Analog-to-digital conversion architectures for intelligent optical sensor arrays

This paper presents a comparative analysis of different analog-to-digital conversion architectures optimised for operation in close coupling with optical sensor arrays in the presence of stringent design constraints such as signal and noise levels, conversion rates and physical size of the array. Architectures based on a single converter per array and on multiple converters per array are considered. Measurement results on dedicated converters integrated in experimental chips together with optical arrays have proved the validity of the architectures presented, with different trade-off points in terms of power consumption, conversion rate and spatial uniformity.