Circuit Design 4: Data converters (ADCs and DACs)

Modern communication requires traversing the digital and analog domain. Every transmitter and receiver has a data converter in the form of an analog to digital converter (ADC) and/or a digital to analog converter (DAC). The course will cover their characterization, classification, design, operation, and how to improve their performance. In the first half of the class, the course will focus on DACs such as current scaling, voltage scaling, charge scaling, subranging and combination of scaling DACs and more. In the second half the course will cover ADCs such as SAR, flash, interpolating, folding, pipelined, delta-sigma and more.

Topics Covered:

• DAC static and dynamic characterization
• DAC classification - Serial, parallel, low speed, high speed
• Design and operation of different type of DACs
  • Current/voltage/charge scaling, subranging, combination of scaling DACs, etc.
• ADC static and dynamic characterization
• ADC classification – Serial, parallel, low speed, medium speed, high speed
• Design and operation of different type of ADCs
  • SAR, flash, interpolating, folding, pipelined, delta-sigma and more
• DAC and ADC performance improvement and design considerations and trade offs between resolution, speed and accuracy