flash analog to digital converter with explanation and circuit schematic

flash analog to digital converter

Parallel converter (Flash said)

Parallel converters (flash in English) are the fastest. The principle is to produce 2 N -1 analog voltages by means of 2N dividers voltages that supply 2N -1 comparators parallel. A combinational logic block connected to these comparators give the result coded on N bits in parallel. Flash converters have conversion times of less than a microsecond but rather low accuracy (of the ten bits of the order). These converters are often very expensive and require a great power. For example, an analog to digital converter analog Maxim MAX104 using an 8-bit parallel converter of the order of nanoseconds requires 255 comparators and costs about 900 € in 2012.