DATA CONVERSION CCTS

 Example of ADC: phone’s microphone

 Example of DAC: phone’s speaker
 examples of analog signals – temperature, pressure, sound, velocity
 disadvantages of analog signals:
- susceptible to noise
- difficult to process and store
 an analog signal is continuous and has infinite resolution (i.e. can take any value from 0-5V) whereas a digital signal
is dicrete.
 an analog signal is sampled, quantized and encoded in binary format.
 Quantisation is the process of assigning a sampled signal a value from the discrete set of values.

*diagram

 resolution of an adc decides how the assigned value is close to the actual value.
 if resolution is n-bits, the no. of discrete levels which can be defined is equal to 2 n. i.e. i/p signal will get quantised to
8 levels.
 in terms of voltage:

full scale range V max −V min V ref

resolution= = = n
2n 2n 2

where n=no. of bits & FSR = maximum voltage range which can be converted by the adc.

 for a 3-bit ADC whose fsr=10V:

10
res= =1.25 V
23

thus, if the change in the i/p signal is less than 1.25V, it will not be detected by the adc.

 changing the fsr can change the minimum change in i/p that can be detected by the adc.
 increasing the no. of bits and keeping the fsr same can increase resolution.

*3-bit adc transfer fxn graph

 due to the quantisation process, an error will be introduced to the o/p of the adc. this is known as a quantisation
error. for a 3-bit adc with fsr=1V, quantisation error=0.125V or 1LSB. Q.error can be reduced by increasing the no. of
bits or shifting the transfer fxn to the left and reducing the q.error from 1LSB to 0.5LSB.
 sampling – is the redction of a continuous time signal to a discrete time signal. a sample is a vale at a point in
time/space.

*sampling diagram

 the more samples taken, the more accurately we can represent an analog signal.
 according to nyquist sampling theorem, the sampling rate should be at least twice the max freq of the i/p signal. i.e.
f s=2 × f max

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 if the sampling rate is less than this, then an alisasing effect will be seen.

Major Specifications for ADCs & DACs:

1. resolution – no. of states into which a full scale range can be divided.
2. accuracy – the difference between actual analog o/p and ideal expected o/p when a given digital i/p is applied.
3. conversion speed / settling time – the time period that has elapsed for an analog o/p to reach its final vale
within a specified error band after a digital i/p code change has been effected.
4. non-linearity – is the maximum deviation of analog o/p voltage from a straight line drawn between the end
points.
5. dynamic range – ratio of the largest o/p to the smallest o/p (excluding zero), expressed in dB.
6. monotonicity – the tendency of a converter to increase analog o/p by an identical step size for 1LSB increment in
a digital i/p word.
 resolution defines how closely analog o/p matches the digital i/p. a filter is used to smooth the analog o/p.
 for DACs, for every 1LSB change in the digital i/p, the o/p will change by the value of resolution (e.g. 0.625V) up to
the maximum voltage value of the dac.
 for ADCs, if the analog i/p voltage is above or below a reference voltage (Vref), it is recorded as a HIGH or a LOW.
 full-scale o/p voltage – max o/p which can be gotten from a DAC.

FSO=V ref −1 LS B

DACs:

 convert digital data at i/p to analog voltage/current that is proportional to weighted sum of digital i/ps.
 different bits contribute a different quantum to to the overall o/p voltage so that LSB has least and MSB has highest
weight.
1. Binary weighted resistor DAC
2. R-2R ladder type DAC

Binary weighted resistor DAC:

*cct diagram

 o/p voltage can be given as:

*equation

Types of DACs:

1. Multiplying – the converter multiplies the analog reference by a digital i/p

2. bipolar o/p – analog o/p signal range includes both +ve and –ve values.
3. companding (compressing & expanding) – constructed so that lesser no. of bits is used to record/represent the
strongest/largest sound signals. signal is compressed at Tx and expanded/restored to original form at Rx end.

ADCs:

 an adc takes analog voltage at its i/p and after a certain amount of time, produces a digital o/p code representing th
analog i/p.
 the a/d conversion process is more complex than the d/a conversion process.
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ADC terminology:

