Introduction to Data Converters
The signal can be analog or digital by nature. Sometimes we need to convert analog signal into digital equivalent and vice versa.
The electronics circuits used for such a conversion area called as data converters.
Due to the advantages offered by he digital systems, they are widely used in many fields such as instrumentation, computers, communication and control.
In many such applications the signal are not available in digital form.
Most of the physical quantities such as temperature, pressure, displacement, vibrations etc. are available in analog form. These quantities are represented accurately in analog form but it is difficult to process, store or transmit the analog signal because error gets introduced easily, sue to noise.
Hence to reduce these errors, it is always better to express these physical quantities in the digital form.
The digital representation of a signal makes strong possible, processing simpler and transmission easier.
Therefore A to D conversion is necessary. now once the processing, transmission etc. is done the signal should be back to its analog form, for which the D to A conversion is essential.
Both A to D and D to A circuits are called as Data converters and they are available in the IC form.
Types of Data Converters
The data converters are basically two types:
The classification of data converters is shown in the figure below:
The D/A converter is sometimes considered as a decoding devices, whereas an A/D converter is referred to as an encoding device.
We will consider the D/A conversion first, since it is a straight process as compared to A/D conversion.
