AD8522

REV. A

–5–

OPERATION

The AD8522 is a complete ready-to-use dual 12-bit digital-to-

analog converter. Only one +5 V power supply is necessary for

operation. It contains two voltage-switched, 12-bit, laser-

trimmed digital-to-analog converters, a curvature-corrected

bandgap reference, rail-to-rail output op amps, input registers,

and DAC registers. The serial data interface consists of a serial

data input (SDI), clock (CLK), and two load strobe pins (LDA,

LDB

) with an active low CS strobe. In addition, an asynchro-

nous RS pin will set all DAC register bits to zero causing the

tions when the MSB pin is programmed to Logic 1. This func-

tion is useful for power on reset or system failure recovery to a

known state.

D/A CONVERTER SECTION

The internal DAC is a 12-bit voltage-mode device with an out-

put that swings from AGND potential to the 2.5 V internal

bandgap voltage. It uses a laser-trimmed R-2R ladder which is

switched by N channel MOSFETs. The output voltage of the

DAC has a constant resistance independent of digital input

code. The DAC output is internally connected to the rail-to-rail

output op amp.

AMPLIFIER SECTION

The internal DAC’s output is buffered by a low power con-

sumption precision amplifier. This low power amplifier contains

a differential PNP pair input stage that provides low offset volt-

age and low noise, as well as the ability to amplify the zero-scale

DAC output voltages. The rail-to-rail amplifier is configured in

a gain of 1.638 (= 4.095 V/2.5 V) in order to set the 4.095 V

full-scale output (1 mV/LSB). See Figure 4 for an equivalent

circuit schematic of the analog section.

BUFFER

2R

2R

2R

2R

R

R

SPDT

N CH FET

SWITCHES

2R

R2

R1

RAIL-TO-RAIL

OUTPUT

AMPLIFIER

BANDGAP

REFERENCE

2.5V

VOLTAGE SWITCHED 12-BIT

R-2R D/A CONVERTER

= 1.638V/V

Figure 4. Equivalent AD8522 Schematic of Analog Portion

The op amp has a 16

µs typical settling time to 0.01%. There

are slight differences in settling time for negative slewing signals

versus positive. See the oscilloscope photos in the “Typical Per-

formance Characteristics” section of this data sheet.

OUTPUT SECTION

The rail-to-rail output stage of this amplifier has been designed

to provide precision performance while operating near either

power supply. Figure 5 shows an equivalent output schematic of

the rail-to-rail amplifier with its N channel pull-down FETs that

will pull an output load directly to GND. The output sourcing

current is provided by a P channel pull-up device that can sup-

ply GND terminated loads, especially important at the –10%

supply tolerance value of 4.5 V.

P-CH

N-CH

AGND

Figure 5. Equivalent Analog Output Circuit

Figures 6 and 7 in the typical performance characteristics sec-

tion provide information on output swing performance near

ground and full scale as a function of load. In addition to resis-

tive load driving capability the amplifier has also been carefully

designed and characterized for up to 500 pF capacitive load

driving capability.

REFERENCE SECTION

The internal 2.5 V curvature-corrected bandgap voltage refer-

ence is laser trimmed for both initial accuracy and low tempera-

ture coefficient. The voltage generated by the reference is

heavy external loads, it must be buffered. The equivalent emit-

ever, bypassing is not required for proper operation. Figure 10

shows broad band noise performance.

POWER SUPPLY

The very low power consumption of the AD8522 is a direct

result of a circuit design optimizing use of a CBCMOS process.

By using the low power characteristics of the CMOS for the

logic, and the low noise, tight matching of the complementary

bipolar transistors good analog accuracy is achieved.

For power consumption sensitive applications it is important to

note that the internal power consumption of the AD8522 is

the SDI, CLK, CS, MSB, LDA, LDB and RS pins. Since these in-

puts are standard CMOS logic structures, they contribute static

CMOS logic versus TTL provides minimal dissipation in the static

standby dissipation of 1 mA with a +5 V power supply.

As with any analog system, it is recommended that the AD8522

power supply be bypassed on the same PC card that contains

the chip. Figure 12 shows the power supply rejection versus fre-

quency performance. This should be taken into account when

using higher frequency switched-mode power supplies with

ripple frequencies of 100 kHz and higher.

One advantage of the rail-to-rail output amplifiers used in the

AD8522 is the wide range of usable supply voltage. The part is

fully specified and tested over temperature for operation from

+4.5 V to +5.5 V. If reduced linearity and source current capa-

bility near full scale can be tolerated, operation of the AD8522