CHAPTER 3 DATA CONVERSION

1.The analogue signal consists of a continuously changing voltage level

whereas the digital signal shown consists of a series of discrete voltage
levels that alternate between logic 0 (‘low’ or ‘off’) and logic 1 (‘high’ or ‘on’
2 voltage levels)
Digital signals: A digital signal is defined as the signal which has only a
finite number of distinct values. Digital signals are not continuous signal
they are discrete signals.
Circuits like amplifiers and transducers generate analogue and computers
generate digital signals.
To convert analogue to digital or digital to analogue we require circuits.
These are called interfaces. DAC -digital to analogue & ADC – analogue to
digital converter.
A digital to analogue converter DAC is a decoding circuit. An analogue to
digital converter ADC is called an encoder circuit.
TYPES OF DIGITAL TO ANALOGUE CONVERSION: -
1) Binary Weighted DAC (Resistive Divider)
2) Binary Ladder DAC (R-2R Ladder DAC)
Binary Weighted DAC (Resistive Divider): It is basically a summing amp (op-
amp) whose output will be inverted. The simplest form of digital to
converter uses a set of binary weighted resistors to define the voltage gain
of an operational summing amplifier and a four-bit binary latch to store the
binary input whilst it is being converted.
The binary weighted method or the resistive divider method has the
following disadvantages.
 Each resistance has a different value and the error or tolerance in
each resistance adds up.
 The msb resistor has a very low value and it will draw large current,
 This large current causes unwanted heat and power dissipation.
 Impedance matching is difficult.
 Poor resolution and for accuracy resistance tolerance should be < 1
percent.
Binary Ladder DAC (R-2R Ladder DAC)
Here only two values of resistance are required R and 2R. R can be any
value provided 2R is double. The advantage of this method is that it uses
only 2 values of resistances. It avoids using a large number of resistances of
different values. The values of R and 2R need not be precision values but
relative precision should be accurate. This method is easy to manufacture in
an IC.
DAC or digital to analogue is a decoding device.
The basic digital to analogue converter (DAC) has a number of digital inputs
(often 8, 10, 12, or 16) and a single analogue output.
Resolution of a DAC is generally stated in bits. It can also be expressed in
number of incremental voltage levels it can produce. Thus, a DAC with 8
inputs would be capable of producing 28 OR 256 Levels. Hence, we can say
that the resolution is 8 bits or 256 voltage levels. Similarly, a 10-input device
will have a resolution of 10 bits or 1024 levels.
Accuracy: it is the degree to which the analogue output is correct. (How
much close the analogue voltage obtained is to the theoretically
determined value). The accuracy is improved by introducing Zener diodes
called BAND GAP reference diodes at the input.
The accuracy of a DAC depends not only on the values of the resistance
used also on the reference voltage used to define the voltage levels.
Typical DAC have accuracies of 1% or 2%.
Since the output may be quantised, the waveform can be smoothened by
using low pass filters.
D/A CONVERTER APPLICATIONS: Used at the end of a digital processing
chain where analogue signals are required. Digital Audio– CD / MP3 Players,
HD radio, Digital telephones Digital Video– DVD Players, DTV, Computer
displays Industrial Control Systems– Motor control, valves, transducer
excitation. Waveform Function Generators, test equipment• Calibration /
tuning in embedded systems.

ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL CONVERSION or encoders

The basic analogue to digital converter (ADC) has a single analogue input
and a number of digital outputs (often 8, 10, 12, or 16 lines).
Sampling is the process of converting a continuous analogue time signal
into a discrete time representation. Sampling means value of the signals at
fixed or pre-determined intervals.
In order to represent an analogue signal using digital codes it is necessary to
approximate (or quantize) the signal into a set of discrete voltage levels.
Once a sampled value is determined this has to be converted into a digital
signal, for example if a sampled value is 4V it will be quantised to 4 pulses
or 8 pulses.
 Quantization: Digitizing the amplitude value is called quantization. That is
converting the sampled value to a fixed number of pulses of constant
magnitude in proportion is called quantisation.
DIFFERENT types of ADC
 Flash ADC
 Digital-Ramp ADC
 Successive Approximation ADC
 Dual slope type ADC

1) FLASH ADC:-

 In this type of ADC the incoming analogue voltage is compared with a

series of fixed reference voltages using a number of operational
amplifiers called comparators.
 Flash ADC are extremely fast in operation (hence the name) but they
become rather impractical as the resolution increases.
 An 8-bit flash ADC would require 256 – 1 =255 operational amplifier
comparators and a 10-bit device would need a 1,024 – 1 = 1023
comparator stages.
 It also consists of a priority encoder. The priority encoder is a logic
device that produces a binary output code that indicates the value of the
most significant logic 1 received on one of its inputs.
 Typical conversion times for a flash ADC lie in the range 50 ns to 1μs so
this type of ADC is ideal for ‘fast’ or rapidly changing analogue signals.
Due to their complexity, flash ADC are relatively expensive.
2) SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATION ADC:-
 It contains the following : 1) A DAC with R-2R 2) an op amp 3)successive
approximating register 4) 8bit latch 5)End of conversion signal generator
and start conversion processor.
 Successive approximation ADC are significantly slower than flash types
and typical conversion times (i.e. the time between the SC and EOC
signals) are in the range 10 μs to 100 μs.
 Despite this, conversion times are fast enough for most non-critical
applications and this type of ADC is relatively simple and available at
low-cost.

3) DIGITAL-RAMP ADC:-
It consists of a ramp generator, comparator, logic gates and counter.
 The output of the DAC is applied to the other terminal of the
 Typical conversion times lie in the range 500 μs to 20 ms.
4) DUAL SLOPE TYPE ADC:-
In dual slope type ADC, an integrator generates two different ramps, one with
the known analogue input voltage and another with a known reference
voltage . Hence it is called a s dual slope A to D converter.
 Very high degree of accuracy is obtained in this method and noise level
is very slow. Conversion times lie in the range 500 μs to 20 ms.

 APPLICATIONS ADC
a. Speech recognition
b. Special AUDIO effects (reverb, noise cancellation, etc)
c. Video Filtering, Special effects Compression
d. Data logging, (DECIMAL TO Binary signals OR VICEVERSA

Sl no Type of ADC advantages disadvantages

1 FLASH Very fast Large number of
50ns to 1µs comparators
2 SUCCESSIVE Simple low Comparatively slow 10 µs
APPROXIMATION cost, to 100 µs
3 RAMP Very high Slow 500µs to 2ms
degree of
accuracy
4 DUAL RAMP Very high Slow 500µs to 2ms
degree of
accuracy and
also rejects
noise

LIMITS OF ADC CONVERSION OR DAC: The conversion introduces 2 kinds

of noise: one is the reconstruction noise and the sampling noise. These
two combines in the final stages and results in loss of quality.
LATENCY is the speed of conversion in an ADC.
Four-bit ADC with input 0 to 5V has a quantisation step size of 1/ 2 4 =
1/16 = 0.3125
Thus four bit ADC has an accuracy of +/- 3.1%
14 bit ADC has accuracy of +/- 0.0006%