Texas Instruments pushes industry's smallest 500 MSPS DAC

Texas Instruments announced the introduction of the latest dual-channel 500 MSPS digital-to-analog converters (DACs) to reduce BOM bills for broadband transmission systems. The 12-bit DAC3162 and 10-bit DAC3152 are the smallest, lowest cost, and lowest power devices in their class and are suitable for broadband transmission systems such as wireless base stations, software-defined radios, point-to-point microwaves, E-Band radios, and portable test equipment.

The main features and advantages:

Lowest power consumption: A sharp drop of at least 30% can extend the battery life of portable devices. The DAC3162 consumes only 135 mW per channel at 500 mAPS output current, and 67 mW per channel at 2 mA output current.

Small form factor: The 7mm x 7mm QFN package requires 50% less board space than the closest dual channel 500 MSPS DAC solution.

Pin-to-pin compatibility: 12-bit or 10-bit resolution can be easily implemented, and cost flexibility is high without changing the board or software;

Simplified interface: No Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) is required.

Tools and Availability:

Samples of the DAC3162 and DAC3152 in 48-pin, 7mm x 7mm QFN packages are sampling now and will begin volume production in November 2011.

In addition, TI offers evaluation boards (EVMs) for the DAC3162 and DAC3152, as well as a complete transceiver chain including the CDCP1803 clock buffer and the TRF370333 quadrature modulator. These latest EVMs are fully compatible with the TI TSW3100 pattern generator module and support rapid evaluation. The DAC3162EVM and DAC3152EVM are available now.