SEGMENTED DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG CONVERTER HAVING WEIGHTED CURRENT SOURCES

摘要

A digital input to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) is divided into a most significant portion and a lesser significant portion. At least one tap voltage generator generates a plurality of voltages, preferably using a resistor string. A decoder decodes at least one subword that forms the lesser significant portion to generate a corresponding at least one control signal. A switching unit accesses voltages generated by the at least one tap voltage generator in response to the at least one control signal. A scaled current generator generates a respective weighted current from each accessed voltage. An output stage combines all the weighted currents with a voltage that is an analog representation of the most significant portion of the digital input to generate an analog approximation of the entire digital input.