Kelvin Divider

Consists of equal-value resistor-switch ladder. The chips choses and sets the resistor that are taken into the circuit. Number of the resistors is equal to the number of states.

• One of the firsts DACs (1920)
• Has a voltage output and is inheretly monotonic
• The simplest archite
• It is linear if all the resistors are equal, but may be made deliberately nonlinear if a nonlinear DAC is required
• Relatively large and code dependent output impedance
• As many resistors as output states
• Used for small-resolution applications

Segmented string DAC

The same ladder, but segmented

• A variation of the kelvin ladder
• Number of resistors is reduced

Binary weighted resistor

• Utilizes a summing op-amp circuit

Disadvantages:

• We need different values of resistors, variety of resistors
• Requires low switch resistances in transistors
• Can be expensive. therefore usually limited to 8 bit resolution