TABLE OF CONTENTS Data converters play a significant role in modern electronics systems because they are the essential tools interconnecting the analog world and the powerful digital signal processors (DSP). Since the 1970s, when complementary metal-oxide semi-conductor (CMOS) fabrication technology was demonstrated as a competent candidate for cost-effective realizations of signal-processing functions in the digital domain, many novel integrated CMOS data converters have been invented, enabling the introduction of devices with prominent digital features such as digital video disc (DVD) and audio compact disc (CD) players/recorders, digital cameras, and asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL)/cable modems into our world.
Furthermore, with the fast advancement of wireless communications standards and technologies since the mid-1990s, the demands for low-cost CMOS data converters of high data rate, high linearity, and high dynamic range that consume very little power have increased dramatically [1][2]. A commercialized application of CMOS data converters to wireless communications can be found in today's wireless networking routers and relaying devices, which are built based on the wireless local area network (WLAN) standards such as IEEE 802.11/a/b/g.
Most recently, the common focus of many research endeavors in the industry has been on searching for the best CMOS-based method/standard to transmit broadband multimedia signals (e.g., digital audio, digital video, and digital photography) wire-lessly. One of the noteworthy candidates is the ultra-wideband (UWB) short-range (10 meters or shorter) digital transmission system, which operates at a carrier frequency within the range of 3.1GHz to 10.6 GHz, and has a minimum signal band-width of 500 MHz [3].
