ABSTRACT
A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and analog-to-digital converter (ADC) can be described as a mixed-signal integrated circuit. Resolution is a term used to describe a minimum voltage or current that an ADC/DAC can resolve. The fundamental limit is a quantization noise due to the finite number of bits used in the ADC/DAC. Static ADC/DAC performance is characterized by differential non-linearity (DNL) and integral nonlinearity. For example, the most significant bit (MSB) has a weight of half the full range. If the MSB weight is not accurate, the full range is divided into two non-ideal half ranges, and a major error occurs at the midpoint of the full scale. DACs are used to provide an interface between the digital data sequence and the analog signal. Many conventional DAC architectures had been developed to convert a digital data sequence in binary to an analog signal in terms of current or voltage, including weighted current-steering DAC, binary-weighted resistor DAC, and thermometer coding DAC.
