A higher Nyquist-range DAC employing sinusoidal interpolation

This work discusses a link between two previously reported ideas in high-speed digital-to-analog converter (DAC) design: linear approximation with analog interpolation techniques and an RF DAC concept where oscillatory pulses are used to combine a DAC with an up-conversion mixer. An architecture is proposed where we utilize analog interpolation techniques, but using sinusoidal rather than linear interpolation in order to allocate more energy to higher Nyquist ranges as is commonly done in RF DACs. The interpolation is done in the time domain, such that it approximates the oscillating signal from the RF DAC concept to modulate the signal up to a higher Nyquist range. Then, instead of taking the output from within the Nyquist range, as in conventional case, the output of the DAC is taken from higher images. The proposed architecture looks promising for future implementations in high-speed DACs as it can be used in RF DAC or modified versions of digital-to-RF converters (DRFCs). Simulation results and theoretical descriptions are presented to support the idea.