A 14-bit 200-MHz Current-Steering DAC with Switching Sequence Post-Adjustment Calibration

TLDR: A novel calibration method for high-accuracy current-steering DACs is presented that does the calibration by dynamically rearranging the switching sequence of the current sources, and since this resequencing is performed after chip implementation, even the random errors can be cancelled.

Abstract: In this paper, a novel calibration method for high-accuracy current-steering DACs is presented. Different from traditional calibration methods which achieves the calibration by adjusting the current values of the current sources, our method does the calibration by dynamically rearranging the switching sequence of the current sources. Since this resequencing is performed after chip implementation, even random errors can be cancelled. In this way, the total area needed for the current sources can be greatly reduced. The 14-bit DAC has been implemented in a standard 1P6M 0.18-mum CMOS technology. The core area of the chip is around 3 mm2, among which the area of the current-source block is only 0.28 mm2. The measured SFDR is 81.5 dB at 1 MHz signal frequency and 100 MHz sampling frequency. For 2 MHz signal frequency and 200 MHz sampling frequency, the measured SFDR is 78.1 dB.