Smart and Flexible Digital-to-Analog Converters (eBook)

Hans Hegt, Patrick Quinn, Georgi Radulov, Arthur H.M. van Roermund (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF

2011 | 2011
XIV, 310 Seiten
Springer Netherlands (Verlag)
978-94-007-0347-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Smart and Flexible Digital-to-Analog Converters proposes new concepts and implementations for flexibility and self-correction of current-steering digital-to-analog converters (DACs) which allow the attainment of a wide range of functional and performance specifications, with a much reduced dependence on the fabrication process.

DAC linearity is analysed with respect to the accuracy of the DAC unit elements. A classification is proposed of the many different current-steering DAC correction methods. The classification reveals methods that do not yet exist in the open literature. Further, this book systematically analyses self-calibration correction methods for the various DAC mismatch errors. For instance, efficient calibration of DAC binary currents is identified as an important missing method.

This book goes on to propose a new methodology for correcting mismatch errors of both nominally identical unary as well as scaled binary DAC currents. A new concept for DAC flexibility is presented. The associated architecture is based on a modular design approach that uses parallel sub-DAC units to realize flexible design, functionality and performance.

Two main concepts, self-calibration and flexibility, are demonstrated in practice using three DAC testchips in 250nm, 180nm and 40nm standard CMOS. Smart and Flexible Digital-to-Analog Converters will be useful to both advanced professionals and newcomers in the field. Advanced professionals will find new methods that are fully elaborated from analysis at conceptual level to measurement results at test-chip level. New comers in the field will find structured knowledge of fully referenced state-of-the art methods with many fully explained novelties.<

DAC linearity is analysed with respect to the accuracy of the DAC unit elements. A classification is proposed of the many different current-steering DAC correction methods. The classification reveals methods that do not yet exist in the open literature. Further, this book systematically analyses self-calibration correction methods for the various DAC mismatch errors. For instance, efficient calibration of DAC binary currents is identified as an important missing method.

This book goes on to propose a new methodology for correcting mismatch errors of both nominally identical unary as well as scaled binary DAC currents. A new concept for DAC flexibility is presented. The associated architecture is based on a modular design approach that uses parallel sub-DAC units to realize flexible design, functionality and performance.

Two main concepts, self-calibration and flexibility, are demonstrated in practice using three DAC testchips in 250nm, 180nm and 40nm standard CMOS. Smart and Flexible Digital-to-Analog Converters will be useful to both advanced professionals and newcomers in the field. Advanced professionals will find new methods that are fully elaborated from analysis at conceptual level to measurement results at test-chip level. New comers in the field will find structured knowledge of fully referenced state-of-the art methods with many fully explained novelties.

This book goes on to propose a new methodology for correcting mismatch errors of both nominally identical unary as well as scaled binary DAC currents. A new concept for DAC flexibility is presented. The associated architecture is based on a modular design approach that uses parallel sub-DAC units to realize flexible design, functionality and performance.

Two main concepts, self-calibration and flexibility, are demonstrated in practice using three DAC testchips in 250nm, 180nm and 40nm standard CMOS. Smart and Flexible Digital-to-Analog Converters will be useful to both advanced professionals and newcomers in the field. Advanced professionals will find new methods that are fully elaborated from analysis at conceptual level to measurement results at test-chip level. New comers in the field will find structured knowledge of fully referenced state-of-the art methods with many fully explained novelties.

Two main concepts, self-calibration and flexibility, are demonstrated in practice using three DAC testchips in 250nm, 180nm and 40nm standard CMOS. Smart and Flexible Digital-to-Analog Converters will be useful to both advanced professionals and newcomers in the field. Advanced professionals will find new methods that are fully elaborated from analysis at conceptual level to measurement results at test-chip level. New comers in the field will find structured knowledge of fully referenced state-of-the art methods with many fully explained novelties.

