ATIME 2013/04 - 02/07/2013

DATA CONVERTERS: BASIC AND ADVANCED RESEARCH RESULTS
Franco Maloberti, University of Pavia

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The purpose of this one-day course is to help students, engineers, and scientists in the design and use of data converters, either as stand alone parts or used on a mixed analog-digital IC. The contents stem largely from a book on Data Converters that I wrote year ago and related courses taught at the University of Pavia, Italy. The course assumes that the participants have a working knowledge on analog circuit design, layout and are familiar with the principles of operation of transistors.
The first part deals with the background knowledge necessary to properly understand and design data converters by providing the theoretical implications of data conversion and making the reader aware of the limits of the approximations used for studying a data converter. In addition, the introductory presentation recalls the mathematical tools used for analysis and characterization of sampled-data systems.
The second part deals with Nyquist-rate digital-to-analog and digital-to-analog converters. Resistor based and capacitor-based architectures are discussed. Moreover, architectures that obtain the DAC function by steering unary or binary-weighted current are analyzed. Architecture, features and limits of Nyquist-rate analog/digital converters are then discussed. The presentation includes the full-flash architecture capable of obtaining the conversion in only one clock period, the two-step solution whose algorithm requires at least two clock periods, folding and interpolations. Then, the interleaved and successive approximation algorithms, and the pipeline architecture are discussed.
The third part focuses on oversampling converters, which are of increasing importance in modern mixed analog-digital systems as they achieve high resolutions without requiring accurate technologies. The presentation recalls the basis of the methods starting from the plain oversampling method. Then, it discusses benefits from both noise-shaping and oversampling to give an optimum trade-off between speed and resolution. After analysing the basic principles and discussing first and second order architectures limits caused by real circuits are mentioned. Correction techniques that enhance the spectral performances by a dynamic averaging of elements are also presented.
The fourth part presents outcomes of research activity for power efficient data converters. An introductory part recall the challenges faced because of the use of sub-micrometer technology. Then, how to manage the noise power budget is discussed. The presentation describes low power design strategies used in several IC implementations whose results have been presented at top conferences (ISSCC, ASSCC and ESSCIRC) and journals (JSSC).

COURSE MATERIAL
A completed slide set of the course material will be given in advance to the audience. As further reading, the participant can consider the book Data Converters, Springer 2007. The results of research activity are published in the open literature.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the course is to give a comprehensive overview of data converters, their state-of-the art performance, applications, challenges and practical design considerations.
This general objective can be divided into the following specific objectives:
• To understand basic concepts and architectures to the state of the art and their applications.
• To provide a practical systematic design methodology of data converters, including circuit limitations.
• To describe advanced research solutions, with experimental results and emphasis on nanometer CMOS implementations.

TARGET AUDIENCE AND PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE
The course is intended for a large audience: from senior researchers and mixed-signal designers who want to get knowledge about the systematic design of state-of-the-art data converters, to non-experienced graduate students who are looking for a comprehensive description of Nyquist-rate and oversampled A/D and D/A schemes, their problems and their practical solutions.

PROGRAMME AND VENUE

Tyndall National Institute
Mardyke Parade
Cork, Ireland

Tuesday, 02 July 2013

Morning (09:00-12:30): Introduction and Nyquist rate converters
Afternoon (13:30-17:00): Oversampling and power-efficient converters

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Franco Maloberti received the Laurea Degree in Physics (Summa cum Laude) from the University of Parma, Italy, in 1968 and the Dr. Honoris Causa degree in Electronics from Inaoe, Puebla, Mexico in 1996. He was a Visiting Professor at ETH-PEL, Zurich in 1993 and at EPFL-LEG, Lausanne in 2004. He was Professor of Microelectronics and Head of the Micro Integrated Systems Group University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, TI/J.Kilby Analog Engineering Chair Professor at the Texas A&M University and the Distinguished Microelectronic Chair Professor at University of Texas at Dallas. Currently he is Professor at the University of Pavia, Italy and Honorary Professor, University of Macau, China SAR. He has written more than 480 published papers, five books and holds 32 patents. He was in 1992 recipient of the XII Pedriali Prize for his technical and scientific contributions to national industrial production. He has been responsible for many research programs including ten ESPRIT projects and served the European Commission in many European Initiatives. He served the Academy of Finland on the assessment of electronic research. He served the National Research Council of Portugal for the research activity assessment of Portuguese Universities. He was a Member of the Advisory Board of INESC-Lisbon, Portugal. He is the Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Microelectronics Key Lab. Macau, China.
He was VP Region 8 of IEEE CAS (1995-1997), Associate Editor of IEEE-TCAS-II, President of the IEEE Sensor Council (2002-2003), IEEE CAS BoG member (2003-2005), VP Publications IEEE CAS (2007-2008). He was DL IEEE SSC Society (2009-2010) and presently is DL IEEE CAS Society. He received the 1999 IEEE CAS Society Meritorious Service Award, the 2000 CAS Society Golden Jubilee Medal, and the IEEE Millenium Medal. He received the 1996 IEE Fleming Premium, the ESSCIRC 2007 Best Paper Award and the IEEJ Workshop 2007 and 2010 Best Paper Award. He received the IEEE CAS Society 2013 Mac Van Valkenburg Award. He is IEEE Fellow.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 1, 27100 Pavia, Italy
Phone: +39 0382 985205
Fax: +39 0382 985677
E-mail:
Web page: http://ims.unipv.it/~franco/

Registration Options:
Full day: includes course notes, AM coffee break, lunch and PM coffee break - €200
AM only: includes course notes and AM coffee break only - €150
PM only: includes course notes and PM coffee break only - €150
Full Time Student: includes course notes, AM coffee break, lunch and PM coffee break (valid student card required) - €100

Contact: Prof. Peter Kennedy, Tyndall National Institute. Tel: +353 21 4903124. Email: