Basic DAC Architecture

Basic DAC Architectures I: String DACs an Thermometer (Fully Decoded) DACs by Walt Kester 

Rather than simply treating DACs as black boxes having a digital input and an analog output, it 
is much more useful to understand the fundamental DAC architectures in use today. This can 
also aid in the selection process which can be somewhat daunting considering the sheer number 
of DACs currently on the market.  
 
This tutorial examines the most fundamental DAC architectures, the "string" DAC and the 
"thermometer" DAC. String DACs had their origin with Lord Kelvin, who invented the Kelvin 
divider in the mid-1800s. String DACs are popular today, especially in applications such as 
digital potentiometers where resolutions of 6 to  8 bits are typical. Because of their relative 
freedom from code-dependent switching glitches, thermometer DACs are popular building 
blocks in low distortion segmented DACs as well as in pipelined ADCs. More TUTORIAL


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