Area efficient D/A converters for accurate DC operation

• Main Author: Greenley, Brandon Royce
• Other Authors: Moon, Un-Ku
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Digital-to-analog converters
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1957/30129

The design of mixed-signal integrated circuits has evolved from simple analog and digital circuits operating on the same silicon substrate to the point that now we have complete system on a chip solutions for communication systems. The levels of integration needed to remain cost effective in today's integrated circuit (IC) market require careful use of all the available die space. The current trend of digital to analog converter (DAC) design has focused on maximizing speed and linearity for high performance telecommunications systems. The circuit design methods used to achieve very high sample rates require the use of large amounts of die space. This thesis presents a 10-bit DAC that has been optimized for area, while still maintaining accurate operation at low frequencies. To achieve 10-bit performance, an ultra high gain op-amp is introduced for various servoing applications in the DAC. The architecture chosen for the DAC will show an optimization of required die size and performance when compared to other architectures. The DAC was fabricated in a standard digital 0.18 μm CMOS process. The DAC occupies 0.0104 mm² (110 μm x 94 μm), and only consumes 2.8 mW of power. In addition to the 10-bit DAC, a design is presented for a 13-bit DAC which occupies 0.020 mm², and requires only the addition of a minimum number of devices to the 10-bit DAC. === Graduation date: 2002