Tod Dickson

Timothy (Tod) Dickson received the B.S. and M.Eng. degrees from the University of Florida, and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Toronto. Since 2006 he has been with the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY where he is currently a Principal Research Scientist. His research is on circuits and architectures for power-efficient serial communication. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in New York, NY.

The lecture will be focused on High-Speed DACs for 100+ Gb/s Wireline Links:

Digital-to-analog converters (DACs) operating above 50GS/s are critical components of modern transmitters for wireline applications. These circuits permit data modulation and equalization to be moved from the analog domain (as was common in links operating below 50Gb/s) to the digital domain, thereby enabling today’s serial links operating at 100-200Gb/s. This lecture explores DAC design for wireline applications. Driver and multiplexer design techniques will be introduced, including those used for current-mode (CML) and voltage-mode (SST) drivers found in state-of-the-art serial links. As systems explore the use of more sophisticated modulation formats such as higher-order time domain pulse amplitude modulation (e.g., PAM6 or PAM8) or frequency domain modulation (e.g., OFDM), higher linearity DACs will be required than those employed in existing PAM4 systems. Techniques for adaptive calibration of DAC static linearity will be discussed. Designs of two different 8b DACs operating at 56 and 72GS/s in 7nm and 4nm FinFET technologies will be described as case studies.