Digital Communications

LAB VI (EE4331) D/A Converters

(5) D/A CONVERTERS

1. OBJECTIVES
Understanding the operation of a digital-to-analog converter.
Understanding the operation of DAC0800.
Studying how to generate unipolar and bipolar outputs using DAC0800.

2. DISCUSSION OF FUNDAMENTALS
The digital-to-analog converters (DAC’s or D/A converters) are used in transforming the
digital signals of transmitted data, stored on media, or the results of computation back to
analog signals for control, information display, or further analog processing.

DAC Operation

In short, D/A converters are the devices by which digital systems communicate with
outside world. A DAC converts digital input states to analog output voltages or currents.
The schematic symbol of a 4-bit DAC is shown in Figure 5-1(a).

Figure 5-1 Fig 10-1 4-bit DAC

The digital inputs D3, D2, D1 and D0 are usually driven by the register output of a digital
system. Figure 5-1(b) shows the truth table of the 4-bit DAC. Each input binary word
produces a single, discrete analog output value. Over the output range of the converter,
24 or 16 different voltage values are produced including zero, and the output has a one-
to-one correspondence with input.

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Figure 5-2 DAC block diagram

Figure 5-2 provides a DAC block diagram. The DAC includes a precision reference voltage
source, digitally controlled switches, resistor network, and an OP AMP. Each resistor in
resistor network is connected to a digitally controlled switch, which connect the resistor
to the reference voltage Vref. The other end of each resistor is connected to the summing
point of OP AMP. The digital input states determine the states of switches and the OP AMP
converts the DAC output current Iout to the output voltage Vout.

Resistor network is the major configuration of DAC circuit. There are two popular types:
weighted-resistor network and R-2R ladder resistor network. The weighted-resistor
method can be considered that the value of each summing resistor is inversely
proportional to the weight of the digital bit actuating the series switch. The weighted-
resistor technique has the advantages of simplicity and high speed. A difficulty in
implementing higher resolution DAC designs is that a wide range of resistors is required,
and very high value resistors cause problems with both temperature stability and
switching speed. If the resistors were to be manufactured in integrated circuit (IC) form,
such a range would be totally impractical. The advantage of the R-2R ladder method is
that only two values (R and 2R) of resistors are required, with the resultant ease of
matching or trimming.

Figure 5-3 shows a 4-bit R-2R ladder DAC circuit. The resistor network consists of series
resistors of R and shunt resistors of 2R. Observation of the R-2R ladder configuration
reveals that at any of points A, B, C, and D the resistance is 2R looking to the right;
therefore, the reference input to the ladder has a resistance of R. According to this
property, the output current can be derived from the following:

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Figure 5-3 4-bit R-2R ladder DAC

where D3, D2, D1 and D0 may be either “1” or “0” depended on the positions of switches.

Input Weight

For a DAC each digital input bit has its own weight which is the analog output value when
the bit is 1. Consider the 4-bit DAC of Figure 5-1(a). If D0 = 1 and D1 = D2 = D3 =0, the
analog output value of 1V is the weight of D0. Similarly, the weights of D2 and D3 are 2V,
4V and 8V, respectively. To obtain the resultant analog output, it is simple by adding these
weights up. For example, the analog output voltage Vout should be 4+2+1= 7V for the
digital input 0111.

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Resolution and Step Value

The resolution of DAC is defined as the smallest difference of the analog output when the
digital input changes a unit count. It is usually an LSB weight. Referring to Figure 5-1(b),
the Vout increases an analog value of 1 V for each unit count fed to the digital input. Thus,
the resolution of this DAC is 1V.

Figure 5-4 Staircase-ramp DAC

The resolution is also called the step value or the step height. Consider the 4-bit staircase-
ramp DAC shown in Figure 5-4. The output voltage increases by 1V for each unit count fed
to the input. The output difference between steps, called the step height, is exactly 1V.

DAC 0800 Digital-to-Analog Converter

The DAC 0800 is an inexpensive monolithic 8-bit DAC including the reference voltage
source, R-2R ladder and transistor switches. Figure 5-5 shows the pin configuration of
DAC0800.

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Figure 5-5 DAC 0800 pin configuration

Power supply requirements of the DAC0800 are ±4.5 V to ±18 V. Power dissipation is
33mW with ± 5 VDC power supplies and the settling time is about 85 nS. With
complementary current outputs Iout (pin 4) and ̅̅̅̅̅
𝐼𝑜𝑢𝑡 (pin 2), the DAC0800 can be used in
either unipolar or bipolar output.

