If required, resistors can be attached with the outputs for interpreting the result as analog output.

The binary inputs toggle the respective legs of the ladder, enabling an output current that's a weighted sum of the current reference. The current switches are linked with the binary switches, producing an output current proportional to the input binary value. This can be seen locked between reference current source and current switches. The figure below shows the block diagram of a standard DAC using a ladder network, referenced as a R-2R ladder. Typically, for n number of ladder steps, this can be represented through the following formula: Thus, adding more number of ladder stages will give us proportionately higher resolution.

In this case, if we used a reference voltage V ref = 10 V would generate output voltage in steps of 10 V / 1024, or at around 10 mV. Meaning, suppose if we use a 10 step ladder network, will allow use to increase the voltage step quantity or the resolution to V ref/2 10 or V ref/1024. Therefore, it may be possible to process more binary inputs by including more number of ladder units, and to accomplish higher quantization for each step. Through 0000 to 1111 into one of the 16 voltage quantities at intervals of V ref/16. The purpose of the ladder network is to change the 16 potential binary magnitudes Solving the above example we get the following output voltage:Īs we see, a digital input of 0110 2 gets converted to an analog output of 6 V. The output voltage is proportionate to the digital input value as expressed by the equation: The figure below demonstrates a ladder network using 4 input voltages, that represent 4 bits of digital data and a dc voltage output. One well-known method utilizes a network of resistors, known as ladder network.Ī ladder network is designed to accept inputs involving binary values typically at 0 V or Vref and delivers an output voltage equivalent to the magnitude of the binary input.

How Digital-to-Analog Converters Workĭigital-to-analog conversion process can be carried out through many different techniques. In a analog to digital converters (ADC), the input analog signal is represented as a digital magnitude, while a digital-analog converter (DAC) converts the digital magnitude back to an analog signal.

In digital circuits the voltage signal is in two forms, either as a logic high or logic low logic levels, which represent binary values of 1 or 0. In electronics we may find voltages and currents varying continuously with different ranges and magnitudes. In this article we comprehensively discuss how digital to analog, and analog to digital converter circuits work, using diagrams and formulas.

Analog to digital converter schematic