IEEE Open Journal of Circuits and Systems (Jan 2020)

Analysis and Design of a Tri-Level Current-Steering DAC With 12-Bit Linearity and Improved Impedance Matching Suitable for CT-ADCs

  • Shantanu Mehta,
  • Daniel O'Hare,
  • Vincent O'Brien,
  • Eric Thompson,
  • Brendan Mullane

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCAS.2020.2994838
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1
pp. 34 – 47

Abstract

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This paper presents the design of a low-latency, highly linear current-steering DAC for use in continuous-time ADCs. A detailed analysis of equivalent unary-weighted current-steering DAC topologies in terms of mismatch, noise, and output-impedance related distortion is carried out. From this analysis, we propose a tri-level DAC design that achieves 12-bit static linearity and is suitable for implementation in a continuous-time ADC architecture. To reduce output-impedance related distortion, the design combines DAC slice impedance matching with a proposed compensation technique. By incorporating the tri-level DAC in a continuous-time ADC architecture, the technique demonstrates ~ 8dB improvement in DAC dynamic performance at high frequencies over the Nyquist-band at 100MS/s. The DAC has been verified by simulation results in TSMC 1.2V 65nm CMOS technology.

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