Sample-and-hold (S/H) is an important analog building block with many applications, including analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and switched-capacitor filters.

The function of the S/H circuit is to sample an analog input signal and hold this value over a certain length of time for subsequent processing.

The simplest S/H circuit in MOS technology is shown in Figure 1, where Vin is the inputsignal, M1 is an MOS transistor operating as the sampling switch, Ch or Cs is the hold capacitor,ck is the clock signal, and Vout is the resulting sample-and-hold output signal.

Switched op-amp based sample and hold circuit Switched op-amp based sample and hold circuit

During sample mode, the SOP behaves just like a regular op-amp, in which the value of the output follows the value of the input.

During hold mode, the MOS transistors at the output node of the SOP are turned off while they are still operating in saturation, thus preventing any channel charge from flowing into the output of the SOP.

In addition, the SOP is shut off and its output is held at high impedance, allowing the charge on Ch to be preserved throughout the hold mode.

On the other hand, the output buffer of this S/H circuit is always operational during sample and hold mode and is always providing the voltage on Ch to the output of the S/H circuit.

The sample and hold circuits are essentially used in linear systems.

In some kinds of analog-to-digital converters, the input is often compared to a voltage generated internally from a digital to analogconverter D-A-C.

The circuit tries a series of values and stops converting once the voltages are "the same" within some defined error margin.

Pre-digital electronic cruise control on automobiles would use

a "sample and hold" circuit to "remember“.

the current speed (a voltage proportional to speed generated

from the speedometer)

so that the current automobile speed could be compared to the

set point to determine

whether the throttle should be opened wider or closed down a bit.

If the input value was permitted to change during this comparison process, the resulting conversion would be inaccurate and possibly completely unrelated to the true input value. Such successive approximation converters will often incorporate internal sample and hold circuitry.

In addition, sample and hold circuits are often used when multiple samples need to be measured at the same time. Each value is sampled and held, using a common sample clock.

In order that the input voltage is held constant for all practical purposes, it is essential that the capacitor have very low leakage, and that it not be loaded to any significant degree which calls for a very high input impedance.

A true sample and hold circuit is connected to the buffer for a short period of time; a track and hold circuit is designed to track input continuously.

Sample-and-hold (S/H) is an important analog building block that has many applications.

The simplest S/H circuit can be constructed using only one MOS transistor and one hold capacitor.

However, due to the limitations of the MOS transistor switches, errors due to charge injection and clock feed through restrict the performance of S/H circuits.

As a result, different S/H techniques and architectures are developed with the intention to reduce or eliminate these errors.