Jamie Morken said:
Hi,
I noticed some DAC's are current output instead of voltage output,
what is the practical difference when using these in a circuit and
in what situations would it be better to use a current output DAC?
cheers,
Jamie
Hi Jamie,
When designing with current output DACs, the practical difference is that
you will usually need to select an appropriate op amp to work with the DAC
to convert the current output to a voltage.
Current output DACs don't put the "output op amp" on the chip so that you
can select your own output opamp, depending on your bandwidth, noise,
accuracy (dc precision), settling time and power requirements.
When selecting opamps you often trade off bandwidth for DC precision, so you
don't want to select an opamp with excessive bandwidth.
Sometimes you need to use a current output DAC to meet your design
requirements. At other times, you might select a DAC because of it's other
specifications (such as high sample rate / bandwidth), and it will also
happen to be current output.
Anthony Burch
http://www.SuperSolderingSecrets.com Video tutorials show prototype
soldering techniques