Abstract: Based on the analysis of teh influence of the current switc driver on dynamic performance of the high-speed current-steering D/A converter, the design principle of the current switch driver is proposed. The crossing point theory, synchronous flip-latch and limited swing driver are included in the principle, and a novel current switch driver circuit is proposed in TSMC 0.35μm CMOS technology. The driver circuit is simulated and analyzed by Hspice. The 4-bit D/A converter introduced novel driver has low glitch energy, and the 8-bit segmented D/A converter introduced novel driver has high SFDR. The simulated results show that the principle and the driver are very useful to the high speed D/A converter design with good dynamic performance.

Key words: current-steering DAC, dynamic performance, current switch driver