Georgi Radulov was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria in 1978. He received the M.Sc. engineer (èíæ.) degree in electrical engineering in 2001 from the Technical University of Sofia (TU-Sofia), Bulgaria. In 2004, he received the degree Professional Doctorate in Engineering (PDEng) from Stan Ackermans Institute at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He received his Ph.D. degree from TU/e in 2010.  From 1999 until 2001, he was a student assistant at ECAD Lab of TU-Sofia. Since August 2001, he is member of the Mixed-Signal Microelectronics (MsM) Group at TU/e. Since 2009, he is a part-time Assistant Professor at the Electrical Engineering faculty of TU/e and a part-time director of the micro-electronics consultancy company Welikan B.V. Georgi Radulov holds 2 US patents on current calibration. In 2008, he was awarded the Outstanding Student Paper of the IEEE conference APCCAS 2008, in Macau. Georgi Radulov has more than 20 publications on Digital-to-Analog Converters.

Patrick John Quinn graduated in Electronic Engineering at University College Dublin with a B.E. degree in 1986 and M.Sc. (Eng.) degree in 1989. The M.Sc. thesis was entitled 'Design and investigation of a direct conversion FM receiver and its application in mobile radio'. The research for the thesis was carried out in the Mobile Telephony group at Philips Semiconductors in Eindhoven. He received his Ph.D. degree in TU/e in 2006. His Ph.D. thesis was entitled 'High-accuracy switched-capacitor techniques applied to filter and ADC design'. From 1989 to 2000, he was employed at the Philips Semiconductors Advanced Systems Lab in Eindhoven. There he worked in various roles from IC design engineer to project leader in the areas of mobile telephony, video and radio systems and circuits. Most projects were based on analogue sampled-data processing, usually using switched capacitor circuit techniques for implementation. At the end of 2000, he joined the mixed-signal centre-of-expertise of Xilinx at European HQ in Dublin, Ireland. There he is team leader and technical lead of advanced mixed-signal IC design projects for Virtex FPGAs down to 32nm CMOS. These are the first mixed-signal systems to enter into full 32nm production of any company in the world. He author has a range of professional publications and international patents. He has had a long association with the research activities of the Mixed-Signal Microelectronics department of the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Johannes A. (Hans) Hegt (M'97, SM'2001) was born on June 30, 1952 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He studied Electrical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), where he graduated with honors in 1982.  From 1983 until 1986 he was an assistant at the TU/e. Since 1987, he is a lecturer at this University, where he gives courses in the areas of switched-capacitor filter engineering, switched current filters, digital electronics, microprocessors, digital signal processing, neural networks, non-linear systems and mixed-signal systems. In 1988 he received a Ph.D. degree on synthesis of switched-capacitor filters. Since 1994 he is an Associate Professor on mixed analogue/digital circuit design. He is currently especially involved in the hardware realization of ADCs and DACs.

Arthur H.M. van Roermund (SM'95) was born in Delft, The Netherlands in 1951. He received the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering in 1975 from the Delft University of Technology and the Ph.D. degree in Applied Sciences from the K.U.Leuven, Belgium, in 1987. From 1975 to 1992 he was with Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven. From 1992 to 1999 he has been a full professor at the Electrical Engineering Department of Delft University of Technology, where he was chairman of the Electronics Research Group and member of the management team of DIMES. From 1992 to 1999 he has been chairman of a two-years post-graduate school for 'chartered designer'. From 1992 to 1997 he has been consultant for Philips. October 1999 he joined Eindhoven University of Technology as a full professor, chairing the Mixed-signal Microelectronics Group. Since September 2002 he is also director of research of the Department of Electrical Engineering. He is chairman of the board of ProRISC, a nation-wide microelectronics platform; a member of the ICT research platform for the Netherlands (IPN); and a member of the supervisory board of the NRC Photonics research centre. Since 2001, he is one of the three organisers of the yearly workshop on Advanced Analog Circuit Design (AACD). In 2004 he achieved the 'Simon Stevin Meester' award, coupled to a price of 500.000ˆ, for his scientific and technological achievements. In 2007 he was member of an international assessment panel for the Department of Electronics and Information of Politecnico di Milano, and in 2009 for Electronics and Electrical Engineering for the merged Aalto University Finland. He authored/co-authored more than 300 articles and 25 books.

