The objective of this research is to develop a new class of high performance analog-to-digital converters. The approach is to treat an analog-to-digital converter as a communication channel and to employ concepts from information and communications theory in its analysis and design. Existing architectures fall far short of the theoretical "conversion capacity," the maximum bit resolution - bandwidth product achievable for a given device technology. However, by employing turbo-coding principles and other near-capacity achieving coding schemes, converter architectures that approach theoretical conversion capacity are possible.
Intellectual Merit: This research synthesizes two previously disconnected fields, information theory and analog integrated circuit design, to give new insights into analog-to-digital converter performance limits and to lead to architectures that will enable the theoretical performance limits to be reached by employing advanced coding strategies to overcome practical limitations such as device switching speed and noise.
Broader Impacts: Improved analog-to-digital converters will enable applications such as software-defined radio to improve the telecommunications infrastructure, digital radar receivers to improve the safety of air travel and benefit the defense industry, high precision seismic sensing applications used in the exploration for oil and natural gas, and numerous other applications. Working with the University of Rochester's Kearns Center for Leadership and Diversity in Science and Engineering a diverse group of students at all levels, from high school through doctoral level, will be recruited for the project. New pedagogical material also will be created and widely disseminated.
