A 1.8-V 12-bit 250-MS/s 25-mW self-calibrated DAC

A 12-bit current-steering self-calibrated digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is presented. Mismatches among the current sources are compensated by the calibration scheme, so that the DAC linearity is ensured and the active area is small at the same time. This digital-to-analog data converter was implemented in a 0.18μm CMOS process, and the active area is smaller than 0.8 mm². After calibration, the measured differential and integral nonlinearity are both within ±0.5 LSB. At 250-MSample/s, the SFDR is better than 71.68 dB when the input signal is 1-MHz. This DAC dissipates 25mW from a 1.8-V supply.