A 10-bit current-steering DAC for HomePlug AV2 powerline communication system in 90nm CMOS

A 10-bit current-steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) has been proposed. This study is used for the transmitter (Tx) of the powerline communication (PLC) analog-front-end (AFE), and it reaches the standard of the HomePlug AV2. The proposed DAC also uses a technique as digital random-return-to-zero (DRRZ) [1] to achieve high performance in the OFDM communication systems. The test chip was fabricated in TSMC 90 nm CMOS technology and occupied 0.42 mm² for active area. The supplies for the analog and digital circuits are 2.5V and 1.2V. The maximum INL and DNL are 0.8 LSB and 0.3 LSB respectively. The SFDR is up to 40.09 dB for 1.25GS/s of Nyquist-rate sampling.