.rq below, (2) it puts the output of flash converter 306 into subtractor 316 which adds a fixed 7-bit code to compensate for the bipolar mode of operation and error correction, and (3) it switches analog switch 334 to connect the output of error amplifier 312 to the input of flash converter 306. Then the DAC 310 output begins slewing towards its final value, V.sub.rq, and feeds an input of error amplifier 312 which, however, remains clamped for about 10 nsec to avoid noise and saturation problems. During the remaining 70 nsec of the DACSTTL pulse, DAC 310 settles to its final output V.sub.rq and error amplifier 312 amplifies the difference between V.sub.in and V.sub.rq by a factor of 32. That is, error amplifier 312 amplifies the quantization error by 32; see the left middle portion of FIG. 4.

The second step conversion begins at the end of the DACSTTL pulse: flash converter 306 has been following the output of error amplifier 312 which has been settling to the amplified quantization error, and the rising edge of the second flash convert pulse (FLASH2 in the fifth from bottom panel of FIG. 5) latches the comparators of flash converter 306. The falling edge of FLASH2 28 nsec later stores the encoded quantized version of the amplified quantization error in LSB latch 314, which feeds the most significant two bits to error correction block 318. Due to the amplification factor being only 32, rather than 128 as 7-bit conversion would suggest, the second conversion's most significant bits overlap the first conversion's least significant bits.

If the components of converter 300 were errorless, then the overall conversion would amount to the following. The first flash conversion effectively decomposes V.sub.in as

where V.sub.q is the quantized version of V.sub.in with quantization levels separated by about 39 mV and (V.sub.in -V.sub.q) is the first quantization error. The 7-bit output in MSB Latch encodes V.sub.q. DAC 310 errorlessly reconstructs V.sub.q from the 7 bits in MSB Latch 308; that is, V.sub.rq equals V.sub.q. Next, the second flash conversion effectively decomposes the amplified first quantization error 32(V.sub.in -V.sub.q) as

where W.sub.q is the quantized version of 32(V.sub.in -V.sub.q). Again the quantization levels are separated by about 39 mV and ›32(V.sub.in -V.sub.q)-W.sub.q ! is the second quantization error. The 7-bit output in LSB Latch encodes W.sub.q. So the final quantized output is V.sub.q +W.sub.q /32 with roughly V.sub.q generating the most significant bits and W.sub.q /32 the least significant bits. Thus the combined effect of both flash conversions is to decompose V.sub.in as

That is, the overall quantization error equals the second quantization error divided by 32; so the overall quantization error is at most 39 mV/32 which equals 1.22 mV.

Error correction block 318 corrects any dynamic error (within tolerance) caused by the limited linearity accuracy of flash converter 306 during the first conversion step; the two most significant bits of the second conversion overlap the two least significant bits of the first conversion and provide the basis for the correction. Error correction block 318 provides the seven most significant bits and-LSB latch 314 the five least significant bits to 12-bit output buffer 320 which makes the bits available at output port 322. Error correction and output buffer 320 loading consume about 20 nsec; see the LOADOP pulse in the sixth from bottom panel of FIG. 5. This completes the overall conversion; and if CONV remains low, another sampling and conversion begins. The seventh from bottom panel of FIG. 5 shows the ACQUIRE pulse which activates sample and hold 304 to acquire another sample, and the eighth from bottom panel (the top panel) of FIG. 5 shows the End of Conversion pulse EOC. The settling time for sample and hold 304 after switching from hold mode to sample mode is about 100 nsec and uses both the 80 nsec ACQUIRE pulse and the 20 nsec EOC pulse. The righthand portion of the second from bottom panel of FIG. 5 indicates the HLDSTTL pulse of the next conversion.

