<Li> Integral nonlinearity (INL) shows how much the DAC transfer characteristic deviates from an ideal one . That is, the ideal characteristic is usually a straight line; INL shows how much the actual voltage at a given code value differs from that line, in LSBs (1 LSB steps). </Li> <Li> Noise is ultimately limited by the thermal noise generated by passive components such as resistors . For audio applications and in room temperatures, such noise is usually a little less than 1 μV (microvolt) of white noise . This limits performance to less than 20 ~ 21 bits even in 24 - bit DACs . </Li> <Li> Frequency domain performance <Ul> <Li> Spurious - free dynamic range (SFDR) indicates in dB the ratio between the powers of the converted main signal and the greatest undesired spur . </Li> <Li> Signal - to - noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) indicates in dB the ratio between the powers of the converted main signal and the sum of the noise and the generated harmonic spurs </Li> <Li> i - th harmonic distortion (HDi) indicates the power of the i - th harmonic of the converted main signal </Li> <Li> Total harmonic distortion (THD) is the sum of the powers of all HDi </Li> <Li> If the maximum DNL error is less than 1 LSB, then the D / A converter is guaranteed to be monotonic . However, many monotonic converters may have a maximum DNL greater than 1 LSB . </Li> </Ul> </Li> <Ul> <Li> Spurious - free dynamic range (SFDR) indicates in dB the ratio between the powers of the converted main signal and the greatest undesired spur . </Li> <Li> Signal - to - noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) indicates in dB the ratio between the powers of the converted main signal and the sum of the noise and the generated harmonic spurs </Li> <Li> i - th harmonic distortion (HDi) indicates the power of the i - th harmonic of the converted main signal </Li> <Li> Total harmonic distortion (THD) is the sum of the powers of all HDi </Li> <Li> If the maximum DNL error is less than 1 LSB, then the D / A converter is guaranteed to be monotonic . However, many monotonic converters may have a maximum DNL greater than 1 LSB . </Li> </Ul>

A/d converter and d/a converter