Methods and apparatus for adaptively adjusting a resistance of a resistor network in a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), such as a current-steering DAC for a transmit chain. An example DAC generally includes a plurality of DAC cells. One or more of the DAC cells generally includes a current source and a resistor network. The resistor network includes a plurality of resistive elements, has an adjustable resistance, and is coupled between a power supply rail and the current source. In this manner, the DAC may support a wide range of full-scale currents, while maintaining a higher degeneration voltage and reduced noise and mismatch for a given headroom. For certain aspects, the one or more of the DAC cells further include a plurality of switches (e.g., implemented with PFETs) coupled to one or more of the resistive elements and configured to adjust the resistance of the resistor network.

A PAM-4 receiver with jitter compensation clock and data recovery is provided. The receiver includes a first-order delay-locked loop (DLL) which employs a bang-bang phase detector (BBPD) and a voltage-controlled delay line (VCDL) circuit supporting 40 MHz jitter tracking bandwidth and static phase skew elimination. A second-order wideband phase-locked loop (WBPLL) using the ¼-rate reference clock provides multi-phase clock generation with low input-to-output latency. To suppress the consequent jitter transfer, a jitter compensation circuit (JCC) acquires the jitter transfer amplitude and frequency information by detecting the DLL loop filter voltage (VLF(s)) signal, and generates an inverted loop filter voltage signal, denoted as VLF.sub.INV(s). The VLF.sub.INV(s) modulates a group of complementary VCDLs (C-VCDLs) to attenuate the jitter transfer on both recovered clock and data. With the provided receiver, a jitter compensation ratio up to 60% can be supported from DC to 4 MHz, with a −3-dB corner frequency of 40 MHz.

A method for self-calibration of reference voltage drop in a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC) includes measuring each one of a plurality of thermometric weightages associated with a respective one of a plurality of thermometric bits, wherein the DAC includes a plurality of sub-binary bits and the plurality of thermometric bits. For each sequentially increasing combination of thermometric bit settings including at least two thermometric bits coupled to a high reference voltage and each sub-binary bit coupled to a low reference voltage, performing the steps of: determining a respective combined weightage correction; adding the combined weightage correction to the highest order bit of the combination of thermometric bit settings; and incrementing a number of bits of the combination of thermometric bit settings in response to the number of bits of the sequential combination being less than a total number of the plurality of thermometric bits.

An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and an operation method thereof are provided. The ADC includes: a comparator which compares a signal input through a first input terminal and a signal input through a second input terminal, and outputs an output value according to the comparison result. A successive approximation register receives the output value of the comparator, sets digital signal values from a most significant bit to a least significant bit, and outputs the digital signal values. A digital-to-analog converter receives the digital signal values, and converts it into an analog signal based on a reference voltage Vref, and outputs it to the second input terminal. A noise component is added to the input signal and to the analog signal Vdac′.

Described are apparatus and methods for fractional synchronization using direct digital frequency synthesis (DDFS). A DDFS device includes a memory with N address spaces, a write port circuit configured to sequentially write a digital desired pattern into the N address spaces, a read port circuit configured to readout the digital desired pattern from the N address spaces using continuous sequential automatic addressing from 0 to N−1 at a memory operating frequency clock, where the memory operating frequency clock is based on a sampling frequency clock used for high-speed data processing, and an analog signal processing circuit configured to process a readout digital desired pattern into an analog representation; and output a synthesized frequency clock from the analog representation to a digital core, where the synthesized frequency clock is fractionally synchronized with the sampling frequency clock.

An image sensor that operates at high speed and high accuracy with low power consumption. A CMOS image sensor includes: a pixel unit including a plurality of pixels two-dimensionally arranged in a row direction and a column direction, each of the plurality of pixels including a sensor element configured to detect a physical amount existing in nature and to convert the physical amount into an electric signal; a resistance type digital-to-analog converter including a plurality of unit circuits connected in parallel to one another and configured to generate a ramp wave, each of the plurality of unit circuits including a resistor connected to an output end of a CMOS inverter; and an analog-to-digital conversion unit including a plurality of integral type analog-to-digital converters and configured to convert signals from the pixels into digital signals by comparing the signals from the pixels with the ramp wave.

A current mirror circuit includes a current output terminal, a first transistor, a second transistor, and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The first transistor includes a first terminal coupled to a power rail, a second terminal coupled to a current source, and a third terminal coupled to the current source. The second transistor includes a first terminal coupled to the power rail, a second terminal coupled to the second terminal of the first transistor, and a third terminal coupled to the current output terminal. The DAC includes an output terminal coupled to the second transistor.

Described are apparatus and methods for fractional synchronization using direct digital frequency synthesis (DDFS). A DDFS device includes a memory with N address spaces, a write port circuit configured to sequentially write a digital desired pattern into the N address spaces, a read port circuit configured to readout the digital desired pattern from the N address spaces using continuous sequential automatic addressing from 0 to N−1 at a memory operating frequency clock, where the memory operating frequency clock is based on a sampling frequency clock used for high-speed data processing, and an analog signal processing circuit configured to process a readout digital desired pattern into an analog representation; and output a synthesized frequency clock from the analog representation to a digital core, where the synthesized frequency clock is fractionally synchronized with the sampling frequency clock.

A digital-to-analog converter for generating an analog output voltage in response to a digital value comprising a plurality of bits, the converter including: (i) a first switched resistor network having a first configuration and for converting a first input differential signal into a first analog output in response to a first set of bits in the plurality of bits; and (ii) a second switched resistor network, coupled to the first switched resistor network, having a second configuration, differing from the first configuration, and for converting a second input differential signal into a second analog output in response to a second set of bits in the plurality of bits.

The present disclosure provides digital to analog conversion circuitry comprising: a set of input nodes for receiving a digital input code; an output node for outputting an analog output signal representative of the input code; and a plurality of selectable conversion elements, wherein a parameter of each of the plurality of selectable conversion elements is configured such that a transfer function between the input code and the output analog signal is non-monotonic.