Inhalt

Abstract 5
Contents 7
Abbreviations 12
Part I Introduction and Basics 14
Chapter 1 15
Introduction 15
1.1 Modern Micro-electronics and Flexibility 15
1.2 Aims of the Book 17
1.3 Scope of the Book 18
1.4 Scientific Approach 18
1.5 Outline of the Book 19
Chapter 2 22
Basics of Digital-to-Analog Conversion 22
2.1 Introduction 22
2.2 Functionality and Specifications 23
2.2.1 Static Characterization 23
2.2.2 Dynamic Characterization 26
2.3 DAC Resources 27
2.4 Segmentation of DAC Analog Resources 29
2.4.1 Binary Algorithmic Segmentation 30
2.4.2 Sub-binary Radix Algorithmic Segmentation 31
2.4.3 Unary Algorithmic Segmentation 32
2.4.4 Binary LSB and Unary MSB Algorithmic Segmentation 33
2.5 DAC Implementations 34
2.6 Current-Steering DAC Architecture 36
2.7 Modern Current-Steering DAC Challenges 37
2.8 Summary 40
Part II State-of-the-Art Correction Methods 41
Chapter 3 42
Error Correction by Design 42
3.1 Introduction 42
3.2 Return-to-Zero Output 43
3.3 Differential-Quad Switching 45
3.4 Cascode Switches with Offset Current 46
3.5 Input Data Reshuffling Methods (DEM) 47
3.6 Discussion 50
3.7 Conclusions 50
Chapter 4 51
Smart Self-Correcting D/A Converters 51
4.1 Introduction 51
4.2 Self-Calibration of DAC Current Cells 52
4.2.1 Amplitude Errors Self-Calibration 53
4.2.2 Timing Errors Self-Calibration 54
4.2.3 Discussion 55
4.3 Mapping 55
4.3.1 Low Level Maps for DAC Unary Current Cells 56
4.3.2 Low-Level Maps for Sub-binary Radix DACs 59
4.4 Digital Pre-distortion 61
4.5 Discussion 62
4.6 Conclusions 63
Part III New Modeling, Analysis, and Classification 64
Chapter 5 65
Error Modeling for DAC Correction, a Broad View 65
5.1 Introduction 65
5.2 A Model of the Step Response of a Current Cell 67
5.3 Transistor Mismatch Caused Errors 68
5.4 Digital-Switching Errors 72
5.5 Discussion 74
5.6 Conclusions 76
Chapter 6 77
Brownian Bridge Based Analysis and Modeling of DAC Linearity, an In-depth View 77
6.1 Introduction 77
6.2 New Statistical Analysis of the DAC Static Non-linearity Based on Brownian Bridge 79
6.2.1 Unary DAC 80
6.2.2 Binary DAC 84
6.3 Discussion 87
6.4 Conclusions 89
Chapter 7 90
Classification of Error Correction Methods, a Broad View 90
7.1 Introduction 90
7.2 Selected Set of DAC Correction Methods and Definitions 91
7.3 Error Measurement Category 93
7.4 Redundancy Category 96
7.5 System Level Category 97
7.6 Discussion 98
7.7 Conclusion 99
Chapter 8 100
Analysis of Self-Calibration of Currents, an In-depth View 100
8.1 Introduction 100
8.2 DAC Currents Self-Calibration Classification 101
8.3 Self-Measurement 103
8.3.1 Measurement Probes 103
8.3.2 Reference 109
8.3.3 Measurement Device 110
8.4 Algorithm 118
8.4.1 Unary-Currents Calibration 118
8.4.2 New Binary-Currents Calibration in a Unary Way 121
8.4.3 New True Binary-Currents Calibration 122
8.5 Self-Correction 126
8.5.1 Self-Correction Method 126
8.5.2 Correction Circuits 128
8.5.3 Correction Memory 130
8.6 Conclusions 131
Part IV New Concepts and Methods 133
Chapter 9 134
New Redundant Segmentation Concept 134
9.1 Introduction 134
9.2 Abstraction Levels of Segmentation 137
9.3 New Redundant Segmentation 139
9.4 Discussion 142
9.5 Conclusion 143
Chapter 10 144
New Methods for Self-Calibration of Currents 144
10.1 Introduction 144
10.2 Self-Calibration of Unary Currents 145
10.2.1 New Calibration Method 145
10.2.2 Conclusions 151
10.3 A Calibration Method for Generic Current-Steering D/A Converters with Optimal Area Solution 151
10.3.1 New Self-Calibrating Current Cell for a Generic DAC Architecture 152
