Texas Instruments has introduced a family of dual 16-, 14- and 12bit DACs. The DAC8562 family is suitable for space and power-constrained systems, such as PLC (programmable logic control), analogue output modules, motor control, and precision instrumentation.
The DACs feature good precision with 0.1nVs glitch energy, a maximum offset error of 4mV, a maximum INL (integral non-linearity) of 0.75LSB at 12bits and a maximum reference drift of 10ppm/°C. The DACs consume 0.1mA per channel to minimise the power required for VGA control in wireless base stations, as well as to operate tunable laser modules, CNC machines and portable medical devices, such as oscilloscopes and portable blood analysers.
The DACs provide a 20mA sink or source capability to eliminate the need for an external buffer, according to the company. They support different control loops with options for both reset to zero-scale and reset to mid-scale. They are characterised for harsh industrial environments up to 125°C.
The company offers many tools and support to speed development with the DACs, including two evaluation modules for quick evaluation, an IBIS (input output buffer information specification) model to verify board signal integrity requirements, and reference designs for analogue output modules in PLCs, and bipolar output control applications. The DACs are pin-for-pin compatible and are available in either a 3x3mm QFN or 3x5mm MSOP package.
