“Industry’s Highest” Accuracy DAC Delivers 18-bit Monotonic Performance for Precision Industrial Applications

Texas Instruments Incorporated has introduced the industry’s highest accuracy digital-to-analog converter (DAC), which features 18-bit monotonic performance, ±2 LSB integral nonlinearity (INL), ±1 LSB differential nonlinearity (DNL). Delivered in a small QFN-24 package, the DAC9881 enables customers to increase system performance and simplify designs in precision industrial applications such as automatic test equipment, instrumentation, process control, data acquisition and communications systems.

Developed on TI’s HPA07 high-performance analog CMOS process technology, the DAC9881 enables customers to achieve higher levels of system performance in industrial applications, such as the following:
18-bit monotonic performance guarantees stability in closed-loop applications, such as industrial process control
Low linearity error, low noise and 4x more granularity than 16-bit DACs increase accuracy of open-loop applications, such as automatic test equipment
18-bit DAC with integrated low-noise output buffer reduces external components required to achieve 18-bit performance by 75 percent

The DAC9881 is a single-channel, voltage-output DAC with an on-chip, low-noise output buffer, which reduces the number of external components required. The device supports a SPI serial interface capable of operating with input data clock frequencies up to 50 MHz for a fast and flexible interface to the most popular DSPs, MCUs and FPGAs. The DAC combines low power consumption (4 mW at 5 V) and small packaging (QFN-24) to allow higher density board layouts.

Other key features include 24 nV/rtHz noise, 5-µs settling time, rail-to-rail output swing over the full supply range of 2.7 V to 5.5 V and selectable power-on reset to zero-scale or midscale.

Texas Instruments