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Abstract-Design of a high speed capacitive digital-to-analog converter (SC DAC) is presented for 65 nm CMOS technology. SC pipeline architecture is used followed by an output driver. For GHz frequency operation with output voltage swing suitable for wireless applications (300 mVpp) the DAC performance is shown to be limited by the clock feed-through and settling effects in the SC array rather than by the capacitor mismatch or kT/C noise, which appear negligible in this application. While it is possible to design a highly linear output driver with HD3 < -70 dB and HD2 < -90 dB over 0.55 GHz band as we show, the maximum SFDR of the SC DAC is 45 dB with 8-bit resolution and Nyquist sampling of 3 GHz. The capacitor array is designed based on the DAC design area defined in terms of the switch size and unit capacitance value. A tradeoff between the DAC bandwidth and resolution accompanied by SFDR is demonstrated. High linearity of the output driver is attained by a combination of two techniques, the derivative superposition (DS) and resistive source degeneration. In simulations the complete DAC achieves SFDR of 45 dB with 8-bit resolution for signal bandwidth 1.36 GHz with Nyquist sampling. With 6-bit and 5.5 GHz bandwidth 33 dB SFDR is attained. The total power consumption of the SC DAC is 90 mW with 1.2 V supply and clock frequency of 3 GHz.

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A highly selective impedance transformation filtering technique suitable for tunable selective RF receivers is proposed in this paper. To achieve blocker rejection comparable to SAW filters, we use a two stage architecture based on a low noise trans-conductance amplifier (LNTA). The filter rejection is captured by a linear periodically varying (LPV) model that includes band limitation by the LNTA output impedance and the related parasitic capacitances of the impedance transformation circuit. This model is also used to estimate "back folding" by interferers placed at harmonic frequencies. Discussed is also the effect of thermal noise folding and phase noise on the circuit noise figure. As a proof of concept a chip design of a tunable RF front-end using 65 nm CMOS technology is presented. In measurements the circuit achieves blocker rejection competitive to SAW filters with noise figure 3.25.2 dB, out of band IIP3 > +17 dBm and blocker P1dB > +5 dBm over frequency range of 0.5-3 GHz.

This paper presents the design and experimental results of a high speed, low-power, thermometer coded and current steered 6-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC). It is based on a hybrid architecture with a switched current matrix controlled by the four most significant digital bits, and a conventional 2-bit current source controlled by the two least significant bits. The DAC occupies 0.15 mm 2 chip area in standard 0.35 µm Complementary metal-oxidesemiconductor (CMOS) technology. A spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of 25 dB has been measured over the complete Nyquist interval at sampling frequencies up to 800 MS/s with a power consumption of 165 mW at 3.3 V power supply.

In order to achieve high speed and high resolution for switched-capacitor (SC) digital-to-analog converters (DACs), an architecture of split-segmented SC DAC is proposed. The detailed design considerations of kT/C noise, capacitor mismatch, settling time and simultaneous switching noise (SSN) are mathematically analyzed and modelled. The design area W-Cu is defined based on that analysis. It is used not only to identify the maximum speed and resolution but also to find the design point (W, Cu) for certain speed and resolution of SC DAC topology. The segmentation effects are also considered. An implementation example of this type of DACs is a 12-bit 6-6 split-segmented SC DAC designed in 65 nm CMOS. The linear open-loop output driver utilizing derivation superposition (DS) technique for nonlinear cancellation is used to drive off-chip load for the SC array without compromising its performance. The measured results show that the SC DAC achieves a 44 dB spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) within a 1 GHz bandwidth of input signal at 5 GS/s while consuming 50 mW from 1 V digital and 1.2 V analog supplies. The overall performance that was achieved from measurement is poorer than expected due to lower power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) in fabricated chip. This DAC can be used in transmitter baseband for wideband wireless communications.Index Terms-high-speed DACs, SC DACs, 12-bit splitsegmented DACs, linear output driver, wideband wireless communications. Clk-Clk+ Out+ Decoder

Analysis and design of a low-noise transconductance amplifier (LNTA) aimed at selective current-mode (SAW-less) wideband receiver front-end is presented. The proposed LNTA uses double cross-coupling technique to reduce noise figure (NF), complementary derivative superposition, and resistive feedback to achieve high linearity and enhance input matching. The analysis of both NF and IIP3 using Volterra series is described in detail and verified by SpectreRF (A (R)) circuit simulation showing NF less than 2 dB and IIP3 = 18 dBm at 3 GHz. The amplifier performance is demonstrated in a two-stage highly selective receiver front-end implemented in 65 nm CMOS technology. In measurements the front-end achieves blocker rejection competitive to SAW filters with noise figure 3.2-5.2 dB, out of band IIP3 greater than+17 dBm and blocker P-1dB greater than+5 dBm over frequency range of 0.5-3 GHz

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