An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) includes a split-capacitor digital-to-analog converter (DAC) having a Most Significant Bits (MSBs) sub-DAC with one or more MSBs encoded with one or more binary capacitors and one or more MSBs encoded with one or more thermometer capacitors, a Least Significant Bits (LSBs) sub-DAC, a termination capacitor coupled to the LSBs sub-DAC, and a scaling capacitor coupled between the LSBs and MSBs sub-DACs, and coupled to receive an analog input voltage, a high reference voltage, and a low reference voltage, and to provide an output voltage. The ADC includes a comparator coupled to receive the output voltage, successive-approximation-register (SAR) circuitry coupled to the comparator and providing an uncalibrated digital value corresponding to an uncalibrated digital representation of the input voltage, and calibration circuitry configured to apply one or more calibration values to the uncalibrated digital value to obtain a calibrated digital value corresponding to a calibrated digital.

Provided are a Time-Interleaved Successive Approximation Register Analog-to-Digital Converter, TISAR ADC, and a calibration method thereof. The calibration method for the TISAR ADC may include: sampling an analog signal input into the TISAR ADC to generate a reference digital signal (S130); according to the reference digital signal and output digital signals generated by analog-to-digital conversion sub-modules of the TISAR ADC, obtaining capacitor array calibration parameters and time delay calibration parameters of the analog-to-digital conversion sub-modules; adjusting capacitor arrays of the corresponding analog-to-digital conversion sub-modules according to the capacitor array calibration parameters, respectively; and adjusting time delays of the corresponding analog-to-digital conversion sub-modules according to the time delay calibration parameters, respectively.

The present invention relates to telecommunication techniques and integrated circuit (IC) devices. In a specific embodiment, the present invention provides a laser deriver apparatus that includes a main DAC section and a mini DAC section. The main DAC section processes input signal received from a pre-driver array and generates an intermediate output signal. The mini DAC section provides a compensation signal to reduce distortion of the intermediate output signal. The intermediate output signal is coupled to output terminals through a cascode section and/or a T-coil section. There are other embodiments as well.

A calibrating digital to analog converter (calDAC) architecture uses a low voltage memory to store the digital inputs of calDACs. The calDAC architecture includes a low voltage domain and a high voltage domain coupled to the low voltage domain. The low voltage domain includes a calDAC memory and a finite state machine (FSM). The high voltage domain includes a calDAC core, an interface circuit, and a bias control circuit coupled to the interface circuit. The interface circuit may be provided between the calDAC core and the low voltage domain. The bias control circuit is coupled to the interface circuit to generate a bias voltage for the interface circuit to drive switch transistors of the calDAC core.

The present disclosure relates to a signal generator with self-calibration including a main digital-to-analog converter (DAC), a calibration DAC, a summing buffer structure, a two-path filter structure, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), and a control system. The main DAC provides a main DAC output signal with main DAC distortion. The main DAC output signal is calibrated by a calibration DAC output signal to correct at least a portion of the main DAC distortion. The calibration DAC output signal includes information about the main DAC distortion and is generated by a feedback loop including the summing buffer structure, the two-path filter structure, the filter buffer, the ADC, the control system, and the calibration DAC.

The present invention relates to telecommunication techniques and integrated circuit (IC) devices. In a specific embodiment, the present invention provides a laser deriver apparatus that includes a main DAC section and a mini DAC section. The main DAC section processes input signal received from a pre-driver array and generates an intermediate output signal. The mini DAC section provides a compensation signal to reduce distortion of the intermediate output signal. The intermediate output signal is coupled to output terminals through a cascode section and/or a T-coil section. There are other embodiments as well.

Continuous-time (CT) analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) implementing digital correction of digital-to-analog converter (DAC) errors are disclosed. In a CT pipeline stage of a CT ADC, a CT analog input signal is sent to two different paths. A first path (a feedforward path) includes a cascade of a sub-ADC and a sub-DAC. A second path (a forward path) includes an analog delay circuit to align the delays of the input signal in the feedforward and forward paths. A combiner subtracts the output of the analog delay of the forward path from the output of the sub-DAC in the feedforward path to generate a residue signal. Devices and methods disclosed herein are based on recognition that, if the errors introduced by the sub-DAC are known, they can be corrected in the digital domain during reconstruction, achieving superior NSD and distortion performance compared to conventional approaches.

A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) includes a DAC circuit, a switch circuit and a control circuit. The DAC circuit includes most significant bit digital-to-analog converter (MDAC) circuits and calibration digital-to-analog converter (CDAC) circuits. The switch circuit includes a current source circuit and a detection circuit. The MDAC, CDAC circuits and the current source circuit are coupled to a first output terminal and a second output terminal of the DAC circuit. In a calibration mode, the current source circuit generates current deviation of the first output terminal and the second output terminal. The detection circuit detects the current differences to generate detection signals. The control circuit outputs control signals to the CDAC circuits to adjust output currents of the CDACs at the first output terminal and the second output terminal. In a regular mode, the current source circuit is configured to function as a dual DC current source.

Aspects of the disclosure are directed to compensating for errors in in an analog-to-digital converter circuit (ADC). As may be implemented in accordance with one or more embodiments, an apparatus and/or method involves an ADC that converts an analog signal into a digital signal using an output from a digital-to-analog converter circuit (DAC). A compensation circuit generates a compensation output by, for respective signal portions provided to the DAC, generating a feedback signal based on an incompatibility between the conversion of the signal portions into an analog signal and the value of the signal portions provided to the DAC. A compensation output is generated based on the signal input to the DAC with a gain applied thereto, based on the feedback signal. Hereby, the digital inputs provided to the DACs are non-randomized.

A method of DAC mismatch calibration in a SAR ADC is disclosed. In one aspect, the method comprises determining a number of bits of an analog input signal (V.sub.IN), detecting if a binary code determined from the analog input signal (V.sub.IN) matches at least one trigger code, using at least one setting code to determine a calibration residue signal (V*.sub.RES) and a calibration bit (B*.sub.LSB), analyzing a least significant bit of the digital signal (C.sub.OUT) and the calibration bit (B*.sub.LSB), determining an indication of a presence of DAC mismatch, and calibrating the DAC mismatch. As the determination of the calibration bit (B*.sub.LSB) requires only one additional comparison, when compared to the normal operation, the normal operation does not need to be interrupted. Therefore, the calibration can be done in the background and, as such, can be performed frequently thereby taking into account time-varying changes due to environmental effects.