10.3.2 Area Driven Optimum of the Level of Calibration 153
10.3.3 Discussion 155
10.3.4 Conclusions 156
10.4 A Calibration Method for Binary Signal Current Sources 156
10.4.1 Calibration of Scaled Currents 157
10.4.2 Conclusions 160
10.5 Discussion 160
10.6 Conclusions 160
Chapter 11 162
New Redundant Decoder Concept 162
11.1 Introduction 162
11.2 Conventional Row–Column Decoder 163
11.3 New Decoder with Redundancy 164
11.4 Simulation Results 167
11.5 Discussion 169
11.6 Conclusions 171
Chapter 12 172
New High-Level Mapping Concept 172
12.1 Introduction 172
12.2 Conceptual Idea 173
12.3 Illustrative Measurement and Simulation Results for Amplitude Errors Mapping 175
12.4 Limitations and Discussion 177
12.5 Conclusions 178
Chapter 13 179
New Harmonic-Distortion-Suppression Method 179
13.1 Introduction 179
13.2 Theoretical Background 180
13.3 Application Area 182
13.3.1 Phase-Shifters 182
13.3.2 Parallel Sub-DACs 184
13.3.3 Candidate Applications 184
13.4 Limitations and Discussion 184
13.5 Conclusions 185
Chapter 14 186
Flexible Digital-to-Analog Converters Concept 186
14.1 Introduction 186
14.2 Flexible DAC Platform 187
14.3 Definitions of Flexibility 188
14.3.1 Hardware Flexibility: Configurability 189
14.3.2 Flexible Op-Modes (Software Flexibility): Programmability 191
14.4 Operation Modes 192
14.4.1 General Flexibility 194
14.4.2 Special Op-Modes with DAC Correction Methods 205
14.5 The “Missing Code Problem” 209
14.6 Conclusions 210
Part V Design Examples 211
Chapter 15 212
A Redundant Binary-to-Thermometer Decoder Design 212
15.1 Introduction 212
15.2 Design Example 214
15.3 Measurement Results and Discussion 216
15.4 Conclusions 219
Chapter 16 220
Two Self-Calibrating DAC Designs 220
16.1 Introduction 220
16.2 Unary Currents Self-Calibration in a 250 nm DAC 221
16.2.1 Design 222
16.2.2 Measurements 224
16.2.3 Temperature Effects 229
16.3 Both Unary and Binary Currents Self-Calibration in a 180 nm DAC 230
16.3.1 Design 232
16.3.2 Measurements 235
16.4 Comparison with State-of-the-Art DAC Publications 240
16.5 Conclusions 241
Chapter 17 245
A Functional-Segmentation DAC Design Using Harmonic Distortion Suppression Method 245
17.1 Introduction 245
17.2 Test Set-up Design 246
17.3 Parallel Virtual DACs 247
17.4 Parallel Real Sub-DACs 251
17.5 OFDM (Multi-tone) System Application 253
17.6 Conclusions 254
Chapter 18 256
A 14 Bit Quad Core Flexible 180 nm DAC Platform 256
18.1 Introduction 256
18.2 Design 257
18.3 Measurements 259
18.4 Conclusions 264
Chapter 19 265
A 16 bit 16-core Flexible 40 nm DAC Platform 265
19.1 Introduction 265
19.2 Flexible DAC Platform Based on 16 Core Units 266
19.3 Measurements 269
19.3.1 The 12-bit sub-DAC Performance 269
19.3.2 The High Resolution Flexible DAC Performance 276
19.4 Conclusions 285
Summary 286
Conclusions 289
Appendix 291
References 298

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.1.2011
• Reihe/Serie: Analog Circuits and Signal Processing
• Zusatzinfo: XIV, 310 p.
• Verlagsort: Dordrecht
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Elektrotechnik / Energietechnik
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Nachrichtentechnik
• Schlagworte: Classification of data converter smart methods • CMOS advanced design • CS DACs (current-steering digital-to-analog converters) • Data Converters • flexibility • High performance, accuracy, and efficiency • Self-calibration
• ISBN-10: 94-007-0347-3 / 9400703473
• ISBN-13: 978-94-007-0347-6 / 9789400703476