Data Conversion

Always data converters were interesting components for me from different perspectives. Although my research interest doesn't include areas related to data converters but DAC design was my first step when I entered IC design field. On those days I was involved with design of a 8-bit pipeline D/A converter for high data rates in 0.35 um CMOS process. Actually when I started my master in Sweden I had to leave that research and focus on my studies but this year, and after 3 years, I introduced a project for my "VLSI project" students to design the same DAC. They are going to measure it next week and I am very interested to see the results. On the other hand, in A/D design, I think still there are different challenging parts which should be solved.

The requirements for ADCs in software defined radio (SDR), also attracts many attentions in this area. This year in our summer school in Visby, Christer Svensson had an interesting talk about ADC requirements in SDR. The most interesting part was that, according to his calculations, power consumption of today's ADC can be reduced by the factor of 10000 ideally and say more than 100 practically which still is quite a lot. I think ADC design is a big challenge today.