Multi-dimensional approach to high resolution and high speed binary-to-thermometer decoding

A binary-to-thermometer decoding logic that allows high speed decoding at high resolution is presented. DNL performance of both binary-weighted and thermometer-coded decoding schemes in digital-to-analog conversion is discussed. Other works on binary-to-thermometer decoder are explored. In multi-dimensional decoding, a small decoding circuit is attached to each current cell in a current-steering DAC to minimize the delay caused by the traditionally large combinational binary-to-thermometer decoders. Doing so, a larger number of bits can be decoded using thermometer-coded method without having to sacrifice in decoding speed. This also relaxes the matching requirements between the thermometer-coded current sources and eventually saving silicon area.