Conversion error in D/A converters employing dynamic element matching

An approach to reducing harmonic distortion in D/A converters involves a technique called dynamic element matching. The idea is not so much to reduce the power of overall conversion error but rather to give it a random, noise-like structure. This paper presents the first rigorous theoretical analysis of the conversion error introduced by an important class of D/A converters based on dynamic element matching. Specifically, the paper develops the rather surprising result that, under mild circuit performance assumptions, the only nonlinear distortion introduced by this class of D/A converters is that of additive white noise with a DC offset