ABSTRACT
This chapter provides guidelines to choose and design analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) for image sensors. Results can be extrapolated to other kinds of radiation detectors on the focal plane. There are four main ADC architectures that are usually employed for image sensor conversion: pipeline, slope, cyclic, successive approximation registers, and sigma delta. Pipeline ADCs have a clocked topology with several operation stages. Each stage resolves a certain number of bits of the analog-to-digital conversion. The chapter presents and compares the frequency of conversion for the main ADC topologies that are suitable for modern commercial sensors. It discusses the specific ADC requirements for image sensors. ADC designers are usually concerned about resolution, speed, and power. The choice of the ADC architecture has an influence on the energy efficiency that should be taken into account.