The analog signal input range is 5 volts (-2.5 volts to +2.5 volts), so the quantization, 7-bit encoding, and subsequent analog reconstruction of input signal V.sub.in will ideally yield a quantized approximation V.sub.rq with level spacings of 39.0625 mV and such that the approximation only differs from the input signal by at most one-half of a level spacing (19.53125 mV). Hence the difference, V.sub.in -V.sub.rq, after amplification by a factor or 32 in error amplifier 312, will ideally fall in the range of -625 mV to +625 mV and thus not exceed one quarter of the input range of flash converter 306. Therefore, the output of the second pass through flash converter 306 should be seven bits with the three most significant bits being either 011 or 100 for negative or positive inputs, respectively. Consequently, the two most significant bits of the second pass overlap the two least significant bits of the first pass through flash converter 306, and this implies a 12-bit overall output rather than a 14-bit output as would have been guessed from the two 7-bit conversions. Discussion of error correction block 318 below details this overlapping of bits and also leads to overflow/underflow block 324 which indicates an original input out of the -2.5 to +2.5 volts range.

Converter 300 has the following features: the timing pulses driving the operation do not overlap; only one function runs at a time, which lessens noise coupling; the sample and hold control provides aperture delay of less than 20 nanoseconds and aperture jitter of less than 25 picoseconds; clock signals driving flash converter 306 are translated to bipolar levels with a swing of 0.7 volts (V.sub.be) and lessen switching noise; subtractor 316 completes its operation prior to the activation of error amplifier 312 to lessen noise problems and avoid overdrive; the switching delay in activation of error amplifier 312 permits a settling of the DAC 310 output; and the output buffer 320 turns on its drivers sequentially to lessen ground bounce. The small aperture jitter permits the parallel configuration of converters, as illustrated in FIG. 2.

Converter 300 uses separate digital and analog power supplies and digital and analog grounds. The power supplies Vcc and Vdd are at +5 volts and Vee and Vss are at -5 volts with analog bipolar and CMOS devices operating between +5 and -5 volts but with the digital CMOS devices operating between +5 volts and ground.

Timing controller and oscillator

Timing controller and oscillator block 330 includes timing generator 4500 shown in FIG. 6 and made of seven oscillator cells 4501-4507, each of the structures shown in FIG. 7a as cell 4600. Cell 4600 basically generates a timed delay by sensing when the charge on a capacitor being charged by a constant current source reaches a threshold value. Varying the capacitance or the current or both varies the time interval. In more detail: a constant current of 65 uA is mirrored into PMOS 4602 (suggested by the broken line PMOS 4601 diode in FIG. 7a); thus when the signal at terminal CNTRL switches low, this mirrored current passes through turned-on PMOS 4604 and begins charging up a capacitor (suggested by broken line capacitor 4607) at terminal CAP. The voltage at CAP increases linearly with time. Now the NMOS differential pair 4611-4612 with PMOS current mirror lead 4615-4616 form a comparator with one input, the gate of NMOS 4611, connected to CAP and the other input, the gate of NMOS 4612, connected to a reference voltage of Vdd/2 volts supplied by a voltage divider to terminal BIAS2.8. Consequently, when the voltage at CAP is increasing from 0 towards Vdd/2 volts, the comparator output at node 4620 remains low and the inverters 4621-4622 buffer this to a low at terminal OUT, plus inverter 4623 inverts this to a high at terminal #OUT. Also, inverter 4621 inverts the low at node 4620 to a high that keeps PMOS 4630 off. Now when the voltage at CAP approaches Vdd/2 volts, the comparator begins switching to a high output at node 4620, and inverter 4621 inverts this to a low which turns on PMOS 4630 to supply a large current to help rapidly charge up capacitor 4607. That is, PMOS 4630 provides positive feedback and thereby sharpens the transition; see FIG. 8 showing the voltage at CAP for various capacitors. CNTRL low also keeps NMOS 4605 turned off, but when the CNTRL switches high, NMOS 4605 will turn on to discharge capacitor 4607 to ground. Further, a high signal at terminal MR (master reset) will also discharge capacitor 4607 to ground. In short, when CNTRL is high, CAP is low, OUT is low, and #OUT is high; and when CNTRL is low, CAP ramps up, OUT goes high after the ramp delay, and #OUT goes low after the ramp delay.

