Making a DAC from an Op Amp

Digital to analog (DAC) converter with an Operational Amplifier (Op Amp)

Today in my linear circuits 2 class, I learned about making a 4-bit DAC from an Op Amp. I’m going to assume the reader knows about Op amps (Best definition I have so far is the ability to do math in a circuit: Integration, derivatives, etc.)

Analog signals, for example audio, are time-varying, where a digital signal is discrete (what computers deal with). So its important to be able to go from a digital signal to an analog signal and reverse.

An example is you want your computer to process some sound, then output it to a speaker with some transformations to the signal. You will need an ADC for your computer program to be able to deal with the data, then you want to use a DAC to send your transformed signal back out the speaker.

The following is a 4-bit DAC with a simulation showing the digital version [V4, V3, V2, V1] to the Vout analog signal.

EDIT: Added simulations on my github