An Overview of Comparators in A/D Data Converters

In order to determine the digital representation of an analog input signal, the comparator stage compares the input analog signal with reference voltages. Over the years, several static and dynamic comparator structures have been designed and implemented to minimize power consumption, delay, and area occupation in analog-to-digital converters. Researchers have examined the power consumption, speed, kickback noise, and manufacturing technology of transistors used in comparators. Recent studies have demonstrated that leveraging advanced technologies, such as carbon nanotube transistors, enables the realization of fully differential, low-power, noise-insensitive dynamic structures. These structures exhibit a relative improvement in all general parameters and offer a suitable figure of merit.