DACs eliminate the need for an external precision reference

Texas Instruments DACx0504 Voltage-Output DACs are low-power, four-channel, buffered voltage-output, DACs with 16 or 14-bit resolution. The devices includes a low drift, 2.5- internal reference, removing the requirement for an external precision reference in most applications. A user-selectable gain configuration provides full-scale output voltages of 1.25V (gain = 1/2), 2.5V (gain = 1), or 5V (gain = 2). These devices operate from a single 2.7V to 5.5V supply, are specified monotonic, and provide high linearity of ±1LSB INL.

Communication to the device is performed through a four-wire serial interface that operates at clock rates of up to 50MHz. The VIO pin allows serial interface operation from 1.7V to 5.5V. The DACx0504 flexible interface facilitates operation with a broad range of industry-standard microprocessors and microcontrollers.

The device includes a power-on-reset circuit that powers up and maintains the DAC outputs at either zero scale or midscale until a valid code is written to the devices. These devices use a low current of 0.7mA/channel at 5.5V, making them ideal for battery-operated equipment. A per-channel power-down feature reduces the current consumption to 15µA.

Typical applications include optical networking, wireless infrastructure, industrial automation, and data acquisition systems.