A self-calibration technique for monolithic high-resolution D/A converters

A self-calibration technique based upon charge storage on the gate-source capacitance of CMOS transistors is presented. The technique can produce multiple copies of a reference current. Therefore, it is suitable for the calibration of high-resolution D/A (digital/analog) converters which are based upon equal current sources. As the storage capacitor is internal, no external components are required. A calibrated spare current source is used to allow continuous converter operation. This implies that no special calibration cycles are required. To show the capabilities of the calibration technique, it was implemented in a 16-b D/A converter. Measurement results show a total harmonic distortion of 0.0025% at a power consumption of 20 mW and a minimum supply voltage of 3 V. The design was fabricated in a 1.6- mu m double-metal CMOS process without special options.<
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