Versatile RF-DACs, from RF-to-mm-Wave, to Enable the Sixth Generation of Wireless Communication

Cartesian transmitters have been dominant in integrated transmitter design for more than 30 years, however for more than a decade RF-DACs have demonstrated the ability to combine the functionality of the DAC, upconverter and amplification stages of a transmitter into a single block. The switched-capacitor power amplifier (SCPA) is a versatile RF-DAC that operates in a voltage mode and uses transistors only as switches. In this talk, I will introduce the SCPA and present architectural examples that enable both frequency reconfigurability and operation up to mm-wave, supporting up to 3Gb/s transmission rates.