Figure 5-6 shows the unipolar voltage output DAC using the DAC0800 with µA741. The
Vref(-) pin is grounded through the resistor R2. The positive reference source +5 V is
applied to Vref(+) pin through series resistor R1. Therefore, the reference current lref
flowing through Ri is found to be
𝑉𝑟𝑒𝑓
𝐼𝑟𝑒𝑓 = (10-1)
𝑅1

The output current Iout is

(10-2)

Figure 5-6 DAC0800 unipolar voltage output circuit

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This Iout, the current flowing out of the converter, is then converted to an output voltage
by the µA741. The voltage output Vout can be given by

𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 = 𝐼𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑅3 (10-3)

The bipolar voltage output circuit of DAC0800 is shown in Figure 5-7. The ̅̅̅̅̅
𝐼𝑜𝑢𝑡 pin is
connected to the noninverting input of µA741 instead of to ground in Figure 5-6. Thus, the
µA741 output voltage can be evaluated by

where Iout and ̅̅̅̅̅

𝐼𝑜𝑢𝑡 are complementary current outputs. By definition, the full

scale current can be expressed as 𝐼𝐹𝑆 = Iout+𝐼̅̅̅̅̅ ̅̅̅̅̅

𝑜𝑢𝑡 , and the 𝐼𝑜𝑢𝑡 is

Figure 5-7 DAC0800 bipolar voltage output circuit

Substituting Eq. (10-5) into Eq. (10-4), we obtain

3. EQUIPMENT REQUIRED
Module KL-96001
Module KL-94001
DMM

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4. EXPERIMENTS AND RECORDS

Experiment 10-1 DAC0800 Unipolar Voltage Output

Locate DAC0800 Unipolar Digital-to-Analog Converter circuit on Module KL-94001.

Insert the connect plug in J1 to connect the DAC0800 output lout (pin 4) to the µA741
input (pin 2).
Calculate and record the step value in Table 5-1.
Set input switches D0 through D7 to correct positions 0000 0000. (“0” = GND; “1” = +5
V)
Using Eqs. (10-2) and (10-3), calculate and record the output current lout and output
voltage Vout in Table 5-1.
Remove the connect plug from J1. Measure the lout by connecting the DMM current
meter between DAC0800 output and µA741 input. Record the result in Table 5-1.
Remove the DMM and reinsert the connect plug in J1. Measure the output voltage Vout
at µA741 output (O/P) using the DMM voltmeter and record the result in Table 5-1.
Following the digital codes listed in Table 5-1, change the switches D7 to D0 and repeat
steps 5 and 6 sequentially. Record the results in Table 5-1.

Experiment 10-2 DAC0800 Bipolar Voltage Output

Locate DAC0800 Bipolar Digital-to-Analog Converter on Module KL-94001. Insert

connect plugs in J1 and J2.
Calculate and record the step value in Table 5-2.
Set input switches D0 through D7 to correct positions 0000 0000. (“0” = GND; “1” = +5
V)
Using Eqs. (10-2) and (10-6), calculate and record the values of Vout in Table 5-2.
Using the DMM, measure the output voltage Vout and record the result in Table 5-2.
Remove the connect plug from J1. Measure the output current lout by connecting the
DMM in J1 and record the result in Table 5-2.
Remove the connect plug from J2 and insert it in J1. Measure the output current ̅̅̅̅̅
𝐼𝑜𝑢𝑡
by connecting the DMM in J2 and record the result in Table 5-2.
Calculate the value of Iout+ ̅̅̅̅̅
𝐼𝑜𝑢𝑡 and record the result in Table 5-2.
Following the digital codes listed in Table 5-2, change the switches D7 to D0 and repeat
steps 5 through 8 sequentially. Record the results in Table 5-2.

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Table 5-1

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Table 5-2

5. QUESTIONS
In Figure 5-6, if the digital inputs are 01101010, calculate the output voltage by the
weight of bit.
From a point of view of the step size or the output range, compare the unipolar output
with the bipolar output.
According to the results of Table 5-2, comment on the relationship between Iout and
̅̅̅̅̅
𝐼𝑜𝑢𝑡 .

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