[volt-nuts] Building a high resolution DAC

Attila Kinali attila at kinali.ch
Mon Aug 17 09:16:05 EDT 2015


Hi,

I have been pondering how to build a high resolution DAC over the weekend.
Something like [1] but has the disadvantage of needing a pair of resistors
that have a 1:2^16 ratio. The 1M/15.4R is kind of unwieldy.
Fidling around a bit, I came to the conclusion that using an R-100R ladder
with 4 10bit PWM DACs would be a good solution. 100R and 10k resistors
are readily available in 0.1% 25ppm/°C (and actually quite cheap).
While the first stage gives 10bits, each additional stage gives
approximately another 7bits, resulting in a total of 29bits resolution.
The 3 remaining bits per stage can be used to linearize the whole
circuit.

Now this is where the problem starts. How do I measure the circuitry
to build a linearization table? The linearity error is dominated by
the first stage error which is in the order of 0.1% and thus 10bits.
It would be necessary to measure this to somewhere close to 29bits, but
the best DACs that are readily available are 24bit. Yes, there is the
possibility to build some ADC that could do 28bit, but I am not exactly
keen on building something aking an HP3458 (mostly to avoid the
embarrasment of failing at doing so).

So, the question is how would one calibrate something like this?
Or am I missing something fundamental here?


Thanks in advance

			Attila Kinali

[1] "DC-accurate 32-bit DAC achieves 32-bit resolution",
by Stephen Woodward, 2008

-- 
It is upon moral qualities that a society is ultimately founded. All 
the prosperity and technological sophistication in the world is of no 
use without that foundation.
                 -- Miss Matheson, The Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson


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