4 b 8 Gsample/s A/D converter in SiGe bipolar technology

A 4 b flash-type analog to digital converter with pipeline encoder was implemented in a SiGe bipolar technology for very high-frequency mixed signal applications. The chip is fully functional at 8 Gsample/s with maximum input bandwidth of 4 GHz based on beat frequency measurements. The chip includes over 1000 transistors and consumes 500 mW at 3.6 V.