Digital-to-analog converters (dacs) are prevalent inindustrial control and automated test applications.General-purpose automated test equipment often requiresmany channels of precisely controlled voltagesthat span several voltage ranges. The LTC2704 is ahighly integrated 16-bit, 4-channel dac for high-endapplications. It has a wide range of features designed toincrease performance and simplify design.
Differential Nonlinearity: Ideally, any two adjacent digitalcodes correspond to output analog voltages that are exactlyone LSB apart. Differential non-linearity is a measure of theworst case deviation from the ideal 1 LSB step. For example,a dac with a 1.5 LSB output change for a 1 LSB digital codechange exhibits 1⁄2 LSB differential non-linearity. Differentialnon-linearity may be expressed in fractional bits or as a percentageof full scale. A differential non-linearity greater than1 LSB will lead to a non-monotonic transfer function in adac.Gain Error (Full Scale Error): The difference between theoutput voltage (or current) with full scale input code and theideal voltage (or current) that should exist with a full scale inputcode.Gain Temperature Coefficient (Full Scale TemperatureCoefficient): Change in gain error divided by change in temperature.Usually expressed in parts per million per degreeCelsius (ppm/°C).Integral Nonlinearity (Linearity Error): Worst case deviationfrom the line between the endpoints (zero and full scale).Can be expressed as a percentage of full scale or in fractionof an LSB.LSB (Lease-Significant Bit): In a binary coded system thisis the bit that carries the smallest value or weight. Its value isthe full scale voltage (or current) divided by 2n, where n is theresolution of the converter.Monotonicity: A monotonic function has a slope whose signdoes not change. A monotonic dac has an output thatchanges in the same direction (or remains constant) for eachincrease in the input code. the converse is true for decreasing codes.
