ADC and DAC

A digital quantity will have a value

that is specified as one of two
possibilities such as 0 or 1, true or
false, low or high.
 Cont…
• Most physical variables are analog in nature and
can take on any value within a continuous range
of values.
Ex. Of analog signals:-
• temperature, pressure, light intensity, audio
signals, position, rotational speed, and flow rate.
• Digital systems perform all of their internal
operations using digital circuitry and digital
operations
 Transducer

• The physical variable is normally a nonelectrical

quantity
• A transducer is a device that converts the physical
variable to an electrical variable.
common transducers:-
• thermistors, photocells, photodiodes
• flow meters, pressure transducers, and tachometers.
• The electrical output of the transducer is an analog
that is proportional to the physical variable it is
monitoring
 ADC
• The transducer’s electrical analog output serves
as the analog input to the ADC. The ADC converts
this analog input to a digital output.
• This digital output consists of a number of bits
that represent the value of the analog input.
• The digital representation of the analog values is
transmitted from the ADC to the digital computer,
which stores the digital value and processes it
according to a program of instructions that it is
executing.
 DAC
• The digital output from the computer is
connected to a DAC, which converts it to a
proportional analog voltage or current. This is
because mostly the devices that are going to
be controlled are analog motors.
 Actuator

• The analog signal from the DAC is often

connected to some device or circuit that
serves as an actuator to control the physical
variable.
 Digital-to-Analog Conversion

• D/A conversion is the process of taking a value

represented in digital code.
• A 4-bit D/A converter is shown below on the
next slide
Digital-to-Analog Conversion
 Input and output computation
• Analog output = K x digital input
where K is the proportionality factor and it is
constant value for a given DAC. The analog
output can of course be a voltage or current.
For the DAC of K=1 V, so that
V0UT = (1 V) x digital input
 Ex.
• We can use the above formula to calculate
V0UT for any value of digital input. For
example, with a digital input of 11002 = 1210,
we obtain
V0UT = 1V x 12 = 12V
 Problem 1

• A 5-bit DAC has a current output for a digital

input of 10100, an output current of 10mA is
produced. What will Iout be for a digital input
of 11101?
 Solution

• The digital input 10 1 002 is equal to decimal

20. Since I0UT = 10 mA for this case, the
proportionality factor is 0.5 mA. Thus, we can
find for a digital input such as 111012 = 291o as
follows :
• I0UT = (0.5mA) x 29
= 14.5 mA
• Remember, the proportionality factor, K, will
vary from one DAC to another.
 Problem 2

• What is the max. value of output voltage from

an 8-bit DAC that produces 1.0V for a digital
input of 00110010?
 Resolution
• Resolution of a D/A converter is defined as the
smallest change that can occur in the analog
output as a result of a change in the digital
input.
• The resolution is always equal to the weight of
the LSB and is also referred to as the step size.
 Cont…
• When the counter is at 1111, the DAC output
is at its maximum value of 15 V; this is its full-
scale output
• In general, for an N-bit DAC the number of
different levels will be 2N, and the number of
steps will be 2N - 1.
 DAC

• The purpose of a digital- to-analog converter

is to convert a binary word to a proportional
current or voltage.
Interfacing with the analog world using
(ADC) and (DAC)
 Accuracy

