The digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is a bottle neck in broadband communication systems. High update rates are required in combination with high accuracy. In this work, we study factors that limit the performance of current-steering DACs, focusing on the linearity properties of DACs for telecommunication applications like digital subscriber lines (DSL).

There are many different sources of nonlinear behavior in current-steering DACs. Static errors dominate the low-frequency behavior, whereas the high-frequency behavior is dominated by dynamic errors. The static errors are mainly caused by mismatch between components and finite output resistance in the current sources. The dynamic nonlinearity caused by parasitic capacitance in transistors and wires is of special interest in this work. Two closely related types of models of this dynamic nonlinearity were developed.

The linearity requirements on the converters for high-speed telecommunication applications can be hard to meet using a straightforward approach. Various methods for improving the linearity of DACs are studied in this work. Some of the methods, like dynamic element matching (DEM) and a novel differential DAC architecture, rely on redundant coding to improve the linearity. Two methods utilizing models of the dynamic nonlinearity caused by the parasitic capacitance in the current sources were also developed. One of the methods utilizes a feedback similar to delta-sigma modulation to spectrally shape the distortion. The other method is a type of predistortion where the input is modified in order to yield an improved output that is closer to the desired output, compared with using the original input.

CMOS technology is popular for implementation of integrated circuits. Two main advantages of CMOS, compared with, e.g., bipolar technology, is low cost and the possibility of designing circuits with relatively low power consumption.

CMOS is also the preferred technology for implementing large systems on a single chip with both analog and digital blocks. Three different current-steering CMOS DACs were developed in this work, and are presented in the thesis. Measurement results show close resemblance with the simulation results obtained from the developed models.