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Introduction
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digital signal contained two outputs? Then we could say up to four statements through
all the possible permutations of 0.V and 5.V. If we keep going and our circuit has eight
outputs, we find that we now have a vocabulary of 256 words. The average person uses
2000 different words a week which could be accomplished using only 11 such outputs
and an elaborate look-up table. At the end of the day, we find that we just don’t have that
much to say and the price we pay in limiting our vocabulary is worth being able to make
concrete, errorless statements.
A prime example is the comparison between cassette tapes and CD’s. Why was
music piracy not much of an issue in the day’s of cassette tapes? They were actually
easier to copy than CD’s are. The reason was that the data on a cassette was encoded as
an analog signal. Each copy lost some quality and so there was always a market for new
cassettes since the new cassettes were closest to the master recording. However, a CD is
encoded as digital data. It is possible to reproduce them exactly even from copies. While
the CD suffers from the fact that each data value is made from a limited number of bits,
each taking on one of two possible values, the vocabulary of values this outlines is large
enough that your ear can’t tell the difference.
This lab will focus on the translation between the analog and digital domains.
Such circuits are found in almost all devices. There are thousands that are commercially
available. While you will never need to build one in “real world,” doing so will expose
you to several key engineering concepts.
D0 D1 D2 D3
VFS
D0
D1
D2
D3
Figure 1: Pictorial representation of Analog-to-digital conversion. The bars on the left in blue give the
digital equivalent of the analog wavevorm (4-bit).
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VFS
VFS
VFS
VFS
VFS
VFS
VFS
VFS
Figure 2: Determination of consecutive bits. The top graph shows how the most significant bit it
determined; the 2nd graph shows the remainder generated by the first bit centered and rescaled to –VFS to
+VFS, and how that is used to determine the second bit. etc.
digital values will change. This is shown below in white and black stripes.
Notice that there is no pattern to when the waveform crosses the boundaries. This
is an asynchronous A-D converter. Alternatively you could use a device called a
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“sample-and-hold” to take snapshots of the analog input at fixed intervals. This is what is
commonly done so that recorded data can be read back on at a fixed rate and be
meaningful. However, we’re not recording the data so that won’t be necessary.
Consider the following circuit. In op-amp “A,” the signal AIn is compared to
ground. If it is higher the output of op-amp A goes to approximately -10.5V while if Ain
is lower, the output of the op-amp goes to +10.5V. This signal is led into a voltage
limiter. If the LED has a turn-on voltage of VLED (about 1.9 V) and the diode has a turn-
on voltage of Vdiode (about 0.6 V), then the resulting voltage will be either
+ ( VLED + Vdiode ) or − ( VLED + Vdiode ) ,
depending on the sign of the input. What’s
more, one of the LED’s will be lit, so you can
tell what that sign is. In this case, this is the
most significant bit, telling us which half of
the space the value lies in.
Remember the goal is to provide an
analog output which represents the
“remainder” of the first comparator. This
remainder must be centered and amplified so Figure 4: AIn (blue), DOut (violet), and AOut
that it goes from −VFB to + VFB (Fig. 2b). (green) for the circuit in Fig. 3.
Output of the voltage limiter is then combined
with the original signal through a voltage divider. Remember that our comparator is
providing a negative signal if the voltage is positive and a positive signal if it is negative.
If we perform a weighted average of the output of the comparator with the original input,
it will lower the positive voltages and raise the negative ones. At this point we don’t care
what the amplitude of this signal is, only that it is symmetric around ground. That is,
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Figure 3: Circuit of a 1-bit of the A.D converter.
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Digital to Analog Converter (DAC)
After a CD player reads the
values in binary, they must be converted
to an analog signal so that it can be
amplified and sent to the speakers.
A very simple DAC can be
constructed using only resisters. All the
curvy resistors have the same variables
If all the inputs are −Vdig , then the output Figure 6: 4 bit digital-to-analog converter. All
resistors pictured as angled lines have the same
at Vout will be −Vdig . If all the inputs are value.
+Vdig , then the output will be +Vdig . It is
left as part of the prelab to show that.
1
Aout = ( 8 D0 + 4 D1 + 2 D2 + D3 )
15
In practice, this is not the most common style of DAC. Another called an R-2R
resister network is far more prevalent, but the one pictured is far easier to analyze and
will handle bipolar inputs better.
Pre-Lab
1. Determine appropriate values R9, R10, R11, R12, and R13 such that this ADC has a
range from -5V to +5V and the LEDs don’t burn out.
2. Consider only the first stage. Given ±5% on all resistor values, quantify the error in
the “remainder” analog output of stage one. Given that uncertainty, how many bits are
theoretically worthwhile.
3. Analytically show that the resistor network in the DAC is indeed a base two DAC. In
otherwords, Aout = a ( 20 D0 + 2 −1 D1 + 2 −2 D2 + 2 −3 D3 ) + b , where a and b are arbitrary.
Lab Experiment
Equipment:
In-Lab Experiment:
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Figure 7: Overall structure of ADC inline with a DAC.
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Figure 8: Analog signal (smooth) which has been rendered into digital data and then reformed back into
an analog signal. Below is a plot of the LSB (D3).
Brian Edwards
February 5, 2007
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