Qualcomm Incorporated

Sang Min Lee

Dongwon Seo

Behnam Sedighi

Derui Kong

Nitz Saputra

Michael McGowan

Li Du

Tongyu Song

Honghao Ji

Vinay Kundur

Wei Guo

Michael Joseph Mcgowan

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.

Low voltage input calibrating digital to analog converter

The present disclosure describes aspects of current removal for digital-to-analog converters (DACs). In some aspects, a circuit for converting a digital input to an analog output includes a first resistor ladder having first resistors connectable to respective current sources and connected to a first output of the circuit. The circuit also includes second resistor ladder having second resistors connectable to the respective current sources and connected to a second output of the circuit. A common node is formed between common resistor terminals of the first resistor ladder and the second resistor ladder. Current removal circuitry is connected to the common node and referenced to an amount of current provided by the respective current sources. By removing current from the common node of the resistor ladders, common-mode current at outputs of the circuit can be reduced with minimal degradation of differential performance of the circuit.

Current removal for digital-to-analog converters

A converter including: an amplifier having first and second input terminals and an output terminal, the first input terminal configured to receive a reference voltage; an array of resistors configured to generate a tuning voltage; and a first plurality of switches coupled to the second input terminal of the amplifier and the array of resistors, the first plurality of switches configured to adjust a gain of the amplifier by selecting at least one resistor in the array of resistors to connect to the second input terminal of the amplifier.

Voltage-to-current converter

A method and apparatus are provided. The apparatus may be a capacitive element for adjusting a net capacitance of a circuit. The apparatus may be configured to be coupled to the circuit. The apparatus may be configured to adjust the net capacitance of the circuit to decouple common mode and differential loop bandwidth adjustment of the circuit. The capacitive element may include a pair of cross-coupled capacitors configured to be coupled to differential nodes of the circuit, and a pair of negative gain buffers coupled to respective capacitors.

Differential mode bandwidth extension technique with common mode compensation

The apparatus may be an N-bit DAC including (2&#x2212;1) parallel stages associated with M most significant bits, and (N-M) stages associated with (N-M) least significant bits. The (2&#x2212;1) parallel stages may deliver a first current to current-summing nodes of the DAC. The (N-M) stages may include a resistive network and a second pair of switches, and may deliver a second current to the resistive network of the stage. Each resistive network may scale the respectively delivered currents according to a binary weight of a stage corresponding to the resistive network, and may deliver the scaled currents to the pair of current-summing nodes. At least one of the (N-M) stages may be separated from the remaining stages.

Hybrid R-2R structure for low glitch noise segmented DAC

An N-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC) includes N input stages each of which generates the same amount of current and includes a pair of similarly sized transistor switches responsive to differential bits. The 2&#x2212;1 input stages associated with the M most significant bits of the DAC are connected in parallel and deliver their currents differentially to the DAC's current summing nodes. Each of the remaining (N&#x2212;M) stages includes a resistive network that supplies a current defined by a binary weight of the stage's bit position within the DAC. The (N&#x2212;M) stages deliver their currents to the current summing nodes differentially. The DAC further includes an impedance attenuator adapted to maintain the impedance of the current summing nodes and the voltage difference between the current summing nodes within a range defined by a gain of a differential amplifier disposed in the impedance attenuator.

Low glitch-noise DAC

A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) includes, in part, a multitude of input stages that supply currents to a pair of current summing nodes in response to a digital signal, and an impedance attenuator coupled between the current summing nodes and the output of the DAC. The impedance attenuator is adapted, among other function, to increase the range of impedances of the output load, to account for changes in the output load impedance due to variations in the process, voltage and temperature, and to decouple the impedances seen by the summing nodes from the load impedance. The impedance attenuator further includes a differential-input, differential-output amplifier with programmable common-mode gain bandwidth to control the harmonic distortion of the amplifier. The impedance attenuator optionally includes a pair of cross-coupled capacitors to control the harmonic distortion of the amplifier.

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San Diego, CA, United States of America

Sang Min Lee