New concept for DAC testing under dynamic condition by the comparison with reference voltage

The precise Digital to Analog Converters (DAC) are the key parts of many electronic equipment and the improvements of their performance together with increasing resolution is challenging problem for testing. Proposed method provides DAC linearity testing under dynamic condition by comparison of the DAC output voltage with the reference signal using fast comparator and strobed latch registering DAC input code at the equality of voltages. The reference signal is the superposition of DC voltage and the dithering signal. Accuracy of DC measurement together with the linearity of dithering signal is responsible for the metrological traceability. The proposed data processing algorithm determine Integral non-linearity (INL) and Differential non-linearity (DNL) from recorded code words. Theoretical analysis and simulation included in paper affirm the performance of the proposed technique.