The comparator 4611-4612 plus 4615-4616 detection could be replaced by a simple inverter designed to switch at a particular threshold as shown by inverter 4630 in FIG. 7b. This alternative eliminates two devices and the bias line from cell 4600; the threshold of inverter 4630 can be adjusted by setting the ratio of the gate widths of the PMOS 4631 and NMOS 4632 making up inverter 4630. The comparator approach of cell 4600 permits accurate control of the switching point by control of the bias point which can be placed at levels other than Vdd/2. With a comparator the bias may be referenced to a fraction of Vdd and thus at higher supply voltages the bias point is higher and the pulse width is almost constant; in contrast, with an inverter the this is less tightly controlled because the threshold has a greater variation with respect to supply voltage. Further, the dependence of carrier mobility on temperature implies a general slowing down of devices with increasing temperature, so providing a current to mirror into PMOS 4602 that varies with temperature in a desired way will yield a pulse width that varies as desired with temperature. Further, the current mirror could have different size devices for different cells so that the capacitors would not have to be varied in size for the different time intervals required, and the current mirror could be realized with bipolar transistors. And replacing the inverter fed by CNTRL with more complex gates can provide for further control of the timing.

FIG. 6 shows the seven oscillator cells 4501-4507 arranged sequentially with the #OUT of each cell feeding the CNTRL input of the next cell so the cells activate in sequence. OR gates 4511-4517 each has inputs of the CNTRL and OUT of the corresponding cell; thus an OR gate goes low precisely when CNTRL goes low and OUT has not yet switched high due to the ramp delay. Because the #OUT signal is one gate delay from the OUT signal, each OR gate will be high before the succeeding OR will go low and the sequence of pulses from the OR gates will be nonoverlapping. Timing diagram FIG. 5 illustrates the outputs of the OR gates with their following inverters which have large size for driving large loads: OR gate 4511 provides the 30 nsec low-going HLDSTTL (holdsettle) pulse of the second from the bottom panel of FIG. 5, OR gate 4512 plus inverter the 28 nsec FLASH1 pulse of the third from the bottom panel, OR gate 4513 plus inverter the 80 nsec DACSTTL pulse of the fourth from the bottom panel, OR gate 4514 plus inverter the 28 nsec FLASH2 pulse of the fifth from the bottom panel, OR gate 4515 plus inverter the 20 nsec LOADOP pulse in the sixth from the bottom panel, OR gate 4516 plus inverter the 100 nsec ACQUIRE pulse of the seventh from the bottom panel, and OR gate 4517 plus inverter the 20 nsec EOC pulse of the top panel.

Of course, timing generator 4500 could have been realized by an oscillator driving a ripple counter with decoding the count to provide the timing pulses; however, use of an oscillator (with a 10 nsec period) would have created periodic switching noise which the capacitor charging of cells 4501-4507 avoids.

FIG. 9 illustrates schematically controller 4800 within block 330. Controller 4800 receives the external control signals of chip select (#CS, active low), output enable (#OE, active low), convert (#CONV, active low), plus internal signals FLASH1, FLASH2, and EOC from timing generator 4500, and generates the internal control commands CNTRL ("control" which drives timing generator 4500), IRQ ("interrupt request" which drives sample and hold 304 plus an external bus driver), flashclock, and Outputen (enabling output driven in buffer 320). Controller 4800 operates as follows: first, when #CS is high at terminal 4802, then both NOR gates 4804-4805 are low and this holds Outputen terminal 4808 low and feeds low data to flip-flops 4810-4811. The #Q output of flip-flop 4810 drives the CNTRL signal, so flip-flop 4810 with low data implies CNTRL remains high and keeps timing generator 4500 from starting a new cycle and converter 300 becomes idle.

Now presume #CS is low. A high signal at #CONV terminal 4812 also drives NOR gate 4804 low to feed low data to flip-flops 4810-4811 to prevent timing generator 4500 from starting a new cycle.

