Department of Electronics & Comm. Engg.

Program: B.Tech. (ECE)

Subject: Analog circuits

Code: (4EC4-04)

Unit: 5

Topic: Analog To Digital Converter

(Counter Type ADC , Flash Type ADC)

Delivered by: Rahul Pandey, Assistant Professor , ECE Dept.

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 INTRODUCTION

▪ An electronic circuit which transforms a

signal from analog (continuous)to digital
(discrete) form.
▪ Analog signals are directly measurable
quantities.
▪ Digital signals only have two states. For
digital computer, we refer to binary states, 0
and 1.

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 Block diagram

• The block diagram of an ADC is shown in the

following figure

Fig.1 block diagram of ADC

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 Resolution

• The resolution of ADC is determined by the

number of bits it uses to digitize an input
signal.
• The resolution defines the smallest voltage
change that can be measured by the ADC.
• The resolution is the same as the smallest
step size, and can be calculated by dividing
the reference voltage by the number of
possible conversion values.

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 Why ADC is needed

• Microprocessors can only perform complex

processing on digitized signals.

▪ When signals are in digital form they are

less susceptible to the deleterious effects of
additive noise.

▪ ADC Provides a link between the analog

world of transducers and the digital world
of signal processing and data handling.

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 Application of ADC
• ADC are used virtually everywhere where
an analog signal has to be processed,
stored, or transported in digital form.
• The output of a microphone, the voltage at
a photodiode or the signal of an
accelerometer are examples of analog
values that need to be converted so that a
microprocessor can work with them.
• Some examples of ADC usage are digital
voltmeters, cellphone, thermocouples, and
digital oscilloscope.

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 TYPES OF ADC

There are four types if ADCs –

• Counter type ADC

• Flash type ADC

• Successive Approximation ADC

• Single & Dual slope type ADC

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 COUNTER TYPE ADC

• A counter type ADC produces a digital

output, which is approximately equal to the
analog input by using counter operation
internally.

Fig.2 block diagram of counter type ADC

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COUNTER TYPE ADC (WORKING)
▪ The counter will be enabled only when it get
the output as 1 from the AND gate logic
,which will occure only when both clock and
comparator output is set to 1.
▪ The counter gets incremented by one for
every clock pulse and its value will be in
binary (digital) format. This output of the
counter is applied as an input of DAC.
▪ DAC converts the received binary (digital)
input, which is the output of counter, into
an analog output. Comparator compares this
analog value , Va with the external analog
input value Vi
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 COUNTER TYPE ADC (WORKING)…
▪ The output of comparator will be ‘1’ as
long as Vi (Output of DAC) is less than or
equal to Va ( Reference Analog Voltage )The
operations mentioned in above steps will be
continued as long as the control logic
receives ‘1’ from the output of comparator.

▪ The output of comparator will be ‘0’ when

Vi becomes greater than Va .So, the control
logic(AND logic) receives ‘0’ from the output
of comparator. Then, the control logic
disables the counter and the counter stop
working. 10
 COUNTER TYPE ADC (WORKING)…

• At this instant, the output of the counter

will be displayed as the digital output. It is
almost equivalent to the corresponding
external analog input value Vi

Question : The resolution of a 4 bit counting

ADC is 0.5 V . For an analog input of 6.6 V,
the digital output of the ADC will be ?
GATE 1999

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12
 ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

Advantages of counter type ADC

▪ It is very simple to understand and also to
operate.
▪ Its design is less complex, so the cost is also
less

Disadvantages of counter type ADC

▪ Speed is less, since each time the counter
has to begin from ZERO.
▪ There may be conflicts if the next i/p is
sampled before completion of one process.
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 Flash type ADC

• A flash type ADC produces an equivalent

digital output for a corresponding analog
input in no time. Hence, flash type ADC is
the fastest ADC.
• A 3-bit flash type ADC consists of a voltage
divider network, 7 comparators and a
priority encoder

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 Circuit diagram

▪ The circuit
diagram of a
3-bit flash
type ADC is
shown in the
following
figure-

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Fig.3 Circuit diagram of Flash type ADC
 WORKING

▪ The voltage divider network contains 8

equal resistors. A reference voltage VR is
applied across that entire network with
respect to the ground. The voltage drop
across each resistor from bottom to top with
respect to ground will be the integer
multiples (from 1 to 8) of VR/8 .
▪ The external input voltage Vi is applied to
the non-inverting terminal of all
comparators. The voltage drop across each
resistor from bottom to top with respect to
ground is applied to the inverting terminal of
comparators from bottom to top.
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 WORKING…
▪ At a time, all the comparators compare the
external input voltage with the voltage drops
present at the respective other input
terminal. That means, the comparison
operations take place by each comparator
parallelly.
▪ The output of the comparator will be ‘1’ as
long as Vi is greater than the voltage at the
respective other input terminal, and the
output of comparator will be ‘0’, Vice versa.

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 WORKING…

▪ All the outputs of comparators are connected

as the inputs of priority encoder. This
priority encoder produces a binary code
(digital output), which is corresponding to
the high priority input that has ‘1’.

