DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG CONVERTER COMPRISING SLOW CONVERTER SECTION AND FAST CONVERTER SECTION

摘要

A digital-to-analog converter for converting digital values to an analog output signal includes a first converter section and a second converter section operating at different conversion rates. A first analog signal provided by the first converter section and a second analog signal provided by the second converter section are combined to obtain the analog output signal. The concept may be used in fields of DAC applications where the sample rate is much higher than the signal bandwidth. The limited signal bandwidth means that the maximum change between two neighboring samples is a small fraction of the whole DAC range. The first converter section may cover a large range of values, whereas for the second converter section a relatively small range of values may be sufficient.

主权项

1. A digital-to-analog converter for converting digital values to an analog output signal, the digital-to-analog converter comprising:
a first converter section configured to convert a first, temporarily constant portion of a sequence of the digital values at a first conversion rate to a first analog signal, wherein the temporarily constant portion is constant for at least one conversion period of the first converter section; a second converter section configured to convert a second portion of the digital values at a second conversion rate to a second analog signal, wherein the second conversion rate is higher than the first conversion rate; and a signal combiner configured to combine at least the first analog signal and the second analog signal to obtain the analog output signal.