A yield-enhancement strategy for binary-weighted DACs

One of the major contributors to the static nonlinearity of a current-steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is mismatch between current sources. A technique for enhancing the yield of binary-weighted current-steering DACs is proposed. The technique utilizes a special case of a general technique for spectral shaping of DAC nonlinearity errors presented earlier and requires oversampling. The technique relies on two DAC models with low computational complexity that can be integrated with the DAC at a negligible cost in terms of area and power consumption. Behavioral-level simulation results indicate that the proposed method has a good potential of enhancing the yield of binary-weighted DACs for situations where the matching errors constitute the dominating source of nonlinearity.