IGH-SPEED Digital to Analog (D/A) converters are essential components in digi- Htal communication systems providing the necessary conversion of signals encoding information in bits to signals encoding information in their amplitude vs. time domain characteristics. In general, they are parts of a larger system, the interface, which c- sists of several signal conditioning circuits. Dependent on where the converter is located within the chain of circuits in the interface, signal processing operations are partitioned in those realized with digital techniques, and those with analog. The rapid evolution of CMOS technology has established implicit and explicite trends related to the interface, and in particular to the D/A converter. The implicit relationship comes via the growth of digital systems. First, it is a global trend with respect to all interface circuits that increasing operating frequencies of digital systems place a similar demand for the interface circuits. The second trend takes place locally within the int- face. Initially, the D/A converter was placed at the beginning of the interface chain, and all signal conditioning was implemented in the analog domain after the D/A conversion. The increasing ?exibility and robustness of digital signal processing shifted the D/A converter closer to the end point of the chain where the demands for high quality high frequency operation are very high.

This book describes techniques for realizing wide bandwidth (125MHz) over-sampled analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) in nano meter-CMOS processes. The authors offer a clear and complete picture of system level challenges and practical design solutions in high-speed Delta-Sigma modulators. Readers will be enabled to implement ADCs as continuous-time delta-sigma (CT∆Σ) modulators, offering simple resistive inputs, which do not require the use of power-hungry input buffers, as well as offering inherent anti-aliasing, which simplifies system integration. The authors focus on the design of high speed and wide-bandwidth ΔΣMs that make a step in bandwidth range which was previously only possible with Nyquist converters. More specifically, this book describes the stability, power efficiency and linearity limits of ΔΣMs, aiming at a GHz sampling frequency.

This book addresses the challenges of designing high performance analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) based on the “smart data converters” concept, which implies context awareness, on-chip intelligence and adaptation. Readers will learn to exploit various information either a-priori or a-posteriori (obtained from devices, signals, applications or the ambient situations, etc.) for circuit and architecture optimization during the design phase or adaptation during operation, to enhance data converters performance, flexibility, robustness and power-efficiency. The authors focus on exploiting the a-priori knowledge of the system/application to develop enhancement techniques for ADCs, with particular emphasis on improving the power efficiency of high-speed and high-resolution ADCs for broadband multi-carrier systems.

This book is based on the 18 tutorials presented during the 23rd workshop on Advances in Analog Circuit Design. Expert designers present readers with information about a variety of topics at the frontier of analog circuit design, serving as a valuable reference to the state-of-the-art, for anyone involved in analog circuit research and development.

Need to get up to speed quickly on the latest advances in high performance data converters? Want help choosing the best architecture for your application? With everything you need to know about the key new converter architectures, this guide is for you. It presents basic principles, circuit and system design techniques and associated trade-offs, doing away with lengthy mathematical proofs and providing intuitive descriptions upfront. Everything from time-to-digital converters to comparator-based/zero-crossing ADCs is covered and each topic is introduced with a short summary of the essential basics. Practical examples describing actual chips, along with extensive comparison between architectural or circuit options, ease architecture selection and help you cut design time and engineering risk. Trade-offs, advantages and disadvantages of each option are put into perspective with a discussion of future trends, showing where this field is heading, what is driving it and what the most important unanswered questions are.

This book opens with the basics of the design of opto-electronic interface circuits. The text continues with an in-depth analysis of the photodiode, transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and limiting amplifier (LA). To thoroughly describe light detection mechanisms in silicon, first a one-dimensional and second a two-dimensional model is developed. All material is experimentally verified with several CMOS implementations, with ultimately a fully integrated Gbit/s optical receiver front-end including photodiode, TIA and LA.

This book analyses different A/D-converter architectures with an emphasis on the maximum achievable power efficiency. It also provides an accessible overview of the state-of-the art in calibration techniques for Nyquist A/D converters. The calibration techniques presented are applicable to other analog-to-digital systems, such as those applied in integrated receivers. They allow implementation without introducing a speed or power penalty.