When #CONV switches low, NOR gate 4804 goes high, and flip-flops 4810-4811 have a high at their data inputs. NOR gale 4804 going high also propagates (presuming EOC at terminal 4822 is low) through the inverter chain made of NAND gate 4830 and inverters 4831-4835 to clock flip-flops 4810-4811 about 8 nsec after the high at their data inputs; this delay insures the data input is high and filters out very short #CONV pulse's. Thus a low going #CONV pulse of duration greater than 8 nsec makes CNTRL go low and IRQ go high about 10 nsec after #CONV switches low, and these values are held in flip-flops 4810-4811 until reset. Note that EOC is low because CNTRL was high and all capacitors in the oscillator cells are in reset condition giving a low output. As described previously, CNTRL going low activates timing generator 4500 which then outputs the pulses of FIG. 5 to drive a conversion cycle by converter 300. Also, IRQ going high switches sample and hold 304 into hold mode, so the aperture delay of converter 300 is the delay from CONV to IRQ plus the switching in sample and hold 304. The aperture jitter is kept to a very low level by the sharp thresholds of the inverter chain. Note that the external input terminals #CS, #EN, #CONV, and #A0 each has a translation buffer for conversion from TIT, (0.8 volt low and 2.0 volt high) to digital CMOS levels, and the typical 8 nsec delay includes this translation.

The end-of-conversion pulse EOC from timing generator 4500 feeds back into controller 4800 at terminal 4822, and if #CONV remains low, then the EOC pulse triggers another conversion, but if #CONV has returned high, then EOC has no effect. In particular, with #CONV low, a high going edge of EOC will propagate through inverter 4840, NAND gate 4830, and inverter chain 4831-4835 to drop the clock input to flip-flops 4810-4811 low. The high going edge of EOC will also switch AND gate 4842 high, and thus drive OR gates 4844 and 4848 high to reset flip-flop 4810 and switch CNTRL high. CNTRL going high will put a low at the input of the AND gate 4842 terminating the EOC pulse with a propogation delay of gates 4842, 4844, 4848, and 4810. The reset of flip-flops 4810-4811 overrides any other signal. Then the falling edge of the EOC pulse will propagate through the same chain to drive the clock inputs of flip-flops 4810-4811 high and clock in the highs (from #CONV low) at their data inputs and thereby drive #CNTRL low to start another cycle by timing generator 4500. Thus #CONV held low results in a continuous conversion mode by converter 300.

ACQUIRE pulse going high at terminal 4852 from the timing generator 4500 resets flip-flop 4811 to put IRQ low until the next cycle. For the duration of the time that CNTRL remains high the converter will not start a new cycle because the EOC signal from terminal 4822 blocks NAND gate 4830.

Controller 4800 just ORs FLASH1 and FLASH2 from timing generator 4500 and input at terminals 4861-4862 to create FLASHCLK at terminal 4863 to drive flash converter 306. The falling edge of FLASH1 also clocks flip-flop 4871 to lead the data held by flip-flop 4810 (#CNTRL) and output this through AND (which is for testing purposes only) to 4873 as signal SWITCH. This SWITCH signal releases DAC 310 from the 1000 000 input and switches analog switch 334 to direct the output of error amplifier 312 to flash converter 306 to set up converter 300 for the second conversion at FLASH2.

FIG. 10 recapitulates the overall timing for converter 300 for continuous conversion operation as represented by CONV remaining low in the first panel. The falling edge of CONV drives controller 4800 after a delay of 6 nsec through NOR 4804, NAND 4830, and inverters 4831-4835 to simultaneously clock flip-flops 4810 and 4811 to switch CNTRL low and IRQ high (second and third panels of FIG. 10). IRQ going high turns on an output bus driver to signal an interrupt to the microprocessor or other signal processors being fed conversions by converter 300. IRQ switching high also drives level translator 725 in sample and hold 304 which switches transmission gate 721 to disconnect the output of amplifier 602 and thus begin amplifier 604 holding V.sub.in on capacitor 606.

CNTRL going low starts a cycle of timing generator 4500 and includes driving HLDSTTL low after one OR gate 4511 switching delay (fourth panel of FIG. 10). The disconnection by transmission gate 721 in sample and hold 304 contributes a finite charge injection into node 606 and HLDSTTL provides a settling time of 30 nsec before returning high to start the next timing pulse. The comparators of Flash converter 306 have been and continue tracking the output of sample and hold 304 and sending a quantized version to the NPN encoder of Flash converter 306.

