Recently, the research team at Hefei University of Technology, under the leadership of Professor Xie Guangjun and Professor Zhang Zhang, has made a substantial leap forward in the realm of high-performance ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) chip design. Specifically, they have introduced the innovative "Bidirectional Progressive Data Weighted Averaging (Bi-ADWA)" technology, tailored for audio applications such as intelligent voice recognition. Utilizing this technology, they have successfully designed and fabricated a continuous-time Delta-Sigma modulator chip.

The Bi-ADWA technology ingeniously shifts distortion components to the high-frequency spectrum by altering the sequence of DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) unit utilization. This manipulation ensures a pristine signal quality within the primary audio frequency range. Test results are impressive, revealing that the modulator attains a dynamic range (DR) of 102.5 dB, a peak signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR) of 95.8 dB, and a spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 109 dB within a 20 kHz audio bandwidth. The comprehensive performance metric, known as the Schreier Figure of Merit, reaches an outstanding 177.9 dB, positioning it at the forefront of international standards.

Remarkably, the chip operates on a mere 0.58 mW of power at 1.8 V and occupies a core area of just 0.8 mm², making it highly versatile and suitable for a wide range of applications, including consumer electronics and industrial control systems. It serves as a pivotal technical foundation for the next generation of intelligent voice front-ends and portable high-definition audio devices.

The research findings have been published in the esteemed international journal "IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs," a leading publication in the field of integrated circuits. Furthermore, the research has garnered support from prestigious projects, including those funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province.