Advances in voltage-controlled-oscillator-based δσ ADCs

Ring voltage-controlled-oscillators (VCOs) are increasingly being used to design δσ ADCs. They have the merits of simple, highly digital and low-voltage tolerant, making them attractive alternatives for the classic scaling-unfriendly operational-amplifier-based methodology. This paper aims to provide a summary on the advancement of VCObased δσ ADCs. The scope of this paper includes the basics and motivations behind the VCO-based ADCs, followed by a survey covering a wide range of architectures and circuit techniques in both continuous-time (CT) and discrete-time (DT) implementation, and will discuss the key insights behind the contributions and drawbacks of these architectures.