One gate delay after HLDSTTL returns high FLASH1 goes high to drive Flashclk high and have the comparators and NPN encoder latch in the 7 bits encoding the quantized output of the comparators. The falling edge of FLASH1 (28 nsec later) drives down FLASHCLK to latch the 7 bits in the CMOS latches (MSB Latch 308) but releases the comparators and the encoder array.

One gate delay after FLASH1 returns low DACSTTL switches high to start an 80 nsec settling time pulse; see fifth and sixth panels of FIG. 10. The falling edge of FLASH1 also after a gate delay clocks flip-flop 4871 to drive SWITCH high in controller 4800. SWITCH going high performs three functions: (1) it switches the input of the DAC from 1000000 to the 7 bits held by MSB Latch 308 and thus DAC begins slewing to its final output, (2) activates Subtractor 316 to subtract 0000010 from the 7 bits in MSB Latch 308, and (3) throws analog switch 334 to feed the output of error amplifier 312 to flash converter 306 instead of the output of sample and hold 304. Thus the flash converter comparators and encoder array are now tracking the output of error amplifier 312 which is still clamped to 0 volts. The subtraction in Subtractor 316 generates noise, but is completed within 6 nsec.

After a delay of 10 nsec from SWITCH going high to allow noise at the input to error amplifier 312 due to various switching happening on the chip to subside (including subtractor, timing generator, switch, and DAC output), the clamp is released from error amplifier 312 (see eighth panel of FIG. 10) which then begins to settle to amplifying the difference of the DAC output (still settling but already within a 100 mV of its final value) and the held V.sub.in output of sample and hold 304. The remaining 70 nsec of the DACSTTL pulse permit DAC and error amplifier settling. Indeed, simulations show DAC settling to 14-bit accuracy in about 50 nsec. Flash converter 306 is tracking the error amplifier output.

One gate delay after DACSTTL returns low FLASH2 goes high to drive FLASHCLK high and have the comparators and the encoder of flash converter 306 latch the 7 bits encoding the quantized version of the output of error amplifier 312, and the falling of FLASH2 (28 nsec later) drops FLASHCLK low which latches the 7 bits in the CMOS latches of LSB Latch 314. See the ninth panel of FIG. 10.

One gate delay after FLASH2 returns low LOADOP goes high to drive and LOADOP remains high for 20 nsec for the digital computation.

One gate delay after LOADOP returns low ACQUIRE goes high to drive IRQ low and perform six functions: (1) terminate the interrupt signal on the output bus, (2) switch the input to DAC 310 from the 7 bits in MSB Latch 308 to the 7 bits 1000000 and thereby force DAC 310 back to a 0 volt output, (3) switch Clamp high to clamp error amplifier 312 to a 0 volt output, (4) put the results of the data output flip-flops onto the output bus, (5) switch sample and hold 304 back to the sampling mode, and (6) drive SWITCH low to throw analog switch 334 to feed the output of sample and hold 304 to flash converter 306 instead of the output from error amplifier 312. Thus flash converter 306 begins tracking the varying V.sub.in output of sample and hold 304 again. ACQUIRE remains high for 100 nsec to permit sample and hold 304 to settle in to tracking V.sub.in.

One gate delay after ACQUIRE returns low EOC goes high to drive CNTRL high, and then 20 nsec later EOC goes low to drive CNTRL low and IRQ high to begin another conversion cycle. Note that the 20 nsec of EOC high is also time for sample and hold 304 to settle to tracking V.sub.in.

The timing of operations shown in FIG. 10 have various features, including the following. (1) SWITCH simultaneously changes the 7 input bits to DAC 310 from 1000 000 to the 7 bits in MSB Latch 308 in contrast to just letting DAC 310 follow the 7 bits being output be encoder array 906 of flash converter 306; this prevents extreme output swinging (such as if the second most significant bit switches and then shortly thereafter the most significant bit switches) and may provide a quicker overall settling of DAC 310 despite the extra time taken to load MSB Latch 308. The 10 nsec delay between SWITCH going high and Clamp going low covers the time for Subtractor 316 to complete its operation plus DAC 310 to complete the bulk of the output swing; thus the noise generated by digital Subtractor 316 and large swings of DAC 310 output subside prior to activation of error amplifier 312 and help avoid saturation or its transistors. In contrast, if the error amplifier were continually active but with diode output clamping in an attempt to limit transistor saturation, then the large input swings and noise during the 10 nsecs while DAC 310 output swings and subtractor 316 switches may cause Zener breakdown of the emitter-base junctions of input transistors and, furthermore, the output of the error amplifier likely would swing rapidly between its clamped extremes and thereby drive flash converter 306 wildly. The timing of converter 300 illustrated in FIG. 10 aggregates the digital noise from subtractor 318 with the rapid swings of DAC 310 in the same 10 nsec period during which error amplifier 312 is clamped and has input transistors in a very low current state.