• The most common ways of specifying accuracy are, full-

scale error and linearity error. which are normally
expressed as a percentage of the converter’s full-scale
output (%F.S.)
• Full-scale error is the maximum deviation of the DAC’s
output from its ideal value, expressed as a percentage of
full scale. For example, assume that the DCA has an
accuracy of ± 0.01% F.S. Since this converter has a full-scale
output of 9.375 V, this percentage converts to
± 0.01% x 9.375 V = ± 0.9375 mV
• This means that the output of this DAC can, at any time, be
off by as much as 0.9375mV from its expected value.
• Linearity error is the maximum deviation in step size from
the ideal step size.
• Offset Error-reading
 example
• A certain 8-bit DAC has a full-scale output of 2mA
and a full-scale error of ± 0.5% F.S. What is the
range of possible outputs for an input of
10000000?
• The step size is 2mA/255 = 7.84 |uA. Since
10000000 = 12810, the ideal output should be 128
x 7.84 |uA. The error can be as much as
• ± 0.5% x 2mA = ± 10|uA
• Thus, the actual output can deviate by this
amount from the ideal 1004|uA , so the actual
output can be anywhere from 994 to 1014 |uA.
 Offset Error
• Ideally, the output of a DAC will be zero volts
when the binary input is all 0’s. In practice,
however, there will be a very small output voltage
for this situation; this is called offset error. This
offset error, if not corrected, will be added to the
expected DAC output for all input cases. Offset
error can be negative as well as positive.
• Many DACs will have an external offset
adjustment that allows you to zero the offset.
This is usually accomplished by applying all 0s to
the DAC input and monitoring the output while
an offset adjustment potentiometer is adjusted
until the output is as close to 0 V as required.
 Settling Time
• The operating speed of a DAC is usually
specified by giving its settling Time , which is
the time required for the DAC output to go
from zero to full scale as the binary input is
changed from all 0’s to all 1’s. Typical values
for settling time range from 50 ns to 10 us.
 Monotonicity

• A DAC is monotonic if its output increases as

the binary input is incremented from one
value to the next.
• Another way to describe this is that the
staircase output will have no downward steps
as the binary input is incremented from zero
to full scale.
 DAC Applications

• DACs are used whenever the output of a

digital circuit has to provide an analog voltage
or current to drive an analog device.
 Control

• The digital output from a computer can be

converted to an analog control signal to
• adjust the speed of a motor
• the temperature of a furnace
• to control almost any physical variable etc
 Automatic Testing

• Computers can be programmed to generate

the analog signals (through a DAC) needed to
test analog circuitry. The test circuit’s analog
output response will normally be converted to
a digital value by an ADC and fed into the
computer to be stored, displayed, and
sometimes analyzed.
 Cont…
• In many applications, an analog signal is
digitized, meaning that successive points on
the signal are converted to their digital
equivalent and stored in memory.
• This conversion is performed by an analog-to-
digital converter (ADC).
• A DAC can then be used to convert the stored
digitized data back to analog-one point at a
time-thereby reconstructing the original
signal.
 Cont…
• This combination of digitizing and
reconstruction is used in digital storage
oscilloscopes, audio compact disk systems,
and digital audio and video recording.
 Cont…
• A DAC can then be used to convert the stored
digitized data back to analog-one point at a
time-thereby reconstructing the original
signal. This combination of digitizing and
reconstruction is used in digital storage
oscilloscopes, audio compact disk systems,
and digital audio and video recording.
 A/D Resolution and Accuracy
• Resolution of the ADC is equal to the resolution of
the DAC that it contains.
• The DAC output voltage VaX is a staircase waveform
that goes up in discrete steps until it exceeds VA.
• Thus, VaX is an approximation to the value of VA,
and the best we can expect is that VaX is within 10
mV of VA if the resolution (step size) is 10 mV.
• We can think of the resolution as being a built-in
error that is often referred to as quantization
error. This quantization error, can be reduced by
increasing the number of bits in the counter and
DAC.
 Applications

• Almost any measurable quantity present as a

voltage can be digitized by an A/D converter
and displayed.
• A/D converters are the heart of digital
voltmeters and digital MultiMate’s.
• Analog voice signals are converted to digital
form for transmission over long distances. At
their destination they are reconverted to
analog.
 Cont…
• In digital audio record- the analog audio signal
produced by a microphone is digitized (using an
ADC), then stored on some medium such as
magnetic tope, magnetic disk or optical disk.
• Later the stored data are played back by sending
them to a DAC to reconstruct the analog signal,
which is fed to the amplifier and speaker system
to produce the recorded sound.