Abstracts

ADCs and DACs trade off performance and resolution

By Kush Parikh, Technical Sales Representative

Analog-to-digital (A/D) converters and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters provide the real-world interface for digital signal processing systems. In applications such as multimedia PCs and wireless communications, a converter's performance is vital to the performance of the entire system. Two key performance criteria are sampling speed and bit resolution or precision. In many cases, designers face a trade-off between these criteria. Different types of converter architectures offer system designers a range of choices in speed and resolution for optimal use in their applications. Among the choices in A/D architectures are flash, pipeline, successive-approximation register and sigma-delta converters. D/A architectures include resistor converters (resistor-string and R-2Rs) and current-mode converters (current-steering single-ended, current-mode-differential and continuously calibrating). This article explains the design trade-offs of each of these types of converter architectures. For the complete article, see: Related Product Information.

Excerpted from an article that appeared in the April '98 issue of Electronic Products.

Defining the data converter frontiers

By Tom Lahutsky, New Product Development Manager, Data Converters, Mixed Signal Products Group

Recent advances in digital signal processing (DSP) solutions have brought real-world sights and sounds into the domain of digital equipment. You can watch and listen to events live on your PC over the Internet. You can listen to CDs, talk on wireless phones and play some incredibly realistic video games.

None of that would be possible without increasing innovation in ADC and DAC technology. Data converters provide the two required bridges between the analog and digital worlds. As a result, data converters pose interesting and challenging trade-offs relative to integration and process technology. Should a device be developed in an analog or digital CMOS, bipolar or BiCMOS process is a key question to data converter designers. There are two frontiers that are continually being pushed forward: The integration frontier and the leading-edge frontier. What determines these frontiers? They're all about speed, resolution and market demand. For the complete article, see: www.edtn.com/analog/tom.htm.

Excerpted from a column that appeared in Analog Avenue, an online EDTN publication.