This paper analyzed the internal relationships of the performance parameters of ADCs, showing their frequency dependency and structure dependency. The history and current trends in ADC technologies based on the P and F figures-of-merit were also reviewed. Historically, there was an increase in performance around 1994, with a share rise around 1997, which broke the stagnant performance discussed by Waiden (1999). While the past few years have shown a sharp increase in ADC performance, we have shown that performance and power dissipation depend greatly on the ADC structure and the target applications. With the progression of wideband radio systems like UWB and OFDM comes a growing demand to provide faster sampling rates and higher resolutions with lower power dissipation. With the innovation of advanced communication techniques like multi-input/multi-output and multistandard radios, the demand is growing to provide multichannel programmable data conversion, both of which are pushing the performance of ADCs further in the coming years.