(2) Another feature of the timing of FIG. 10 is the simultaneous switching of sample and hold 304 from hold mode to sampling mode and the throwing of analog switch 334 to switch the input to flash converter 306 from the output of error amplifier 312 (which is simultaneously being clamped) to the output of sample and hold 304. Both the throwing of analog switch 334 and the switching to sampling mode create large transients for the input of flash converter 306, and thus the aggregation of these transients into a single time interval provides for quicker overall converter operation. The 100 nsec duration of the ACQUIRE pulse plus the following 20 nsec of the EOC pulse provide sample and hold 304 sufficient time to settle to tracking V.sub.in (t). Recall that the input amplifier 602 was grounded during the hold mode to prevent saturation, and that with an input bandwidth of 30 MHz the input V.sub.in to amplifier 602 could have oscillated between its extremes five or six times during the hold mode.

(3) A further feature of the timing of FIG. 10 occurs when flash converter latches in a quantization and its encoding: converter 300 does not execute any other operations simultaneously and the latching by flash converter 306 happens at the end of a quiet settling period: after the 30 nsec of HLDSTTL or after the 70 nsec of DACSTTL following the 10 nsec delay. This prevents noise generated by other operations corrupting the accuracy of the flash conversions; in particular, the subtraction in block 316 operation must be performed prior to the error correction in block 318 if both carries CR1 and CR2 will be used, and thus aggregating the subtraction with the initial swings from DAC 310 effectively puts the subtraction noise in an already-disturbed time interval. If both carries were not needed, then the subtraction could be merged with the error correction.

A feature not explicit in the timing of FIG. 10 lies in the sequential turning on of the output drivers in buffer 320 to avoid kickback (note the inductive bond wires from the substrate to its lead frame) and ground bounce that may occur with all drivers being simultaneously turned on. As indicated by layout FIG. 44, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,309, the entire disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference, the drivers are located along the outer edge of the silicon substrate containing converter 300, and these drivers have data lines and an enable line that originate in area 4450 and follow the edge of the substrate and thereby provide by their propagation delay a sequential turning on of the drivers. Note that all of this driver activity occurs at the same time that the rising edge of ACQUIRE switches sample and hold 304 to sampling mode and throws analog switch 334; that is, the driver transients are also aggregated with other noisey operations into a common time interval.

Alternative embodiments that preserve some of the foregoing timing features include using an always-on amplifier, but switching off its input during the 10 nsec (or more) that include the largest transients of DAC 310. The DAC could have continually updated input bits with such an input-switched error amplifier.

The following table summarizes the operation of converter 300 in terms of the external inputs #CS, #CONV, #OE, and #A0; the table also shows the output IRQ:

Of course, the continuous convert mode requires a falling edge for #CS and #CONV to get started.