▪ Therefore, the output of priority encoder is

nothing but the binary equivalent (digital
output) of external analog input voltage, Vi .

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 ADVANTAGES
Advantages of Flash type ADC
▪ It is the fastest type of ADC because the
conversion is performed simultaneously
through a set of comparators, hence referred
as flash type ADC. Typical conversion time is
100ns or less.
▪ The construction is simple and easier to
design

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 DISADVANTAGES

Disadvantages of Flash type ADC

▪ It is not suitable for higher number of bits
▪ To convert the analog input voltage into a
digital signal of n-bit output, (2n – 1)
comparators are required. The number of
comparators required doubles for each
added bit.

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SAR Type ADC
 SAR Type ADC
• Successive Approximation type ADC is the most
widely used and popular ADC method. The
conversion time is maintained constant in
successive approximation type ADC, and is
proportional to the number of bits in the digital
output, unlike the counter and continuous type
A/D converters.
• The basic principle of this type of A/D converter
is that the unknown analog input voltage is
approximated against an n-bit digital value by
trying one bit at a time, beginning with the MSB.
The principle of successive approximation
process for a 4-bit conversion is explained here.
 Working
• The MSB is initially set to 1 with the
remaining three bits set as 000. The digital
equivalent voltage is compared with the
unknown analog input voltage.
• If the analog input voltage is higher than
the digital equivalent voltage, the MSB is
retained as 1 and the second MSB is set to
1.
• Otherwise, the MSB is set to 0 and the
second MSB is set to 1. Comparison is
made as given in step (1) to decide whether
to retain or reset the second MSB.
 Working..
• The above steps are more accurately
illustrated with the help of an example.
Let us assume that the 4-bit ADC is used
and the analog input voltage is VA = 11 V.
when the conversion starts, the MSB bit is
set to 1.

• Now VA = 11V > VD = 8V = [1000]2

• Since the unknown analog input voltage VA is
higher than the equivalent digital voltage VD,
as discussed in step (2), the MSB is retained as
1 and the next MSB bit is set to 1 as follows
VD = 12V = [1100]2
• Now VA = 11V < VD = 12V = [1100]2
Here now, the unknown analog input voltage
VA is lower than the equivalent digital voltage
VD. As discussed in step (2), the second MSB
is set to 0 and next MSB set to 1 as
VD = 10V = [1010]2

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• Now again VA = 11V > VD = 10V =
[1010]2
Again as discussed in step (2) VA>VD,
hence the third MSB is retained to 1
and the last bit is set to 1. The new
code word is
VD = 11V = [1011]2
 Dual slope type ADC

• In dual slope type ADC, the integrator

generates two different ramps, one
with the known analog input voltage
V and another with a known reference
A

voltage –Vref. Hence it is called a s dual

slope A to D converter. The logic
diagram for the same is shown below.
Dual slope type ADC
 Working
• The binary counter is initially reset to 0000;
the output of integrator reset to 0V and the
input to the ramp generator or integrator is
switched to the unknown analog input
voltage V .
A

• The analog input voltage VA is integrated by

the inverting integrator and generates a
negative ramp output. The output of
comparator is positive and the clock is
passed through the AND gate. This results in
counting up of the binary counter.
 Working..
• The negative ramp continues for a fixed
time period t1, which is determined by a
count detector for the time period t1. At the
end of the fixed time period t1, the ramp
output of integrator is given by
∴VS=-VA/RC×t1
When the counter reaches the fixed count
at time period t1, the binary counter resets
to 0000 and switches the integrator input to
a negative reference voltage –Vref.
• Now the ramp generator starts with the
initial value –Vs and increases in positive
direction until it reaches 0V and the
counter gets advanced. When Vs reaches
0V, comparator output becomes negative
(i.e. logic 0) and the AND gate is
deactivated. Hence no further clock is
applied through AND gate.
• Now, the conversion cycle is said to be
completed and the positive ramp
voltage is given by
∴VS=Vref/RC×t2
Where Vref & RC are constants and
time period t2 is variable.

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• The dual ramp output waveform is
shown below.
• Since ramp generator voltage starts at 0V,
decreasing down to –Vs and then increasing
up to 0V, the amplitude of negative and
positive ramp voltages can be equated as
follows.

∴Vref/RC×t2=-VA/RC×t1
∴t2=-t1×VA/Vref
∴VA=-Vref×t1/t2
• Thus the unknown analog input voltage VA is
proportional to the time period t2, because Vref
is a known reference voltage and t1 is the
predetermined time period.
The actual conversion of analog voltage VA into a
digital count occurs during time t2. The binary
counter gives corresponding digital value for time
period t2. The clock is connected to the counter
at the beginning of t2 and is disconnected at the
end of t2. Thus the counter counts digital output
as
• Let t2 = n Tclk
• We know that t1 = 2𝑛 Tclk
• t2=-t1×VA/Vref
• Digital Output = n= 2𝑛 * VA/V ref

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