AD5320
Rev. C | Page 11 of 20
THEORY OF OPERATION
D/A SECTION
The AD5320 DAC is fabricated on a CMOS process. The
architecture consists of a string DAC followed by an output
buffer amplifier. Because there is no reference input pin, the
power supply (V
DD
) acts as the reference. Figure 23 shows a
block diagram of the DAC architecture.
DD
V
OUT
GND
RESISTOR
STRING
REF (+)
REF (–)
OUTPUT
AMPLIFIER
DAC REGISTER
00934-023
Figure 23. DAC Architecture
Since the input coding to the DAC is straight binary, the ideal
output voltage is given by:
⎟
⎠
⎞
⎜
⎝
⎛
×=
4096
D
VV
DD
OUT
where
D = decimal equivalent of the binary code that is loaded
to the DAC register; it can range from 0 to 4095.
RESISTOR STRING
The resistor string section is shown in Figure 24. It is simply a
string of resistors, each of value R. The code loaded to the DAC
register determines at which node on the string the voltage is
tapped off to be fed into the output amplifier. The voltage is
tapped off by closing one of the switches connecting the string
to the amplifier. Because it is a string of resistors, it is
guaranteed monotonic.
R
R
R
R
R
TO OUTPUT
AMPLIFIER
00934-024
Figure 24. Resistor String
OUTPUT AMPLIFIER
The output buffer amplifier is capable of generating rail-to-rail
voltages on its output that gives an output range of 0 V to V
DD
. It
is capable of driving a load of 2 kΩ in parallel with 1000 pF to
GND. The source and sink capabilities of the output amplifier
can be seen in
Figure 11 and Figure 12. The slew rate is 1 V/μs
with a half-scale settling time of 8 μs with the output unloaded.