LTC2757 update rate specifications

1.  You are talking about two different things, you can update the DAC at 16.66MHz because that is how fast the SPI lines and registers can go.  The DAC settles in 1.8us so that is how fast it takes for the signal to settle.  If the DAC isn't fully settled before you change the code, then you will get an error. 

2.  Yes the settling time is code dependent. A full scale step will take longer to settle than a small code change.  A 0-5V step will be quicker than a 0-10V step.  It has to do with the slew rate of the final internal amplifier. 

3.    If you want the frequency response you can use the All bits on plot.  The other plots are there to show the response with different multiplying factors. 

Hi Clarence,

1,2) If the settling time is code dependent, wouldn't it be feasible to increase the update rate by limiting the step size of each code change?

3) Is it correct to interpret the "all bits on" plot that there is approximately 3dB of attenuation with a 1 MHz code input?  If so, what would be the update rate that could even be used to gather this data?  What about for the 10 MHz data point?

Thanks,

Jonny

I had the test concept of the multiplying frequency response vs digital code explained to me.  You can ignore my questions on point 3.

The update rate is limited by the digital circuitry in the DAC.  By going code by code or going into smaller steps the settling time might improve, but if you need to have a full scale step you would need to step through so many codes you would lose the advantage of the decrease settling time.  Once again, there is no free lunch.  

My reasoning for trying to increase the update rate at the expense of smaller code steps is to move the spectrum of digital noise and glitches from the hundreds of kHz range to the several MHz range for stronger filtering.  Would this not be a reasonable thing to do?

What are the frequencies you are trying to generate?  What is your sample rate?

Our application will primarily be generating linear ramp waveforms with a max slew rate of about 0.3 V/us.  This would be like 30 kHz tops.  We would like to push the DAC update rate to 5 MHz or greater, but also require at least 18-bit precision.  There is no analog front end in regards to sampling rate.

Strictly speaking the WR pulse only needs to be 20ns or 50MHz so updating at 5Mhz should be a problem.  BUT....the distortion of this part will be poor because of the glitch energy.  Each time the DAC updates there will be a glitch associated with the new code and the settling time, so the distortion on your 30kHz will be poor. The LTC2757 isn't really mean to be a signal generation DAC.  The LTC1668 is better for signal generation, But if distortion and the glitch energy isn't a problem you might be ok.