SUPERCONDUCTING HIGH-RESOLUTION A/D CONVERTER BASED ON PHASE MODULATION AND MULTICHANNEL TIMING ARBITRATION

We have developed a flux-quantizing A/D converter (ADC) based on RSFQ elements, employing a novel front end capable of generating high-linearity multibit differential code within a wide dynamic range (up to 16 bits). The front end operates as a phase modulator/demodulator and uses fractional-flux-quantum least significant bit (LSB). It runs at multi-GHz speed, enabling ADCs with large oversampling ratio and effective resolution in excess of 20 bits (after decimation filtering). We have designed, fabricated and tested several versions of a complete ADC using this new architecture and demonstrated its operation with dynamic range of 14 bits. We have also confirmed continuous phase modulation of the flux quantizer with a carrier frequency of 10 GHz.