A Chinese Abacus DAC for Video Applications

This paper proposes an 8-bit DAC suitable for video applications. This DAC circuit uses resister strings to get a good analog output. The designed DAC uses the algorithm of Chinese abacus. The 8-bit DAC is comprised of 12 resistors and 24 NMOS switches. The simulation environment uses TSMC 0.18 mum process technology. The integral non-linear error (INL) and the differential non-linear error (DNL) are 0.4 LSB and 0.25 LSB, respectively. The power consumption is 2.79mW/MHz. Therefore, the proposed DAC is suitable to the high speed, low power applications.