A bootstrapped analog switch with constant on-resistance is proposed for the successive approximation (SA) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) that have many input-sampling switches. The initialization circuit, which is composed of a short pulse generator and a transmission gate, improves the linearity of the proposed bootstrapped analog switch by reducing the effect of the capacitive load. To evaluate the proposed bootstrapped analog switch, the 10-bit 1 MS/s CMOS SA ADC with a rail-to-rail differential input signal was designed by using a 0.18 µm CMOS process with 1.0 V supply voltage. The proposed bootstrapped analog switch reduced the maximum VGS variation of the conventional bootstrapped analog switch by 67%. It also enhanced the signal to noise-distortion ratio of the SA ADC by 4.8 dB when the capacitance of its gate node is 100 fF, and this improvement was maximized when the capacitance of its gate node increases.

In the design of an active matrix LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), the ratio of the pixel voltage to the video voltage (RPV) of a pixel is an important factor of the performance of the LCD, since the pixel voltage of each pixel determines its transmitted luminance. Thus, of practical importance is the issue of how to maintain the admissible allowance of RPV of each pixel within a prescribed narrow range. This constraint on RPV is analyzed in terms of circuit parameters associated with the sampling switch and sampling pulse of a column driver in the LCD. With the use of a minimal set of such circuit parameters, a design procedure is described dedicatedly for the sampling switch, which intends to seek an optimal sampling switch as well as an optimal sampling pulse waveform. A number of experimental results show that an optimal sampling switch attained by the proposed procedure yields a source driver with almost 18% less power consumption than the one by manual design. Moreover, the percentage of the RPVs within 1001% among 270 cases of fluctuations is 88.1% for the optimal sampling switch, but 46.7% for the manual design.

A novel low-voltage low-distortion analog sampling switch is proposed in this letter. A "source tracker" techniuqe is used to distinguish the real source terminal of the sampling switch. The turn-on resistance of the sampling switch is kept exactly constant. The modified switch makes the rail-to-rail input signal swing possible for low voltage. TSMC 0.18 µm standard CMOS technology is utilized in this research. Results indicate that much lower Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) is achieved by the proposed circuit. The low THD meets the requirements in the application of the low-voltage low-distortion switched-capacitor circuits.