DACs are used to convert a digitally coded signal to an analog signal, or in conjunction with successive approximation circuitry as part of an analog-to-digital converter. DACs may employ a voltage applied across a resistor string. Switches, such as transistors, couple intermediate taps at the resistor junctions, as well as at the resistor-potential junctions, to an output node. The digitally coded signal is decoded to determine which switch to turn on. The magnitude of an analog voltage produced at the output node depends on which switch is turned on. Precisely generating an analog voltage that corresponds to a digitally coded signal necessitates the resistors of the resistance string have identical resistances. Even with identical resistances in the resistor string, the analog voltage at the output node can be inaccurate because any noise voltage induced in series with the reference voltage source of a voltage driven resistor string DAC changes the voltage across each resistor in the resistor string, and thus the voltage at each intermediate tap. The noise voltage at each intermediate tap is not the same, resulting in an erroneous analog voltage being produced at the output node.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds