The D/A Converter: Functionality and Specifications

Abstract

Although the digital world is gaining in importance due to the decreasing feature size of transistors in the rapidly evolving semiconductor technology, the analog building blocks have proven to be indispensable. The advantages of digital processing (easier design, extensive programmability, ...) are counteracted by the fact that people perceive information in an analog form (f.i. speech). The design of the interface between the analog and the digital system (the A/D and the D/A converter) has to comply with the stringent specifications required by modern complex digital systems. Furthermore, additional problems -like the substrate noise coupling from the digital to the analog parts on the chip- add to the complexity of the design.