VLSI Circuits for High Speed Data Conversion

摘要

The focus of research in this program has been the study of fundamental issues inthe design and testing of data conversion interfaces for high performance VLSI signal processing and communications systems. Because of the increased speed and density that accompany the continuing scaling of VLSI technologies, digital means of processing, communicating and storing information are rapidly displacing their analog counterparts across a broadening spectrum of applications. In such systems, the limitations on system performance generally occur at the interfaces between the digital representation of information and the analog environment in which the system is embedded. Specific results of this research include the design and implementation of low-power BiCMOS comparators and sample-and-hold amplifiers operating at clock rates as high as 200 MHz, the design and integration of a 12-bit, 5MHz CMOS A/D converter employing a two-step architecture and a novel self-calibrating comparator, the design and integration of an optoelectronic communications receiver front-end in a GaAs-on-Si technology, the initiation of research into-the use of an active silicon substrate probe card for fully testing high-performance mixed-signal circuits at the wafer level, and a preliminary study of means for correcting dynamic errors in high-performance A/D converters. A/D Conversion, Optoelectronic receiver, Comparator, GaAs-on-Si technology, Sample-and-hold, Probe testing.