FIG. 11 schematically shows the power up reset (PUR) circuit 5000 within block 330. Circuit 5000 provides a PUR pulse to insure various components of converter 300 are put into known initial states upon power up of converter 300. In particular, the two digital power supplies, Vdd at +5 volts and Vss at -5 volts, and the two analog power supplies, Vcc at +5 volts and Vee at -5 volts, may be applied in differing orders and lead to erratic behavior by partially powered-up devices. Circuit 5000 operates as follows: NMOS differential pair 5001-5002 compares the voltages at nodes 9 and 10 where the voltage at node 9 is resistor 5011, 5013 division of Vcc to ground and equal to about 0.6 Vcc, and the voltage at node 10 is resistor 5012 diode NMOS 5010 division of the same Vcc to ground. So Vcc rising from ground towards +5 volts will cause the voltages on nodes 9 and 10 to rise. However, diode 5010 has a turn on voltage of about 1-2 volts; so for Vcc small, the voltage at node 10 will track Vcc and the voltage at node 9 will track 0.6 Vcc. Diode 5010 has an on impedance that together with resistor 5012 divides Vcc to about 0.5 Vcc at node 10; thus as Vcc increases above about 2 volts the voltage on node 10 increases less rapidly than that on node 9, and at Vcc equal to about 4 volts the voltage on node 9 surpasses that on node 10. FIG. 12 illustrates the voltages at nodes 9 and 10 for a linearly increasing Vcc. Now with Vcc at about 2-3 volts the digital devices such as inverters 5030-5031 and exclusive NOR gate 5040 become active (Vdd connects to Vcc through resistor 5020), and until NMOS 5001-5002 turn on both inverters 5030-5031 will see a Vcc input and output lows to exclusive NOR 5040 and thus a high PUR.

NMOS differential pair 5001-5002 remains off until Vee has dropped below about -2.8 volts (four Vbe's) to turn on the current source made of NPN 5050, diodes 5051, and resistor 5052. Thus two cases occur: (1) Vcc rises more quickly than Vee falls and (2) Vee falls more quickly than Vcc rises. In the first case no current flows in 5050-5051 because Vee is less than -2.8 volts and nothing drives the differential pair 5001-5002. Therefore, resistors 5003 and 5004 pull both nodes 11 and 12 high with the rising Vcc and no current flows. This drives inverters 5030 and 5031 both low giving a high at output PUR. As soon as a current flow from Vee through the current source is established, the differential pair 5001-5002 switches and forces nodes 11 and 12 in opposite directions dote to the differential pair action, and this switches PUR low.

In the second case differential pair 5001-5002 has its current source on while Vcc is still low, and Vcc low implies low inputs to inactive invertors 5030, 5031. As Vcc rises to about 2-3 volts, digital devices activate and NMOS 5002 conducts due to node 10 being higher than node 9. Thus, node 11 is high and node 12 is low to yield a low at PUR. Then when Vcc reaches about 4 volts nodes 9 and 10 have about the same voltage and both NMOS 5001 and NMOS 5002 conduct to have nodes 11 and 12 both low and have exclusive NOR 5040 drive PUR high. Next, as Vcc exceeds 4 volts, the voltage at node 9 exceeds the voltage at node 10, and NMOS 5002 stops conducting to switch node 12 high and thus exclusive NOR 5040 high and PUR low. That is, as the voltage at node 9 passes that at node 10 the inverters 5030-5031 sequentially switch and generate a PUR pulse. The width of the pulse depends upon the thresholds of inverters 5030-5031. The PUR pulse drives the master reset (MR) of both the cells of timing generator 4500 and controller 4800.

Similarly, during normal operation if Vee should rise from -5 volts to about -2.8 volts, then PUR will go high until Vee again drops below -2.8 volts. Also, if Vcc drops below about 4 volts, again PUR will go high. Hence, circuit 5000 also detects power supply interruptions.

The timing controller 4500 could be composed of oscillator cells 4600 connected in parallel with differing time delays and with logical combinations of the outputs to create the desired timing pulses. For example, FIG. 13 shows timing generator 9200 made of four parallel cells 4600 with increasing time delays as shown in the top panels of timing diagram FIG. 14. The logic gates convert the cell outputs to the outputs shown the bottom panels or FIG. 15. Because all of the cells start charging their timing capacitors when CNTRL goes low, smaller currents for the longer time delays can be used, giving lower power consumption. Also, the capacitors could all be the same size and differing charging currents could be obtained by differing mirror device sizes.

Power up reset circuit 5000 could have the NPN 5050 plus NPN diode chain 5051 replaced with NMOS versions or even a single NMOS biased at about -2 volts by a resistive divider from ground to Vee. Alternatively, circuit 5000 could have all of the MOS devices, including the inverters and gate, replaced with digital bipolar devices.