 Unipolar Mode Operation - the analogue input to the A/D converter varies from 0 to full-scale
voltage of one polarity only.
 Bipolar Mode Operation – the ADC is configured to convert both positive and negative analogue input voltages
 Coding - defines the nature of the A/D converter output data format i.e. either straight binary, offset binary,
complementary binary, 2’s complement, low byte and high byte.
 Low Byte and High Byte - In A/D converters with a resolution greater than eight bits, some products are offered in
high-byte or low-byte format to simplify their interface with eight-bit microprocessor systems. The low-byte output
contains the least significant bit and some or all of the lower eight bits of the A/D converter output. In the high byte,
the output contains the MSB and some or all of the upper eight bits.
 Right-Justified Data or Left-Justified Data - Data bit sets shorter than eight bits are placed in byte-oriented data
output format, starting with the right side of the data output transfer register. This could apply to the upper or lower
byte. For example, a 12-bit ADC will have four extra bits which could be right justified. Data bit sets shorter than
eight bits are placed in left-justified data, starting with the left side of the data output transfer register. This could
apply to the lower or upper byte. For example, a 12-bit ADC will have four extra bits which could be left justified.
 Command Register & Status Register - The command register is an internal register of the ADC that can be
programmed by the user to select various modes of operation such as unipolar or bipolar mode selection, range
selection, data output format selection, etc. The status register indicates the current status of the analogue-to-
digital conversion with a ‘busy’ or ‘conversion complete’ signal.
 Control Lines - Digital input/output pins that activate/monitor and control ADC operation are called control lines.
Some examples are chip select, write, start convert, conversion complete, etc.

Types of ADCs:

1. Flash
2. Counter
3. Successive approximation
4. Dual slope

Counter Type ADC:

*cct diagram

 i/ps to the comparator are (1) analog voltage to be converted to digital o/p, and (2) o/p of the DAC which is used as
a reference voltage.
 the o/p of the counter is fed into the DAC.
 When conversion starts, the counter is reset to ZERO and the o/p of the DAC is 0. so, initially, Vin > Vdac, thus the
o/p of the comparator is HIGH.
 a clock pulse is fed into the counter thru an AND gate. whenever the o/p of comparator is HIGH, the clock pulse is
applied to the counter which starts counting.
 as the count increases, the o/p of DAC also increases in staircase fashion (each change of 1LSB increases the voltage
o/p to Vmax).
 the o/p of DAC is continuously compared to Vin. if Vdac <Vin, comparator o/p will be HIGH and clock pulses will be
applied to the counter, hence the o/p of DAC will increase gradually in staircase fashion.
 as soon as Vdac>Vin, o/p of comparator will become LOW and no clock pulses will be applied to the counter.

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 the control cct then latches the counter o/p and it is reset and a new procedure starts.
 disadvantage: conversion time depends on the magnitude of Vin. they are directly proportional.

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INTRODUCTION TO MICROPROCESSORS

 A microprocessor is a programmable device that accepts binary data from an input device, processes the
data according to the instructions stored in the memory and provides results as output. In other words,
the microprocessor executes the program stored in the memory and transfers data to and from the
outside world through I/O ports.
 Any microprocessor-based system essentially comprises three parts, namely the microprocessor, the memory and
peripheral I/O devices. The three parts are interconnected by the data bus, the address bus and the control bus
- The memory stores the binary instructions and data for the microprocessor. The memory can be
classified as the primary or main memory and secondary memory. Read/write memory (R/WM) and
read only memory (ROM) are examples of primary memory and are used for executing and storing
programs. Magnetic disks and tapes are examples of secondary memory. They are used to store
programs and results after the completion of program execution. Microprocessors do not execute
programs stored in the secondary memory directly. Instead, they are first copied on to the R/W primary
memory
- Input/output devices are means through which the microprocessor interacts with the outside world.
The commonly used input devices include keyboards, A/D converters, switches, cameras, scanners,
microphones and so on. LEDs, seven-segment displays, LCD displays, printers and monitors are some
of the commonly used output devices.
- A bus is basically a communication link between the processing unit and the peripheral devices. It
is a group of wires that carry information in the form of bits. The address bus is unidirectional and
is used by the CPU to send out the address of the memory location to be accessed. It is also used
by the CPU to select a particular input or output port. The data bus is bidirectional, that is, data flow occurs both
to and from the microprocessor and peripherals. The control bus sends out control signals to memory, I/O ports
and other peripheral devices to ensure proper operation. It carries control signals such as memory read,
memory write, read input port, write output port, hold, interrupt,
etc.
 The main parts of a microprocessor include
i. the arithmetic logic unit (ALU),
ii. the register file and
iii. the control unit.
 The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) performs the entire integer arithmetic and bit-wise logical operations of the
microprocessor. ALU is a combinational logic circuit and has two data input lines, a data output line and a status line.
It gets data from the registers of the microprocessor, processes the data according to the instructions from the
control unit and stores the results in its output registers. All modern ALUs use binary data in 2’s complement format.
 The register file comprises various registers used primarily to store data, addresses and status information during
the execution of a program. Registers are sequential logic devices built using flip-flops. Some of the commonly found
registers in most of the microprocessors include the program counter, instruction registers, buffer registers, the
status register, the stack pointer, general-purpose registers and temporary registers.
 The control unit governs and coordinates the activities of different sections of the processor and I/O devices. It is
responsible for controlling the cycle (timing & controlling operations within the system) of fetching machine
instructions from memory and executing them (i.e. fetching and decoding instructions). It also coordinates the
activities of input and output devices. The control unit is a sequential logic circuit, which steps the processor through
a sequence of synchronized operations.

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