A/D AND D/A CONVERTERS

PART 1
By
Dr. Ahmed Freidoon Fadhil
Kirkuk University
 Introduction
• Most of the information used by us is analog.
• Speed, temperature, distance, pressure, voltage, and curent are all analog signals.
• We need the analog signal to be transmitted through digital means.
• The transducer converts the non-electrical signal to an electrical signal (voltage).
• A/D converter converts this analog voltage signal to a digital one.
• The digital processing unit processes/transmits the digital signal.
• The D/A converter changes digital signal into an analog signal.
• The op-amp strengthens the output of D/A converter.

Fig.1 Application of A/D and D/A converters

 Expressing Analog Voltage in Binary
• If it is desired to convert an analog voltage to binary, each bit position can be
assigned a voltage value.
• Table 1 shows a voltage of 1 V being assigned to each binary bit in a 3 bit binary
system.
• Thus, 000 represents 0 V, 001 represents 1 V, 01 0 represents 2 V and so on.
o It is seen from Table 1 that each successive binary count represents 1/7th of
the total voltage.
o Fig. 2 show these analog voltages and their binary representation.
Table 1
3 Bit Binary Analog
Word Voltage
000 0
001 1
010 2
011 3
100 4
101 5
110 6
111 7 Fig.2 Expressing analog voltage in binary
 Percentage Resolution
• lf we use 4 bits, each successive binary count would represent 1/15th of the
total voltage.
• lf we use 5 bits, each successive binary count would represent 1/31st of the
total voltage.
• This number 1/7 or 1/15 or 1/31 is called resolution.
• If the number of bits is N, the resolution is given by:

• Table 2 gives the percentage resolution of the different number of bits.

Table 2: Resolution (%)

 Examples
Example 1: Find the percentage resolution of D/A converter having 9 bits.
Solution:

Example 2: A D/A converter has a supply voltage of 15V. lf the number of bits
is 6. (a) what voltage does 1 bit represent ? (b) what analog voltage does
101011 represent ?
Solution:
 Digital To Analog Conversion
(1) Weighted Resistor Network
• Fig. 3 shows this network.
• The Most Significant Bit (MSB) resistance is one-eighth of the Least
Significant Bit (LSB) resistance.
• 𝑅𝐿 is much larger than 8𝑅.
• The voltages 𝑉𝐴 , 𝑉𝐵 , 𝑉𝐶 and 𝑉𝐷 can be either equal to V (for logic 1) or 0 (for
logical 0).
• Thus, there are 24 = 16 input combinations from 0000 to 1111.
• The output voltage 𝑉𝑜 , given by Millman's theorem, is

Fig.3 Weighted Resistor Network for D/A conversion

 Digital To Analog Conversion
(1) Weighted Resistor Network

• If input is 0001 , 𝑉𝐴 = 𝑉𝐵 = 𝑉𝐶 =0 and 𝑉𝐷 = V and output is V/15.

• lf input is 0010, 𝑉𝐴 = 𝑉𝐵 = 𝑉𝐷 =0 and 𝑉𝐶 = V giving an output of 2V/15.

• lf input is 0011, 𝑉𝐴 = 𝑉𝐵 =0 and 𝑉𝐶 = 𝑉𝐷 = V giving an output of 3V/15.

• Thus, the output voltage varies from 0 to V in steps of V/15.

 Digital To Analog Conversion
(2) Binary Ladder Network
• The weighted resistor network requires a range of resistor values.
• The binary ladder network (Fig.4) requires only two resistance values.
• From node 1, the resistance to the digital source is 2R and resistance
to ground is also 2R.
• From node 2, the resistance to digital source is 2R and resistance to
ground is:

• Thus, from each of the nodes

1,2,3,4, the resistance to source
and ground is 2R each.
• A digital input 000l means that
D is connected to V and A, B, C
are grounded.
• The output voltage 𝑉𝑜 is V/16.
Fig.4 Binary Ladder Network for D/A conversion
 Digital To Analog Conversion
(2) Binary Ladder Network
• A digital input 0010 means that C is
connected to V and A, B, D are grounded,
giving an output of 2V/16.

• Thus, as input varies from 0000 to 1111,

the output varies from V/16 to V insteps
Of V/16.

• A complete digital-to-analog convertor

circuit consists of a number of ladder
with more bits of data), operational
amplifier, gates. etc.
 Examples
Example 3: Fig.5 shows a D/A convertor analog with op-amp. Find the output
of op-amp if the input digital signal is 1011. Assume that binary 1 represents 5
V.

Solution:
• For the input signal 1011, the currents 𝐼0 to 𝐼3 are:

• An op-amp has a very high input impedance. Therefore, the currents 𝐼0 to 𝐼3

flow through 10KΩ resistance.
 Examples
Example 4: The input 𝐷3 𝐷2 𝐷1 𝐷0 in Fig.5 is 0111. Find the output voltage 𝑉𝑜 .
Assume that binary 1 represents 5 V.

Solution:
 Performance characteristics of D/A Converters

• The performance characteristics of D/A converters are :

(1) Resolution
(2) Accuracy
(3) Linear errors
(4) Monotonicity
(5) Settling time
(6) Temperature sensitivity.
 Performance characteristics of D/A Converters
(1) Resolution :
• It is the reciprocal of the number of discrete steps in the D/A output.
• Evidently resolution depends on the number of bits.
• As given by before, percentage resolution is

• where N is the number of bits.

(2) Accuracy :
• It is a measure of the difference between actual output and expected output.
• It is expressed as a percentage of the maximum output voltage.
• If the maximum output voltage (or full scale deflection) is 5 V and accuracy is ± 0.1%,
0.1
then the maximum error is 100 ∗ 5 = 0.005 V or 5 mV.
• Ideally, the accuracy should be better than ± 0.5 of LSB.
• In an 8 bit converter, LSB is 1/256 or 0.39% of full scale.
• The accuracy should be better than 0.2%.
 Performance characteristics of D/A Converters
(3) Linear Error :
• Linearity means that equal increments in digital input of D/A converter should
result in equal increment in analog output voltage.
• lf the values of resistances are very accurate and the other components are also
ideal, there would be perfectly linear relation between output and input and
output-input graph would be a straight line.
• Because of the fact that resistances used in the circuit have some tolerances,
perfectly linear relation between input and output is not obtained.
• A special case of linear error is offset error which is the output voltage when
digital input is 0000.

(4) Monotonicity :
• A D/A convener is monotonic if it does not take any reverse step when it is
sequenced over the entire range of input bits.
 Performance characteristics of D/A Converters
(5) Settling Time :
• When the input signal changes, it is desirable that analog output signal should immediately
show the new output value.
• However, in actual practice, the D/A converter takes sometime to settle at the new position
of the output voltage.
• Settling time is defined as the time taken by the D/A converter to settle with ±0.5 LSB of
its final value. When a change in input digital signal occurs.
• The finite time taken to settle down to
new value is due to the transients and
oscillations in the output voltage.
• Fig. 6 shows the definition of settling
LSB

• time.

Fig.6 Settling time for D/A converter

 Performance characteristics of D/A Converters

(6) Temperature sensitivity:

• The reference voltage supplies and resistors of a D/A converter are all
temperature sensitive.
• Therefore, the analog output voltage depends, at least to some extent, on the
temperature .
• The temperature sensitivity of the offset voltage and the bias current of op-amp
also affect the output voltage.
Reference
• Gupta, B. R., & Singhal, V. (2003). Digital Electronics. SK
Kataria Publishers.

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